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Hand carved plaque from American Chestnut

Started by Jim_Rogers, February 05, 2013, 12:12:16 PM

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Jim_Rogers

The other day, a good friend and customer stopped by to show me a plaque he carved from some American Chestnut, that I milled up for him.

He is a member of he American Chestnut Society and they needed some plaques to give out at the conference/meeting.

He brought me a log from a 10 year old tree that they harvested from the nursery where they are growing "blight" resistant Chestnut.

This tree did not survive the "blight" test.

I thought he did a fine good for sure:



 

 

 

The leaf carved on the plaque is an American Chestnut leaf.

Recently I sawed up some Elm for him to make some more plaques for another association that he belongs to.

It was very pretty wood.

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

downsouth


clww

Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

JohnM

Quote from: clww on February 05, 2013, 01:24:49 PM
Holy Cow! That plaque looks awesome. :)

+1 big time!  That is great! smiley_clapping
Lucas 830 w/ slabber; Kubota L3710; Wallenstein logging winch; Split-fire splitter; Stihl 036; Jonsered 2150

POSTON WIDEHEAD

Makes ya feel good to see your sawmill work reach the end of its journey.

Good post Jim!  smiley_thumbsup
The older I get I wish my body could Re-Gen.

SwampDonkey

Jim, your buddy is a real artist of wood. He did a fine job for a great cause. I'm reminded of our most senior forum member, Ivan "Bo" Booker of Fairfield Maine, who worked with chestnut blight resistance research. He passed away in 2007 I believe. He was known as "Johnny Chestnut Seed" by his daughter Nancy.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

jueston


Jim_Rogers

I thought I wrote up the story he told me about the American Chestnut society's work on restoring the species, but I can't see to find it with a search.

But when I milled up the log, which was only about 10" in diameter, he told me what they had been doing.

Here is that story.

Some years ago, they crossed the American Chestnut with a Chinese chestnut which is blight resistant.

The took that off spring of those trees and crossed them back with an American Chestnut again.
They planted 100 trees of this new cross.
After these trees were 10 years old they induced the blight to them by scaring the bark and infecting them.
95% of the trees died.
The took the 5% that lived and crossed them back again to American Chestnut.
Planted another 100 trees and 10 years later did it again.
Took the 5% of them that lived and started all over again.
I think they are on their third or fourth generation of doing this.
This process is reducing the amount of Chinese chestnut in the stock and making the American Chestnut stronger as well.

He said that if he gave me a new seeding of American Chestnut now, it may survive. But again it may not.

He told me that they aren't doing this in just one site.
That they are doing this all over the country.
That there are as many as 36 or 42 nurseries in New England doing this 100 trees on 10 year cycles.
And that they are doing it in Maryland and down south in either NC or GA as well.
It seems that they have found that trees grown down there are less likely to survive up here.
And tree grown up here are less likely to survive down there. So they are doing this "regionally".
At least this is the story I can remember from when he told it to me a year or more ago.

I think he said that they have to go at least 2 or 3 more cross breeding to get it to be low in Chinese chestnut, strong and fairly well blight resistant.
So I guess it's not something I will see in my lifetime, but for future sawyers and timber framers they may have Chestnut back again.

Jim Rogers
PS. If my facts are not right, please let us all know.
And if my facts are not right, at least it's a good story.
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

Texas Ranger

The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

hackberry jake

I'd like to taste chestnuts. There's a song about it for Pete's sake. The wood kinda looks like ash to me... It's not doing so swell either.
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EZ Boardwalk Jr. With 20hp Honda, 25' of track, and homemade setworks. 32x18 sawshed. 24x40 insulated shop. 30hp kubota with fel. 1978 Massey ferguson 230.

Magicman

It is always wonderful to see a finished product that is produced from our lumber.  That is awesome.   :)
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clww

They can come up to the mountains and plant some on our property anytime. :)
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

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Save a tree...eat a beaver!

just_sawing

25 percent of the Appalachian forest was chestnut before the blight. The trees feed livestock and supplemented people food stores. I would be happy to have the chestnut back.
My house is trimmed in chestnut throughout.
You can follow me at
www.http://haneyfamilysawmill.com

Phorester


A beautiful plaque.

Interesting to me that people will lament the death of a huge old tree or a locally historic tree, but think nothing of cutting it down and letting it rot or hauling it to the landfill.  I think it's much better to make objects like this out of the wood from such trees.


Slab Slicer

A true artisans work, and the return of an American Giant. It doesn't get much better than this. Talking with a few of the "elder" folks around here, and they talk about the American Chestnut filling the hillsides, and what happened to the trees once the blight hit them.
2016 LT35HDG25, Kubota L2501 w/ FEL, Kubota BX1500 w/FEL and custom skidding rig, Stihl MS 500i, Stihl MS362-25", Stihl MS250-20", Stihl MS192-18",  2001 F250 SD 7.3, GMC Sierra Dually 6.0 gasser, Peaqua 16" 10K trailer, Sur-Trac 12' Dump Trailer 10K
Chuck

SwampDonkey

Here in Canada, the native chestnut only grew in the southern tip of Ontario in the Deciduous Forest Region. You would hear of it in the Maritimes as if it were native here, it was only planted in towns, much as the horse chestnut was. Apparently there is a large specimen somewhere in NS, forget the town but I think it's in some sort of national registry.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

rooster 58

   There's a new chestnut, called the dunstan chestnut I think; which is blight resistant. It was created by grafting a healthy american chestnut with the chinese chestnut. They are fast growing and bear fruit after a couple of years

hackberry jake

I just noticed what looks like a large stack of stickerd lumber in the background of the the last picture. Boy how I like seeing large stacks of lumber on sticks!
https://www.facebook.com/TripleTreeWoodworks

EZ Boardwalk Jr. With 20hp Honda, 25' of track, and homemade setworks. 32x18 sawshed. 24x40 insulated shop. 30hp kubota with fel. 1978 Massey ferguson 230.

Holmes

  I have walked thru two of the nurseries, one in Princeton Ma. and one in Littleton Ma.  I am thrilled to see this project continue.
Think like a farmer.

Jim_Rogers

Quote from: hackberry jake on February 11, 2013, 09:51:36 AM
I just noticed what looks like a large stack of stickerd lumber in the background of the the last picture. Boy how I like seeing large stacks of lumber on sticks!

Here is a shot of my sawmill yard driveway before I started moving 15+ inches of snow out of it Sunday morning.
I measured it just before I started.
I find it hard to believe that it settled 10 inches overnight, but they say we got around 24" of snow here from our Blizzard of 2013.



 

You can see the 10' stack of lumber on the left hand side. That is the stack that was behind the fellow holding the plaque.

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

CHARLIE

That was an interesting story Jim. Thanks for sharing it.  Also, I enjoyed seeing the carving. That is an awesome looking plaque. Especially since it was hand carved and not machined carved.
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

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