I think maybe your wood hoarding has gotten a little out of hand, but, if you need some help.......
Alan
Alan
What free wood did you find today?
- Thread starter woodtickgreg
- Start date
I am envious of you fellows when you all post such great finds and sometimes real big pile of free wood. Living in the city, once in a blue moon you will run into this. So when I saw this pile, I immediately thought of the members here who finds free wood and get to haul it. Can’t figure why they cut this tree. Well, I just stared at it, don’t have any means to haul it and no place to store it. These logs unfortunately will not see a second lease on life when “special collection” comes in to haul it away this week……….
Can't you go to Central Park at night and get some "free" wood? Google Earth show a lot of canopy there! Bet there is some pretty decent sized trees there also!
Never thought of it. But, the park has American Elm at several locations. There are all sorts of species depends on the location/area ranging from London Plane, Black Tupelo (sour gum), Evodia, Yoshino Cherries (planted in 1912 gifted by the Japanese government at the East Side reservoir) and a large amount of pine trees with other species in the Arthur Pinetum North of the Great Lawn- fairly younger area of growth spanning from the early 70’s to early 80’s. Now I am going to make a special trip there to see…….
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Too bad you can’t haul it home because that looks like some nice curly sugar maple going to waste.
Tell me about it and I live in a tree line block. It saddens me to see that this tree was cut- I don’t see anything wrong with it or it getting in the way of the sidewalk or becoming obtrusive. I can only stare at it and feel helpless that I cannot haul it, that a chipper would meet it’s match or special trash will haul it and head to the landfill.
I actually did get a piece of free wood today. But this piece of wood has a pedigree and a history. I've been chasing it for years. When my folks retired from the Panama Canal Zone in 1985, Dad had scrounged quite a stockpile of wood and he shipped it home as part of their household goods. He probably had well over 100 BDft of cocobolo planks, several purple heart logs, etc. He stored them in the rafters of my grandpa's garage. Grandpa got pretty cantankerous as he aged and for some unknown reason he decided all that clutter in the rafters of his garage had to go. So without talking to Dad, grandpa sold it to some guy, dirt cheap, almost for the trouble of getting it down and hauling it away. When Dad found out he was dumbstruck grandpa would do such a thing and then he was really pissed. But this one cocobolo plank somehow escaped the sale. Dad recovered a lot of this wood from old stockyards from when they built the Panama Canal. Piles of sawn lumber roughly stacked, all overgrown in the jungle. Some of it came from underwater when the filled Gatun Lake. I have a purple heart log that was once a railroad tie for a section of track that carried dirt away so it wouldn't get washed back into the big ditch. Anyway, so this cocobolo plank went on several moves with my parents. Dad protected this plank where ever they went. After he died, it languished in their garage in Wickenburg. One day I was down there and decided to make an attempt at cleaning out the garage and found this plank. I asked my Mom to never give it away, I wanted it. That was probably in 2002 or so. Today, some neighbors of my Mom's drove up to Bend and Mom asked them to bring the plank to me. So now it's in my possession. It's amazing how straight and unchecked it is after going from Panama to California to Arizona and now here. I plan to use it for something that will get passed on to my kids and hopefully to their kids along with the history. Maybe they won't care. But I will.
Update: I talked to my Mom today and she told me most of the cocobolo Dad had came from one big tree. A science teacher at the school said a friend of his offered him a big cocobolo tree that had falling over. He asked Dad if he would help him cut it up in the school shop. Dad said he didn't have the equipment to cut up a wood as hard a cocobolo. A couple days later the guy came back and said he made arrangement to use the shop where they maintained the Locks but he needed Dad's expertise to help process it. If Dad would help him he'd give him half. So Dad got something around 20 planks from that tree. So most likely, that's the history behind this plank.
Mom said the reason this one escaped the sale is she had a wild idea to paint something on a pretty cocobolo board. So Dad brought this one into where she had her paints and crafts stuff. She thought something long and tall, maybe a giraffe. But never got around to it.
Update: I talked to my Mom today and she told me most of the cocobolo Dad had came from one big tree. A science teacher at the school said a friend of his offered him a big cocobolo tree that had falling over. He asked Dad if he would help him cut it up in the school shop. Dad said he didn't have the equipment to cut up a wood as hard a cocobolo. A couple days later the guy came back and said he made arrangement to use the shop where they maintained the Locks but he needed Dad's expertise to help process it. If Dad would help him he'd give him half. So Dad got something around 20 planks from that tree. So most likely, that's the history behind this plank.
Mom said the reason this one escaped the sale is she had a wild idea to paint something on a pretty cocobolo board. So Dad brought this one into where she had her paints and crafts stuff. She thought something long and tall, maybe a giraffe. But never got around to it.
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^That is a great story and what a great connection with the wood between your Grandpa and your Dad now cascading down to you. Well Doug @DLJeffs - I am intrigued with what you will do with it. But, hey you know what I would say already being that this is a sizable piece and you would have plenty left over to use for other heirloom projects. How about a parlor size guitar? You have the width and you only need 28” length max to get the back and side set (the wider end). You can create a heirloom and an instrument can get pass down the line. You can get the rosewood as thin as .100” to .090” because of the stiffness and the density. Would be nice if it had a slotted headstock.
