I felled a decent sized cedar today, and might want to make a little slab out of it. 16" at the base, about 13" 12 foot up.

Anyone have any experience with Harden Sawmill? This is a small project, so may not be worth paying for the minimums for what I would end up with. I just think it would be awesome to have a mantel from a tree grown on my property.

Better yet, is there anyone who has a little chainsaw mill in North Texas, and wouldn't mind bartering for me to bring this to you and helping with the milling? I then would need to find a place with a kiln that would take a smaller piece to dry (my wife doesn't want to wait 2-3 years for air drying before we redo the fireplace).

I might just be better off in the end buying a dried slab for our mantle. But I really like the idea of it coming from our place.

Harden is the way to go. Call them up and tell them what you want to get done and they'll talk through it.

Call Dallas live edge. They may be an option to help.
Dallas live edge.com
While your there, swing by Texas Pecan if you enjoy fresh pecans and other nuts.

harden is good, but I really like mesquite valley woodcrafts in Waco. they have vacuum kilns which are MUCH faster at drying and give less checking/cracking from the drying process.

JuCo CH46 said:

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Call Dallas live edge. They may be an option to help.
Dallas live edge.com
While your there, swing by Texas Pecan if you enjoy fresh pecans and other nuts.

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I saw Dallas Live Edge online, but didn't see if they do custom milling or not. I'll give them a call, thanks!

agrams said:

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harden is good, but I really like mesquite valley woodcrafts in Waco. they have vacuum kilns which are MUCH faster at drying and give less checking/cracking from the drying process.

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Thanks so much! I really appreacit the reccomendation. Waco is certially easy to get to for a good mill and kiln. I am reaching out to them now.

Given that this trunk will likeyl ony produce 1 mantel, and the mantle I need is only 6' long, there really isn't a lot of milling work to me done on it. I'm considering hewing and shaping it hand, and seeing if possibly they will dry it for me. Harden's webiste says they have a 400 board foot minimum on their kiln. This mantle will probably only be a tenth of that.

Caleb is the Owner of Mesquite Valley. He has never charged me a minimum and I've sent a lot of milling work his way (the huge mesquite table I just finished was from his mill). Feel free to name-drop if you think it will help.

A friend and I took a sizable pecan log to Mesquite Valley on agrams recommendation. It wasn't nearly a full kiln worth and they got it into their workflow seamlessly without any extra line items fee. They were pretty easy to work with and easy to get to from DFW on the north side of Waco.

This is exactly what I'm aiming to do.
Did you email or call them first?

It was my friend's tree and he took point on that part of the deal. So I'm not sure. I'd give a finger to ask him about it right now, but unfortunately he passed away unexpectedly this spring.