I have a lot of cedar trees in my fence rows. I have looked into MAKING chips/shavings with them, but everything on the web (that I can find) deals with USES for cedar shavings.
Is it as simple as running these things through a chipper/shredder?
Surely there needs to be some drying in there somewhere?
Educate me, please.

shavings chips

I’ll not be doing anything artsy/crafts with them. Not going into business. No animal bedding. Maybe some mulching type stuff, of spending extra time with a few of the chips to scatter out in the house.
Mainly, I just don’t want to waste the trees, I.e. piling them up and burning them outright.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hudr,

I'd like to make an add on question please. I have pear that I use when grilling/smoking. I have know idea how to make chips/chunks with it. I usually take my sawzall and cut 1.5" discs and then use a old screw driver and a hammer to slit into pieces. Just like making mini firewood. Works good enough, but it takes five minutes to do before I start grilling. I'd love an easy way to do it.

quote:

Originally posted by hudr:
I have a lot of cedar trees in my fence rows. I have looked into MAKING chips/shavings with them, but everything on the web (that I can find) deals with USES for cedar shavings.
Is it as simple as running these things through a chipper/shredder?
Surely there needs to be some drying in there somewhere?
Educate me, please.

If you want shavings, you need to use a shaver, silly. Braun makes nice ones.

You want chips or shavings?

If chips will do, a small gas engine chipper/shredder would be easiest, tho somewhat expensive if that's all you're going to use it for.

If you want shavings, find a relatively straight and knot/twig free piece, strip the bark and shave off what you need with a block plane.



You can get a cheapie at WalMart for around $10

Leave the trees, go to Tractor Supply or any feed store and buy them by the compacted bag.

quote:

Originally posted by rtquig:
Leave the trees, go to Tractor Supply or any feed store and buy them by the compacted bag.

Bingo! Cut those cedars into timbers or beams for rustic mantle pieces, sell them and buy some shavings.

First you need a bench in front of the post office and then a couple old fellers that like to whittle

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by rtquig:
Leave the trees, go to Tractor Supply or any feed store and buy them by the compacted bag.

Bingo! Cut those cedars into timbers or beams for rustic mantle pieces, sell them and buy some shavings.

You can probably find some wood turner who may be interested in turning some stuff out of cedar. I assume it is Eastern Aromatic Cedar?

That is the one they use to make cedar chests, closets etc.

Turning it on a wood lathe provides some nice shavings. I love turning that stuff, easy, makes beautiful items, and smells so nice.

If it is that aromatic cedar, I would not recommend using it to smoke food!!

If your goal is fragrant cedar chips, then the chipper is fine. Larger, measurable cedar shavings are another problem. Even using a power planer will likely only make smaller chips/shavings. To make long, say 3"+ shavings, would take a good, larger hand plane.

There are chippers that will take whole, younger cedar trees and make it into a pile of nice smelling chips. Rental comes to mind first. My chipper can do almost 6" diameter and self feeds. It runs from the PTO on my tractor. If you want them all gone a contractor could come in and make the lot of them into a single large pile of chips.

quote:

Originally posted by Sportshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by rtquig:
Leave the trees, go to Tractor Supply or any feed store and buy them by the compacted bag.

Bingo! Cut those cedars into timbers or beams for rustic mantle pieces, sell them and buy some shavings.

Not a good option. These trees are in my fence rows. And 8 have miles of fencerows. They have to come out regardless.
And I have a friend with a chipper, so I won’t be buying one just for this project.

When I cut down a cedar tree I usually use it for my kindling. At one time there was a fellow that made duck boats out of the white cedar trees here. He built them all by hand tools up until he died in his late 80's. Those duck boats are still called Sammy's around here. A trade handed down from generation to generation.

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:
Turning it on a wood lathe provides some nice shavings.

Neat idea! $229 at Harbor Freight, minus 20% if you have the newspaper coupon.

Not to be dumb sounding, but when I want chips I use a chipper. I chip cedar (and other trees) to make ground cover all the time. Now using a normal chipper doesn't result in perfectly uniform product but its completely usable. I use a 12" Vermeer chipper that's a pretty serious chipper so what I make is probably a bit courser than what you would get with a smaller unit. If you want I can take a picture of the end product and email it to you as I have lots of piles around at the moment as I just chipped the winter slash.

I didn't comment on drying. IT really depends on what you intend to do with the chips. If its not for animal bedding (and you can't use cedar for that) really all you need to do is let it dry in piles. Turning if you actually care about the moisture level, but without knowing the use I can't give you a specific schedule. Because chips have a high surface area to volume they dry very fast.

Edited the original post for (hopefully) more clarity.

Chip them in any normal commercial tree chipper and you will be happy. Assuming you can move the chips later just make big piles and use as you need. If you actually don't have any way to later move the chips (a tractor for example) I'd just chip in place as you remove the trees and enjoy the new path. I do this for a living (I live off my tree farm), so if you want a more specific game plan I'm happy to do so. But in the end...remove trees, chip, do what you want with the chips. be happy.

Hrcjon...
Thanks. I have roughly 200 acres of family land that I use for cattle, mostly.
I’ll be moving the chips with my little tractor. I just wanted to be sure I wouldn’t end up with a big pile of crap before I was done. If it was an involved process, I’d just push them into a pile & light it.
That’s what we always did when I was a kid.

I’d sure like to eventually make the bulk of my income from my place, but it’s just not in the cards right now. I need to diversify a bit more.

My 10hp Troybilt chipper/shredded would make proper chips easily up to about 3 1/2" diameter branches.

The 'chipper' part of this kind of device is a different process than the 'shredder' portion of the machine.

With the setting you describe probably your own tractor-powder special chipper tool would be a justifiable expense.

We always cut the trunks into discs, drilled a hole near one edge, looped a ribbon through them. The gals loved hanging them in the closet.

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Originally posted by hrcjon:
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If its not for animal bedding (and you can't use cedar for that) really all you need to do is let it dry in piles.

Snip

Please explain, I thought cedar bedding was used for many animals from hamsters to horses.