Just another little dogwood

[Don P]

They have come into full bloom here this week which might have put them in mind. I was doing a little cleaning up in the shop and there was a dogwood stem I had set in there for handle stock. I don't treat it well and have burned several powderpost infested pieces recently. So I chopped a fresh end to see if this one looked like it was worth keeping, then I looked at the growth rings, wow!


I had to blow it up to count the 45 rings in the ~3" diameter stem... which pretty well corresponds to when the pastures were fallow before we bought the place.

I've commented before that tight ringed, ring porous woods like oaks are less dense than fast grown ones. This tree is the opposite, this tight ringed diffuse porous wood is very dense. I suspect it would float very low in water, I'm guessing a specific gravity in the .70's ... hard!

[Ljohnsaw]

Would make a great mallet head.

[Wlmedley]

I had a pretty good size piece last year and made a few felling wedges out of it.Worked really well as long as the center is not used.Almost as tough as the plastic ones you buy although they are hard to find if they go flying into the woods.