What do you call this log damage?

[Grizzerbear]

I've seen this fairly often with red oaks. Blackened checks, shakes, and pockets of rot are numerous. You can tell before you cut it from the black crack or scar at the at the base of the tree. It sometimes oozes with a sickeningly sweet odor. The damage usually tapers off a few feet up in the log. Do you know the correct name and cause of this damage?


 

[moodnacreek]

I also would like to know. It might be called spider. On certain sights the redoak has this and up on the mountain white oak has it also. Makes it firewood.

[barbender]

I've always called it frost cracks, but I don't know what actually causes it. An actual frost crack is usually one big crack.
It seems site dependent, as some areas have a ton of it and others none at all🤷🏽‍♂️

[SwampDonkey]

clostridium (a genus of fungus) induced star cracks maybe? Wood moisture is higher there and has an odor. Just going on what Gene Wengert said on his forum.

[doc henderson]

 

 

 

[mike_belben]

Pretty common on the cumberland plateau, particularly in mature scarlet oaks.  The rot tube can fit a hand in it sometimes. If you cut one in summer the black water is spraying off the bar and gushing out the kerf.  No idea the name or cause but it ruins your mood.  We just call em "doaty" 



I never noticed the points giving an exterior marker on the bark.  I will add that to my culls clause.

[mike_belben]

This one was a gusher.  And a different anomoly about 50 yds away on a white oak.  Its highstumped for fencewire.





This WO had a full ring and a completely free core tree within the sapwood, a forklift probably coulda pushed it out.  But look at the bark edge. Seems like the same star pattern pushed those points out on the bark.   


I have one standing in my yard that i bet will have the same problem.  They have vertical spines like a torx tool. 

[mike_belben]

My region is plagued with fungal blights that make it quite hard on some crops.  Under the right conditions many tree species will be defiolating mid summer then come back the following spring. 

I have oak seedlings right now that are basically stillborn.  6 inches high with maybe 4 mature leaves that are completely dried and brown.  Meanwhile the ones next to it are fine. 

[Grizzerbear]

Thanks for the insights, comments and pictures. They were all very interesting. I appreciate it. Hopefully this log will be sound after I saw off another couple of feet so it's not a total loss.
Your photos of log oddities reminded me of an elderly sawyer I visited years ago in the NC piedmont. He was sawing an enormous log on his circle mill when sparks started flying. There was no sign of damage or foreign matter so he repositioned it and tried again only to see more sparks fly. I believe dynamite was involved in him finally splitting that monster open. He still had the log and I saw it myself . . . embedded inside was the crankshaft and a piston from a model T Ford. Years had passed but he still shook his head in disbelief as he showed me what was left of that log. I guess we shouldn't feel too bad about a little damage now and then. It could be worse. Thanks again. 

[Resonator]

If nothing else that log would make neat looking cookies!

[doc henderson]

the staining pattern on my oak log has disappeared.  we all thought it may be iron injections.  no physical change in the grain pattern.

[Grizzerbear]

Doc, at first I thought the stains and the checks on my log were related but perhaps they aren't. The checks are obviously there to stay but, like your log, but the stains are greatly reduced. I'll work it up tomorrow and see what the inside looks like.

Resonator, another dobro enthusiast! Cool. I made my current dobro from walnut I milled. I get compliments on it often. When I was building it I visited Tim Scheerhorn at his shop. He gave me a few pointers. Tim has built dobros for many of the big names like Jerry Douglas.

Thanks again, everyone, for all the input.

[doc henderson]

until we see pictures to confirm the exitance of this dobra, well then we really do not know.  I play a little Dobro as well.   8)

[Resonator]

Y'all gotta come to the Pig Roast and find out... ;D

[Grizzerbear]

Tough crew here. This is what kidnappers call "proof of life." :-)
Here are three of the dobro I built beside the log that started this.
It has a walnut neck and body with sycamore binding and fret markers. All hardware was purchased at Stewart-MacDonald.
One front and back and one close up of the bookmatched back.



 

 

 

[doc henderson]

very nice.  beauty!

[Resonator]

Love it!

[mike_belben]

Flipn gorgeous. 

[olcowhand]

Really nice, except it has a basketti strainer where the open hole should be; is that to keep you from dropping your pick in there? ;D
Steve

[cutterboy]

OMG, that's beautiful!

[livemusic]

Wow, that is a great looking dobro you built, amazing!

[Old Greenhorn]

Somehow I missed this little side talk on music. I must have been wasting away my time on work when it went by. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that the name 'dobro' is copywrited by [I forget who] and the correct name for this instrument is 'resonator guitar' lest anybody get sued. In 2015 I was involved in putting on a 'Resonator Guitar Workshop' with some big names including Cindy Cashdollar, Tim Scheerhorn, and others and we were informed we could not use the term "Dobro" in any of the printed materials. Somehow, a few references 'slipped' into the program. ;D ;D ;D
 Very fine work you've done there. I wish you guys were all closer and could come to the Luthiers show this year.

[doc henderson]

@Old Greenhorn not to poke the bear, but I have a resonator guitar, and I plan to continue to call it a Dobro!!!  what do you say about that!  
       ;D ;D ;D    :D :D :D    ;) ;) ;)   

this is going to be a fun week!



 

[doc henderson]

note the air hose as it needed dusting so I can bring it.  for those with a great ear for music, my apologies,  last played about 5 months ago.  It seems to play better after a few beers, or maybe it sounds better.  anyway.  be prepared. 

[doc henderson]