Lightning struck trees

[dhp3228]

Have any of y'all had any experience cutting lightning struck pine trees. Is it worth it? How's the wood grain?

[pineywoods]

Yup, sawed a bunch of it over the years. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes not. Sometimes the butt cut will be hard as concrete. Frequently there's some pretty bright red streaks in the lumber. Only way to tell for sure is put a saw blade to it..

[Magicman]

I have sawn hundreds.  Some old strikes and some fresh ones that killed the tree. 


 
Just set the log up for proper face opening and saw it.  This tree yielded 2785 bf of framing lumber.

[dhp3228]

Thanks gentlemen. I appreciate the wisdom very much

[starmac]

I have a funny story about a lightning struck pine.
A rancher I knew had some native Americans building fence for him doen in the capitans. I think they were Apaches, but may have been Navahoes, anyway they had a camp set up on his place. They used a lot of firewood, so he thought he would be nice and pulled a lightning struck pine up to the edge of their camp with his cat.
They packed up camp and left, it seems there is evil spirits of some kind in lightning struck trees.

[Kbeitz]

We  had a lightning struck oak tree here on the farm that exploded. Little chunks of wood was
spread out into a field of our Christmas trees. We could not trim the trees because the little
chunks of wood would get stuck in our trimmers. What a pain.

[Magicman]

Pine trees that were struck and lived usually develop heavily pitched areas along the strike path.  These can be a pain to saw, but also can be strikingly (pun unintended) beautiful.  Nails will easily split this wood.

Trees that are "exploded" by a lightening strike are of little value.  Lightening strikes are not all the same, so there are no steadfast rules.

[cntryby]

Pine trees that were struck and lived usually develop heavily pitched areas along the strike path.

I've seen you mention this in a couple of post, and as I'm sure you know those heavy pitch areas make wonderful "fat lighter".  I have a hillside with several lightening struck trees and they all have a great amount of fat lighter with the best being in the stumps.

If anyone heats with wood, or has a kid that wants to pick up some extra money, cut off 8" to 10" chunks and it'll split down real easy. Little bundles tied together the diameter of a softball or so sell for $5.

Like you mentioned, some give some lumber, some give some nice slabs... some aren't much use but for fat lighter.

[Kbeitz]

fat lighter is a Ga word for sure .
I never even heard the word untill I lived in Ga.
Kinda like gas soaked wood.

[Magicman]

fat lighter is a Ga word for sure .  I never even heard the word untill I lived in Ga.

Then you have never moved to Mississippi.

[elk42]

fat lighter is a Ga word for sure .  I never even heard the word untill I lived in Ga.

Then you have never moved to Mississippi.

Also south Arkansas

[crowhill]

Had a balsam tree on the front lawn struck by lightening, blew all the branches intact off the trunk, turned the trunk into toothpick sized pieces. Just amazing power! Sawn several lightening struck EWP, most just a mark down the outside, but had one that was totally dried, but no issue with splitting, was all sawn 2x though.

[WV Sawmiller]

fat lighter is a Ga word for sure .  I never even heard the word untill I lived in Ga.

Then you have never moved to Mississippi.

Also south Arkansas

   N. Fla it was also light'ard or light'erd.

   In my late teens I loaded about a 200 lb lighterd stump into the back of my'69 Buick LeSabre and took it up to central Alabama to the deer camp. Should have seen us through a couple of years as kindling. Would have too except my buddy who owned the place family have friends come in from Mississippi over Thanksgiving and they got drunk and had a bonfire out in the front yard. Oh well, everybody had a good time with it so wasn't totally wasted effort.

[WV Sawmiller]

fat lighter is a Ga word for sure .  I never even heard the word untill I lived in Ga.

Then you have never moved to Mississippi.

Also south Arkansas

   N. Fla it was also light'ard or light'erd.

   In my late teens I loaded about a 200 lb lighterd stump into the back of my'69 Buick LeSabre and took it up to central Alabama to the deer camp. Should have seen us through a couple of years as kindling. Would have too except my buddy who owned the place family had friends/family come in from Mississippi over Thanksgiving and they got drunk and had a bonfire out in the front yard. Oh well, everybody had a good time with it so wasn't totally wasted effort.

[Sixacresand]

I milled some pine that had areas of high pitched resin, "fat lightered".  I thought it was beautiful.  The customer eventually cut and split them into one foot lengths, made little neat bound bundles and sold them to wood burning people for fire starters.  He probably was making $25 per board foot.

[Magicman]

Fresh sawed (green) pitch has more moisture in it and does not have the fire starting ability that the aged stuff has. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   When I was a small child my grandpa would hook the mule to his wagon and we'd trek off through the woods picking up lighterd knots which were usually small sections where a limb met the trunk of the tree. Occasionally we'd find a center core of lighterd several feet long. I always loved the smell of it. Old lighterd stumps were a pain to landowners.

   Had an uncle down in Dixie County Fla said a local realtor was trying to sell a piece of pore, wore out farm land to some wealthy northerner. Land was just palmettos and lighterd stumps. Prospect said the land did not look very fertile. Realtor told the prospect the lighterd stumps were the best kind of natural fertilizer. Went a little further and found someone out there blowing them up. Prospect asked if such good fertilizer why was the landowner blowing them up? Realtor told them, "They are stealing them. We need to hurry back and report them to the sheriff."