My mentor told me that bees don’t like sharp edges. I looked at all the chainsaw grooves on the inside of the log and decided something must be done. On the advice of the woodcarver I ordered a Sa-burr tool from Treeline.
Wow, that removes a bunch of wood in a hurry and in the process smooths out those grooves. Now to get that sawdust off me.
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Nice and smooth
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
That’s beautiful work. I agree with the no sharp edges but we are going to make a top bar out of some old 2 by 12 redwood that is rough on the inside. Maybe we will leave it like that to encourage them to propolis the rough spots.
I wish I had some of that old recycled redwood you got. My woodcarver friend says he knows of a source of old redwood logs. Another loghive might be in the future. I’d like a bigger version of the one I have now, so there might be some redwood ahead for me too.
There’s old growth logs being salvaged from Big River in Mendocino.
In the old days they called them sinkers and cut them loose from the rafts.
We bought some from Pinnochio Lumber in the late 90’s to build window frames, mirrors, and cabinets. Some of the logs have been in the river since the 1860’s. Dense, straight grain with a slight lavender tint sometimes.
Sure would make a beautiful Top Bar. They might have some ends trimmed from a lob before they milled it.
You know you did it right if in the end you’re covered in sawdust, lol
Glad it worked out for you!!
I like the look of that Sa-Burr tool. I have a few old tree stumps that I reckon I can make something of in the future; I was thinking about hollowing one out and making it into a composting toilet, so this looks just the job for getting things into shape 🙂
If you do hollow out a stump for a compost toilet I’ll bet you dollars to donuts, it’ll be the only one in the world. 🙂 You might have to put a patent on it.
Your hive is my inspiration, although I’m not sure if I’d have a face carved on it 🙂
Actually, I’m working on getting another log for a hive. The woodcarver moved to another city 3 hours away. I’ve got some credit built up with a mill in town so I’d like to get my log there and do some of the ‘grunt work’ myself. My “work work” is building back up and deadlines are starting to get in the way of my personal time. I’d like to have a log in place by April before the swarm season starts…got to get the location cleared with the boss. 🙂