Tree ID

[sawwood]

My sawmill guy called and asked if i had heard of Purple
Beech. He milled a log that the customer said it was this
type of tree. I can git some small pices to turn and some
of the lumber. Any idea what this type of wood would be
worth?

 Sawwood

[CHARLIE]

Sawwood, my book doesn't list a purple beech but it list American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana Walter) also called
Blue beech, Water beech, or Ironwood.  I wonder if the guy meant Blue beech.

"The short trunk and larger branches are characteristically furrowed and ridged, often irregularly, and are covered with a thin, tight, smooth, bluish gray bark, which has given it the name "blue beech," common in some localities. It is also called "water beech" because it frequently grows near the water. Another name applied to it is 'ironwood' because of the extreme hardiness of the wood. Like the hophornbeam,it is found over nearly all the eastern U.S. from Maine westward to Minnesota, and south to Florida and Eastern Texas."
From: Knowing Your Trees by G.H. Collingwood and Warren D. Brush

[sawwood]

Charlie it might be blue beech as the first limb was just
about 4' off the ground. The log was about 40" across at
the bottom and just a little smaller up from there. Will try
to poast a photo. Thanks for the info.

 Sawwood

[Texas Ranger]

If it was a blue beech, some one cut down the worlds record holder for size.

[Bro. Noble]

Maybe it was a Catalpa,  they sometimes have a purple color in the wood.

I never saw a ironwood (we also call them muscle wood) over 6 or 8 inches.

Noble

[Tom]

I found it...... Fagus sylvatica purpureo-pendula

Going off to find more about it now.

http://web.reed.edu/trees/TreePages/FASY.html

http://www.coenosium.com/text800/fagus_sylvatica.htm

http://www.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/modzz/00000609.html

http://www.floridata.com/ref/f/fagu_syl.cfm

There is lots of info out there but most is of the landscape type from nurseries trying to sell trees.  

[sawwood]

Thanks every one for all the info. This is sure one of the
best sites to learn about trees and milling, I hope some
day i can help some one on this fourm.

Sawwood

[Tom]

You help everytime you log in, Sawwood.  If the questions were being asked in other places we'd all be  twiddlin' our thumbs.   or tellin' tall tales

Seriously, we're all sittin' around the same pot-bellied stove and it's just nice to have somebody nice to talk too.  I get such neat information everytime I click on a "new" tag.  You guys are a like having an "old home week" every day.

Don't leave......please don't leave.....it gets real lonely around here with no company. :-/

[Jeff]

Horn Beam, or ironwood or muscle wood, is prolific on the river flats near what we call the old farm where my dad was born and where I hunt. Interesting stuff to look at. I cut a waling stick from it one time. It was like carring around a piece of lead pipe.

[Texas Ranger]

Two species here we are talking about, I think.  Hornbeam and Hop-hornbeam.  One has slick smooth bark and is 'muscled", muscle wood, the other has a rough, small plated bark, iron wood or such.  I can never keep them apart.

[DonT]

Sorry to get off topic guy's but I just have to ask Jeff what a "waling stick" is.In my area we refer to hop-hornbeam as ironwood,there is not a whole lot of blue beech in my area at all and what there is tends to be very small.Would this make good waling sticks if I was to take up waling?  DonT

[Paul_H]

I've been on the receiving end of a waling stick when I was a kid.It's something you are told to fetch,and bring back to the waler,you being the walee :-/ The whole time the waler yells out names like,Ben Dover,Stan Stihl,and something about Dickens.

[Jeff]

Well a waling stick was developed in 1734 in eastern slavania as an aid to....ah, never mind. Its the illiterates way of spelling walking o.k.?

[north_bugtussel]

 Re:  Wailing stick. In this area, is also known as a Thumping Stick. i.e. An hornery (sp?) coyote could be subdued with a good thump applied  with a stout stick. Usually, a stick of Hornbeam, carried for this express purpose. If one does not have such a piece of equiptment in his possession, one can substitute a short piece of Alder or Poplar, whichever might be most readily at hand. Simply, rip a short stump from the frozen ground, root and all, and "Give 'em a good thump with a Poppel Root"

[Tom]

We have a southern version of thumper and we call it a 'tenshungitter.  We use it on catfish mostly.

The wailing stick, as in "wall", we call a switch.  One of proper configuration and applied expertly will change a young'uns attiude immediately.   :-/  I've heard those same names used in its application so it must not be regional.

[Bro. Noble]

We used to have a peach tree just outside the kitchen door.  Whenever I made a serious error in behavior,  I would make a mad dash for the kitchen door,  followed closely by Mom.  She would strip a switch from that peach tree as she went running by.  I guess I was a slow learner because the longer it took her to catch me,  the harder it was applied.

The peach tree finally died and it was all Mom's fault.

Noble