timber | The Filson Journal

person holding a large chainsaw in one hand and a coil of rope in the other in a pine forest

Filson Fundamentals: Field Chainsaw Maintenance

Whether felling, bucking and limbing, or cutting up logs for firewood, it doesn’t take long to burn through a tank of fuel when running a saw at full throttle. A finely tuned, sharp saw is a pleasure to own and a life-long tool — only if properly maintained. Every re-fuel and oil is the perfect time to do a quick once-over to make sure your saw is in top running condition. Anyone who’s put their time into a chainsaw knows a sharp, well-oiled and finely tuned machine is an absolute must for reducing the time it takes to get the job done. These are the basics.

5 Min

hands holding a long freshly milled board

Field Notes

The Lifecycle of Timber

The lifecycle of logging is both simple and complex. It’s a carefully balanced relationship between man and nature that allows for the production of everything from homes to solvents and even LCD screens, while simultaneously preserving the resource that makes it all possible. It’s important to understand the ways in which logging has evolved into a sustainable practice — a circle of planting, harvesting, respect, and renewal that ensures we don’t miss the forest for the trees.

3 Min

two men standing in the woods overlooking a large body of water

Profiles

The Brothers Nielsen

For as long as either David or Robert Nielsen can remember, trees have surrounded them. In their youth, they romped among the towering white oaks, western hemlocks, and grand firs that surrounded their home on San Juan island just below the Canadian border. When their family moved to Bellingham, Washington during grade school, they spent their time hiking and riding dirt bikes through the forests bordering their town. So, when they both decided to go into logging after high school, no one was surprised. Chances were, a little of the sap they played in had soaked into their souls.

5 Min

logger using a tool to manipulate a log in a river

Field Notes

Lost Language of American Loggers

Fill a forest with five-hundred-year-old trees, up to a few hundred feet tall. Season it with native Americans, native-born pioneers, and immigrants from every corner of the Atlantic and Pacific. Into this wilderness introduce sharp tools, ornery teams of oxen and several thousand-pound logs pulled by wire and chain under tension. Add steep hills and log-filled ponds, rivers, or bays, where even a nimble logger might slip. While you’re at it, drag through a testy steam engine throwing sparks into a forest dry enough to be a tinderbox. Then borrow some sailors who speak and weave in the local jargon. Sequester these workers from the rest of civilization for months at a time. Distilled from this mash came the language of the North American logger.

A few of these words tramped out of the woods and joined the larger culture. Perhaps you’ve flung a few around yourself, without noticing the sawdust that clung to them.

5 Min

erik linton holding a large circular section of tree trunk that has been covered in black ink

Profiles

The Tree Publisher: Erik Linton

Erik Linton has been a full-time artist for five years now, and has spent much of that time looking at the things around us that are easily overlooked. He tries to present those things in unfamiliar ways in order to enhance our appreciation of them. “Working with these trees, I’ve begun to view myself as a publisher as much as an artist: I’m merely taking these stories that have been written by the trees, some nearly a thousand years old, and sharing them”

5 Min