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IF... a feller had a coach and some guitar building equipment that would be quite the piece.
Hate to break the news to you but your friend here died a natural death. All the city did was keep him from hurting anyone when he fell into the street.
If you look at the bottom log in the first picture, the bark wasnt ripped off by machinery, it fell off because it was rotting.
The outside edge of the stump in the second picture shows spalt lines almost completely around the tree.
Still wish you had a saw. That only adds another dimension to already purdy wood. But I have those moments too. Even though I have a chainsaw with a 42 inch bar, there are says I have to leave awesome finds laying and go on. The more trees there are around you, the more you have to walk away from.
The tree was dead. It had live wood at the 9 o'clock position ((picture 3) 6 o'clock picture 2) but the rest appears to have been dead with bark separation on a 1/4 of the stump. Picture 1 shows some spalt and white rot along with bark separation. Likely had massive dieback in the crown and became an inertia hazard.
@DLJeffs
When I make my last cut, my boys are going to find all kinds of this sort of stuff. Why did he keep this, what was it for/from, what was he going to make with it. I did the same thing with my dad. When I cleaned out his shop, I found all sorts of wood that only he knew the history of. It was really only important to him and I suppose that was good enough. Someday I will make something lasting out of those mystery woods and I hope my boys, grandkids and greatgrandkids will appreciate them for the effort that went into them but mostly for the wondrous substance that God created when he made trees. I've thought about this sort of thing long and hard and wondered why when I hold so much as a stick in my hands I can't help but feel a swelling in my chest. Jesus was a carpenter you know, and his stepdad too, and his Dad was the greatest carpenter of all.
Alan
When I make my last cut, my boys are going to find all kinds of this sort of stuff. Why did he keep this, what was it for/from, what was he going to make with it. I did the same thing with my dad. When I cleaned out his shop, I found all sorts of wood that only he knew the history of. It was really only important to him and I suppose that was good enough. Someday I will make something lasting out of those mystery woods and I hope my boys, grandkids and greatgrandkids will appreciate them for the effort that went into them but mostly for the wondrous substance that God created when he made trees. I've thought about this sort of thing long and hard and wondered why when I hold so much as a stick in my hands I can't help but feel a swelling in my chest. Jesus was a carpenter you know, and his stepdad too, and his Dad was the greatest carpenter of all.
Alan
Excessive rain and sandy soil got me some free wood.... maybe. Since there is no real rush to cut it up I may just wait and see if it is still alive next year and just trim the root ball where it came out of the ground. This tree has got to be 100 years old or so. It's in a lot I own across the road from the house. Cutting up one of these is solid work though. It's a Live Oak.
Alan
Alan
The soil under this tree is like mush right now. We've had over 12" of rain in the last week and likely over 40" in the last two months. I'm surprised we don't have them laying all over the place. The neighbors on either side have one down each just like this. No wind, just excessive water.
Alan
Alan
Oh, and it didn't make a sound. At least not that I heard.... The neighbor stopped and said, "you win"... I said, "Huh?". He replied, "you have the biggest tree down in the neighborhood..." I'm not sure that makes me the winner....
Alan
Alan
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Yeah y'all sure have been getting the rain down that way!!
We had less than an inch in March, 8"+ in April, 20"+ in May, 10"+ in June, and we are closing on 15"+ so far in July. Today is the second day in July that it didn't rain all day... Yesterday was the first day.... Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, which means "outdoor sauna".
Alan
Alan
That is a lot of rain. Makes me think about all the places drinking water is gross and bottled water the only tasteful option. Makes think about all of the drought places, the disappearing aquifers in the west, the Hoover Dam and low water reservoirs, and the old timers that had cisterns in the day to better manage the gift from the sky.
What rivers does your water supply? Any make it to the Rio Grande? I recall reading many times how the USA would use so much water that the Colorado River would fail to reach Mexico or the flow that was making it was many thousands of foot acres below the trade agreement.
Water is a wonder.
Mark, way back in '71, I went into Mexico at Mexicali and then down south to El Golfo de Santa Clara for fishing and camping on the beach. At Estacion Coahuila, the only way across the Colorado River was on a 3 - 4 hundred foot/feet long railroad bridge with our tires straddling the tracks. Slow going but we got a chance to see the stream was only about 2-3 feet wide. A bunch of kids were playing in the little bit of water, and I saw one actually jump from bank to bank.
Today, Google Earth indicates it's over 150 feet wide at the tracks. Fifty years of politics does wonders.
In April on my way to Missouri, on I-10 at Las Cruses, N.M., you go over the Rio Grande. At that location, the north and South views I had of the river, it was bone dry as far as I could see. Have never seen it dry before. Always had water in it.
As far as free wood, I'll post a picture tonight as I'm going out to the desert to collect a couople pieces. Been dead since to early '70's, but at least is a 2 foot diameter Mesquite root burl. ..... .............. Jerry (in Tucson
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Mark, all the rivers around his area do not make it to the Rio Grande river. They are quite a ways north of it. The biggest is the Guadalupe River which empties into San Antonio Bay which is on the land side of the barrier islands. San Antonio Bays joins with a few other bays and then ends up in the Gulf of Mexico