Birdseye!

[Max sawdust]

Felling the last few trees on a manditory thinning the other day and what do you know, I cut down a birdseye maple ;D
The tree had some damage near the base so I started bucking up to solid wood and stopped and went Woa ;D That is birdseye, clear as day even in my wedge cut.

Was not to big just an 10 incher but very little heartwood.  Can not wait to get it on my sawmill. 8)

Funny, I drop thousands of trees get down to the second last tree and get something real special.

This is one of those treats, that makes logging and milling so addictive
Max

[SwampDonkey]

That's the way birdeye runs around here. You might find one or two on a 100 acre woodlot, or non at all. Sometimes it's only in the sapwood, which no one wants. On crownland I've seen it is small groves or little pockets in the harvest area. You can see the figure come through in the bark. Always nice to come across a gem. I remember on log a buyer purchased for $1600 it was 14 inch on the small end and can't remember the exact length now. It was growing up on a ridge top, on a rock outcrop, pretty thin soil. In our forestry school we had a number of harwood tables made from birdseye. They were made a long time ago by a local woods craftman, long before the 'big crase' phase we see now. Mom's cupboards in her new house are all birdseye.

[Ron Wenrich]

Do bowl turners use birdseye?  Being that its such a small amount and such a small tree, maybe it would best be used in turning. 

[Kirk_Allen]

Yes they do.  The guy I bought my sharpener and setter from gave me a birds eye maple bowl and it is AWSOME. 

[Tom]

Ron,
A bowl turner will use almost anything that is "different".   .......and try to make something different out of plain stuff too.   If a Sawmill had an honest scrap pile, under cover, and bowl turners found out about it, there would be no need to consider disposal.  :D

[SwampDonkey]

Yes there are alot of turners here that turn birdseye bowls. I have a couple of maple chairs with birdseye rungs. There was no mark on the table that came with them and 2 other chairs. The store was selling them as rejects.  :

[rvrdivr]

What is it that make the wood birds eye?

[SwampDonkey]

There is lots of speculation around that theory. Could be from a factor of many things: genetics, fungus, soil. There is some research on it and I beleive if you search the forum you can find some more discussion. Trying to artificially reproduce it is like the alchemists trying to produce gold. ;)

[WH_Conley]

What would be a indication of birdseye in the tree? I got some info from the USFS and the quality of the photos was too poor to tell anything.

[SwampDonkey]

WH_Conley, how I find it is by 1/8" - 1/4" dimbles in the bark that look like you jabbed a dull pencil into it. Don't confuse it for sapsucker holes that circumvent the bole in straight lines of peck holes. Sometimes you find it on one face or 2 faces of the bole, sometimes it even spirals up the tree following the grain. And sometimes it's all over. It might be from the stump up a few feet then peter out to nothing. The good stuff follows a ray to the pith, which you can see on the end grain of the log. I've never seen birdseye on young trees either. An old guy showed me how to find it and he never chopped into a tree. He had a cabin on shares with 3 other people on a crown lease and the ridge the cabin was on had quite a few birdseye maple. I won't say which ridge because it is mapped on the GIS atlas and can be found easy enough if you can read maps. I've been with him on a few other sites it was growing as well. I think most of those other sites are clearcut. I haven't been in the area since 1998. We cut some near Perth but it was only sapwood birdseye, it went to the grinder.

[Jeff]

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=1574.msg18748#msg18748

[SwampDonkey]

Thanks for the thread Jeff, I wonder what became of the member that posed the question. Maybe he got bit by the birdseye bug. : ;D

[Jeff]

I remember him very well.  He and I had a severe disagreement about what a forester was. He claims to be one. He is (was) a michigan Timber buyer. PERIOD. I even called up the mill he bought for and asked the guy how this fellow could call himself a forester. The guys response? "Because I said he can."  I dont agree AT ALL.  Needless to say, they dont hang out.

[Jeff]

Notice his website is now defunct...

