[RUSTYME]

I was deciding what to do with an 80' sitka spruce the other day . It had fallen across my track, and rather than just chop it up for fire wood , I thought I would use  the big diameter part for something longer lasting.
 Shingles came to mind . No not the death rattle type !!! but the roofing type.
 The section of tree I will be using is a fair size , about 16" dia + . I tried it out on a thinner section of the tree , about 8" dia, and it has worked fine . I got 28,  12" x 3-4" x 1/2" shingles from the little 12" log . This little test sample ,will cover an area about 2' sq , so that makes it very easy to work out the coverage of any given number of shingles.
 I mainly want a roof for a small log store , but I want it free and as gentle on the eye as possible .  So as the tree had fallen down and had to be moved , and it is free , why not use it ?
 I need to make a shaving horse to shave the shingles to thickness and generally tidy them up . My last shaving horse rotted away , but the same tree that will provide the shingles will provide me with a new shaving horse.
The legs will be made from smaller hardwood logs, that had to be cut down the same time as the spruce was sorted , it fell on them !!!  So just a 6 ft length of the spruce , split in half lengthways , with 3 h/wood legs and a framework bit to lock the work on the horse , and away I go . If the spruce log splits well I may even get 2 shaving horses out of it . These could be made slightly different from each other, to do different jobs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpOikUgdh4w
http://www.greenwoodworking.com/ShavingHorsePlans
 The above links show; shingles being made , in this case oak is being used , and the other link shows how to make a shaving horse . There are many different ways to do this , the link shows just one of them .
 I will also get some large logs from the tree to use as anvil stand stumps and even post vice stumps in the forge. I may even use shingles to make the roof of the new forge , which being about 20 ft sq , would use up a whole tree , but seeing as I have as many as I want for free it matters little .
 Just got to wait for my back to get better now, before I can make the shaving horse and then get going on the shingles. 

cheers

Russ

[HappyHippy]

I've got some cedar shingles that I managed to get from freecycle 
I'm hoping to (one day) turn them into the roof of a dovecote style chicken house. They are so lovely to look at and have a real tactile quality about them - good luck with your log store Russ, and show us photo's once you've got it all done 

[knightquest]

That sounds great Russ. I agree, loads of pictures please and I hope your back gets better soon.

Ian