Just Wondering

[Dewey]

I just got back from a well deserved vacation in the deep south....  Saw tons of Palm Trees...Just curious does it make good lumber ???

[Ox]

Nope.  Tom tried sawing some and found it was strange and useless and ate blades.  It wasn't really wood but more like compressed plant matter.

[WV Sawmiller]

   No. Very fibrous. Wraps around the sprockets of chain saw as soon you try to cut it.

   The heart of Sable palm (State tree of Fla) is cut out, peeled like an artichoke and eaten raw, in a salad, or cooked and called heart of palm or swamp cabbage. If you cut too far into the heart it gets bitter from natural quinine which is one of the reasons the Seminoles supposedly did not get Malaria as it was a staple food for them. My grandmother used to add a little sugar to counter act it. (Warning - its a natural laxative.)

[Dewey]

Thanks......  My wife caught me knocking on one....  I didn't think it sounded solid like a hardwood....

[4x4American]

Well I reckon it may be sawed on the wm into salad then lol


I've never cut salad on the WM before, just wanna make sure not to use diesel for lube, unless you want dressing to go with it

[WDH]

It is a monocotyledon. A very different animal than our dicotyledon hardwoods. 

[Ianab]

Lot of different species of palm trees.

Coconut is now actually used for lumber and available commercially, The best part of the log resembles mahogany in colour, trength and hardness. And of course whole logs can be used in log type construction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_timber

Other species are more variable, and might make better salad than lumber. Sago (the cooking ingredient) is the heart of the Sago palm, so is probably more comparable to spaghetti than lumber  :D

Spend any time in the Pacific Islands and you will learn about the uses there are for the coconut tree. Their nickname for it is "Tree of Life" because they say that as long as you have coconut trees, you can keep yourself alive.

[Kbeitz]

I have family that lives in Dominican Republic that has houses made of
palm trees. I ask about the lumber. I was told that they only use the
outside cut of the log. They get around 6 boards off each log. That's
what you see on this house.



 

[Ianab]

I was told that they only use the outside cut of the log.

That would makes sense because that's the harder and more durable "wood". Palms grow in a different way to a regular, as in they put on height, but don't increase significantly in girth. So no growth rings  :P

As a side effect, tree ferns (which look like a palm) have been used as a building material by the Maori and first European settlers. Meant you could knock together a hut and get out of the rain relatively quickly, without a sawmill.

[ellmoe]

Many years ago the Ga. Pa. plywood plant in Palatka, Fl. made some plywood with cabbage palm. I was told it shut down every machine it came to. I thought it would look like a grass skirt, but it actually looked good!   It never reached production stage. I guess $100,000.00 per sheet plywood wasn't thought to be a likely big seller.

[WDH]

I would not buy any stock in that  :D. 

[Dewey]

I have family that lives in Dominican Republic that has houses made of
palm trees. I ask about the lumber. I was told that they only use the
outside cut of the log. They get around 6 boards off each log. That's
what you see on this house.



 

I actually went to the Dominican as part of this trip and saw these type of houses... I asked tour guide to see a sawmill but he said there were not any around :(

[Kbeitz]

I got to see three sawmills in Dominican Republic. I guess you need
family over there to show you around.



 



 



 

[sealark37]

Palm logs make the best material for building bunkers for infantry.  Absorbs artillery fragments and blast damage like no other wood.  I, however, do not recommend this activity.  Regards, Clark

[WV Sawmiller]

kbeitz,

   We don't need family over there to show us around. We just need to know somebody who has family over there.  ;) ;)

[Kbeitz]

kbeitz,

   We don't need family over there to show us around. We just need to know somebody who has family over there.  ;) ;)

Your right. But most Dominicans don't want to waste there time doing this.
They think we are a pest.