[SwampDonkey]

Kind of reminds me of employers that post online forester positions. When you click on the postings alot of them end up being for technicians/technologists, Process Engineers, Cartogrophers or high school students. :

[ohsoloco]

I thought I remember reading in a woodworking magazine about bird's eye maple that the heartwood kind (the darker stuff) wasn't as sought after, and therefore less expensive....or is this the false heart thing I've read about here on the forum  ??? 

[SwampDonkey]

ohsoloco, when I mentioned the birdseye in the sapwood, I mean the outter wood where the sugary sap flows. They want birdseye that travels toward the pith. Some of these 'birds' go around with a hatchet in the woods and take the bark off and see birdeye. They cut the tree and the figure doesn't go deep in the wood. The buyers are looking for logs with 1/2 heart (dark) wood or less in my area.

[ohsoloco]

Nice and clear now 

[getoverit]

speaking of calling one's self a forester... or for that matter calling yourself any "professional" title:

I had an uncle thatworked for King Edward Cigars that was a mechanical genious. Give him a pile of scrap and some salvaged parts, tell him what you wanted to have a machine do, and he could build some of the most user friendly, rock solid machines you have ever seen. He retired from King Edward back in the 70's, but his machines are still being used there today. Alot of local farmers around these parts are still using some of his invented machines too. The interesting fact is that he couldnt read and write and had no formal education to speak of.

Now on the other hand, I have a brother in law with a mechanical engineering degree from one of the non-alligator state colleges here in Florida that literally cant change a tire or change the oil in his car. Somehow he doesnt understand "righty-tighty, Lefty-loosey" and cant even turn a bolt.

I have learned that one's education or the title they wear doesn't mean they are what they say they are.

[Gary_C]

Now on the other hand, I have a brother in law with a mechanical engineering degree from one of the non-alligator state colleges here in Florida that literally cant change a tire or change the oil in his car. Somehow he doesnt understand "righty-tighty, Lefty-loosey" and cant even turn a bolt.

I have learned that one's education or the title they wear doesn't mean they are what they say they are.

I would not want to hire a mechanical engineer to "change a tire or change the oil" because that is not what they are trained to do.

[SwampDonkey]

There was a logger here that couldn't read nor write. He became a millionaire. It didn't require an education to clearcut woodlots and he didn't even have to market his wood, it went through the marketing board. His wife did all the banking. Alot of his education was hands on experience as he also had his own shop for fixing his own machines.

Alot of woodlot owners call loggers foresters even if they aren't.

[Jeff]

Ditto
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=9965.0

[Max sawdust]

Thanks guys for keeping my post alive while I was off.
Boy where to start.  :-\

Yes woodlot owners confuse loggers and foresters or foresters from loggers :(  A logger that loves the land and has a little education and lots of experience can be a good forest manager in my opinion.  (He is not a forester though) Of course the best situation is a good logger and a good forester.  I am lucky to have a good DNR forester, not sure if the logger is any good :D (me)  I read the thread JeffB linked it was very good.  I just get touchy on general idea that someone with a certificate is automatically better than someone without.  Experience seems to count for so little in our society these days.

Back to Birsdeye,
This tree had no coke bottle bole.  The bark of this particular tree did not show signs of birdseye that I could see, the tree had some old damage at the base, and the barkless deadwood area clearly showed concave swirley dimples indicating birdseye.  By taking an ax and removing the outer bark only I was able to see the birdseye pattern clearly, no need to cut through the inner bark.  The cross cut sections have random white rays.  I see birdseye traces up to where the crown branched out.

[Max sawdust]

Here are some pictures
First one, is where I choped off the outer bark, I could not see the birdseye in the outer bark, but that is me, my brother said he could. See the brown specs, that is the birdseye


This picture is some old damage on the tree, I can see the birdseye indented swirls clearly here.


This picture is a small section I ripped and planed, the birdseye can be seen in the bark layer too.



I could not get a good picture of the white streaks in the cross cut section because I was a good boy and put end sealer on like I was told to do by forum members ;D
Max

[Ironwood]

GETOVERIT,

  Good point, especially today in the over educated society we live in. There are doers and then their are those...................... well I will stop there.

                     REID