This old piece of wood...

[John Neugebauer]

I am in the process of making a few space toys and I needed a piece for the underside of my flying saucer. I went over to my scrap bin and plucked out a foot long piece of 2 x 4. This was a piece left over from who knows what but it was clear and looked good. While drilling a mounting recess, my forstner bit kept bogging down. Then when I went to the band saw to round off the small block it too was bogging. I mounted the block in the lathe and began to round it off. It was like I was turning oak! I stopped the lathe and looked at the newly rounded block and was astonished at the number of growth rings! I put my spaceship on hold and sanded and hit it with some Triple-E. This 2 inch piece of "scrap" had over 106 growth rings!

I just wondered how old do you think this tree was when cut?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Charles Henderson]

I don't guess there is a way to be sure how old it was when cut because there's no telling how large the tree was that this small piece came from. I would imagine it would have to be an impressive age for so many rings to be in such a small piece, though. If I'm not mistaken, I think wood showing rings so close together is a sign of old growth wood.

On another note, good luck with your space toys. I assume you're talking about the spinning spaceships from my tutorial. Feel free to email me if you have any questions - charles@chakajo.com

 

[John Neugebauer]

Wow, Charles those vessels of yours are awesome! My "toys" are just a few model examples for my Boy Scout Model contest where I encourage the boys to scratch build their entries. I'll post when finished... 🙂

 

[Joe Greiner]

It had to be at least 106 years, of course. Unless it came from someplace with weird climatology, which could work either way from there.

If you post another pic looking at the grain end-on, the center of the log might be computable, to estimate a few more rings.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Slow-growing stuff, that's for sure. Means it was pretty crowded where it grew, or the seasons were painfully short. Rather expect the former. Taxes are too high to just leave things grow tight anymore, which is why we say that was typical of "old-growth" when what we really should be saying is slow growth. Softwood is thinned about twice even in an even-aged stand before it goes to market here. Pulp is first, lumber late, lime to sweeten the soil and reseeded after the final clear-cut.

Hardwood, unless it's true poplar, is not clear-cut, but thinned to give a continuous yield. The modern stuff has pretty even growth rate and rings until maturity if the forest is properly managed. Getting too much wood for too little foliage, as in a close-growth situation will not only slow the rate, but can contribute to an early death because the tree hasn't the reserve or vitality to make it trough minor damage.

Short summers have more to do with growth rates like this oak than crowding. Over seventy in about 5 1/2 radius. Pretty even rate, too.

 

[Richard Baker]

John,
Looks like douglas fir from here. Are you located in the western U.S.?

 

[Owen Lowe]

John,
Looks like douglas fir from here. Are you located in the western U.S.?

I agree.

Old Doug Fir can be very, very hard. I don't know for sure, but I've long suspected it has to do with hardening of the copious resin in the wood. I salvaged some sub-flooring in my c1920 home on an insulation project and used it for a step-stool. I had similarly tight growth rings - I seem to recall about 125 in a 3" cross section. Finishes beautifully.

In John's piece, you can see that it's fairly close to the pith at the top surface. Also note the first 40 or so rings are much more widely spaced than the rings afterward. It must have started life in a relatively open area with plenty of light and water to allow the greater rate of growth and later its neighborhood must have become more crowded.

 

[n7bsn]

Bill Luce (home page) uses old growth Doug Fir extensively, due to how hard and dense it is

 

[Tony K. in NC]

When columbus came over

I got a piece of reclaimed pine flooring from a fellow we did the measurements of the rings in that piece to figure out tree diameter and judging by the 36 ring in the one inch we had x the 20+ inch radius from where that piece was cut it was growing when columbus landed

 

[Charles Henderson]

Wow, Charles those vessels of yours are awesome! My "toys" are just a few model examples for my Boy Scout Model contest where I encourage the boys to scratch build their entries. I'll post when finished... 🙂

Thanks 🙂 I'm glad people are enjoying in the fun, and it's neat that you're sharing it with the scouts. I'll look forward to seeing the results.

 

[John Neugebauer]

Tex, Live out West-I wish! 😱 I live in Queens NY! I too believe this tree to be Douglas Fir and obviously a center cut due to the sap ring in the center. If it is a Douglas Fir, depending on it's type and location, would have a life span of about 350 years and looking at this sample I would say this is a mature tree putting it's birthday somewhere around 1659 or so. Wow if this tree could talk! 🙂

 

[Joe Greiner]

Tex, Live out West-I wish! 😱 I live in Queens NY! I too believe this tree to be Douglas Fir and obviously a center cut due to the sap ring in the center. If it is a Douglas Fir, depending on it's type and location, would have a life span of about 350 years and looking at this sample I would say this is a mature tree putting it's birthday somewhere around 1659 or so. Wow if this tree could talk! 🙂

It IS talking, in its own language of course. Google [dendrochronology] to learn about its language. (Better copy and paste, to reduce typos.) Some amazing things have been discovered by matching ring intervals from different trees.