There were plenty of cuts an bruises caused by the “nubbins” of short branch stubs that did not get cut cleanly off the log and always seemed to occur on the log where it rested on your shoulder while carrying it to the waters edge.
About 35% of the trees we cut down would have serious infestations of army ants inside their bases. This hollowing of the trunk could not be detected before cutting and it certainly indicated that these mature trees were not going to be living naturally too many more years. We would saw off the damaged trunk about 12 inches at a time to try and get above the damaged wood. This was successful by cutting anywhere from 2’ to 6’ off the base. It would normally cost us one log length from the tree. In a health 7” tree we might get two usable 9’ lengths plus an “extra” smaller log. The useable lengths could be sawn into 4 x 4s and used for laminating floor joist or beams. The “extras” were too small to saw but too big to throw away. Jay and I knew we would be looking for a lot of “saplings” this side for miscellaneous construction around the camp and this would save us the work of cutting more smaller trees later when the need became specific. Joann was not happy with this practice, thinking we should leave them for the bugs. Ten years later I can say that we used all the “extras” and have still had to cut many more for things like railings.
During the cutting process we were always looking for the exceptionally straight logs that could be used for the 22 foot rafters or 36 foot perlins. These were especially heavy to haul out of the forest since they were not only green and full of water but they were not yet debarked.
Our biggest mistake during all this lumber-jacking was not removing the bark from the large logs we set aside for sawing into half log siding later on. While it would have been a lot of work at the time, it would have prevented the logs from getting ruined by bugs eating under the bark while the logs waited several years to be sawed At least 100 nice logs set aside for siding ended up being ruined by bugs and suitable only as fire wood. So in later years we had to cut new logs to fill that siding need. None of the books I read about timber processing made mention of this hazard.