The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Sawmills and Milling => Topic started by: WDH on June 05, 2007, 10:31:36 PM

Title: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: WDH on June 05, 2007, 10:31:36 PM
I was in the woods today and came across this tree.  One of the sweepiest trees I have seen natural in the wild.  The pic does not do it justice.  This tree gives a new meaning to "Compression Wood" ;D.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/IMG_1714.JPG)

There are two other bends that you can't see in the pic.  One curving back to the right toward the butt and the other as it bends back at the top (hidden by those leaves).

Even curve sawing would not tame this one :D.
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: Gilman on June 05, 2007, 10:50:13 PM
Sure would make some nice natural arches.
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: WDH on June 05, 2007, 10:55:56 PM
Quote from: Gilman on June 05, 2007, 10:50:13 PM
Sure would make some nice natural arches.

Some nice natural twisted arches ;D
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: Don K on June 05, 2007, 11:27:41 PM
Is that a pine. They do some weird things. ;D
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: WDH on June 05, 2007, 11:30:52 PM
Good old loblolly by golly.
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: Sprucegum on June 06, 2007, 01:37:50 AM
What's the DBH? It looks like a jungle vine  8)
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: Cedarman on June 06, 2007, 06:44:46 AM
Kill it before it spreads.
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: Dan_Shade on June 06, 2007, 07:52:38 AM
I have one of those in my "yard", I'll snap a picture, it's not quite that bad, but it's bad.  :)
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: WDH on June 06, 2007, 08:31:18 AM
The DBH is about 18" - 20".  I wonder what could have caused it to have that much sweep in a such a regular spiraling way.  Usually, it is some type of physical damage or agent that causes a tree to get off center, and because of the tree's phototrophic response, it seeks the light.  This causes the new shoots to grow straight back up. 

However, whatever did this did not act just one time, but rather multiple times because each time the tree curves away again, there was some type of cause to move it from the verticle at that point on the stem.   
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: metalspinner on June 06, 2007, 01:07:42 PM
That's what our cherry looks like. ::) :)  I would leave that tree just like that.  It is very interesting.  Are all the forces working on it are external rather than genetic?
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: TexasTimbers on June 06, 2007, 03:25:56 PM
I have gobs of trees in my Box Elder patch that have serious long and sever curves, most of them one particular species which I don't know what it is. I would guess some kind of willow. They don't have many branches ar any branches really until the top. They have thick bark looks sorta like what I think shagbark looks like. I'll snap some photos next tiime.
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: flip on June 06, 2007, 04:12:54 PM
That has got to be a cherry.  We've got one just like it where I live.  I guess that's why cherry is worth so much, you can't hardly find a good straight 8 foot stick in a tree.  I'm tempted to cut a few on the farms south entrance road but my aunt the tree hugger would probably skin me.
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: TexasTimbers on June 06, 2007, 04:25:10 PM
Quote from: flip on June 06, 2007, 04:12:54 PM. . . . .  but my aunt the tree hugger would probably skin me.

Geez flip where are your priorities? Having a little skin on your meat or a nice Cherry tree on your mill. Easy choice. :)
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: flip on June 06, 2007, 05:41:04 PM
Aunt controls my uncle, uncle controls the farm, the farm is where I get my trees, the farm is where me and my girlfriend live.  As you can see it rolls down hill and I must keep the tree falling out of her sight :-X  Uncle could care less as long as he gets not flack from her. 
Hide loss is not a big problem but being home and treeless would suck!
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: WDH on June 06, 2007, 09:42:03 PM
Flip,

It is Loblolly Pine, not cherry.  But, like you say, cherry is so shade intolerant that it seeks the light through any available hole, so it twists and turns to the light.  That is why to manage for cherry, you have to clearcut patches so that the cherry seedlings can grow straight up ;D.

Metalspinner,

The forces acting on the tree should all be mechanical, not genetic.  Just hard to figure the causitive mechanism ::).
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: ohsoloco on June 06, 2007, 10:04:10 PM
I never thought of shagbark as having thick bark...always seems kinda delicate to me.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10370/shagbark_closeup.jpg)
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: Cedarman on June 06, 2007, 11:07:44 PM
I would check for some osage orange genes in that bent tree.
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: Ron Wenrich on June 07, 2007, 05:50:39 AM
So, what's the hardwood in the understory?  To figure out the mechanical causes, you have to go back to what was there in the past.  It doesn't appear to be a pine stand.  So, there was probably a lot of competition.  Forensic forestry.   :P
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: olyman on June 07, 2007, 02:42:34 PM
Quote from: flip on June 06, 2007, 05:41:04 PM
Aunt controls my uncle, uncle controls the farm, the farm is where I get my trees, the farm is where me and my girlfriend live.  As you can see it rolls down hill and I must keep the tree falling out of her sight :-X  Uncle could care less as long as he gets not flack from her. 
Hide loss is not a big problem but being home and treeless would suck!
solving of problem---wait till she goes somewhere for a few days--then knock the tree down--hauk it and all the evidence away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: TexasTimbers on June 07, 2007, 04:16:07 PM
Tell her it must be removed because of a powerful, dangerous disease. It would not be a lie. You *are* after all inflicted with the need-to-make-sawdust disease. It is powerful, and it can be dangerous. ;D
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: Chris Burchfield on June 07, 2007, 06:07:42 PM
Now it's time for someone to devise a Helical Saw Mill. It would be to offer the specialty twisted arch beams. I wonder how many $$$'s a board foot you could get.  :D  :D  :D
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: WDH on June 07, 2007, 06:16:05 PM
Ron, the tree is located on the middle of a side slope graduating down to a stream.  This tree is much older than the understory hardwood.  Whatever happened to cause this distortion began many years ago, but it seems not to be a single effect since there are multiple changes in direction.

It could be an effect of removing a controlling overstory in the tree's youth from one quadrant, then subsequent removals from the other quadrants.  However, just speculation on my part.  The site looks to me to be a intermediary slope position hardwood site, so that might help explain some of the tribulations that this tree experienced.  It is located in East Texas, so hurricane events could have played a part as well (this is very logical, but no way to prove it).
Title: Re: This One Makes Even Curve Sawing a Challenge
Post by: WDH on June 07, 2007, 06:19:10 PM
Chris,

This helical sawmill that you propose could cut lumber like the DNA helix ???.  It could be named the "Wiggle Mill". ;D