2 band blades and 5 chains need sharpened

[doc henderson]

was making some 5x5 dunage our of locust.  yes it was a yard tree.  hit something and it almost stopped my motor.  then tried to cut around it with a chains saw.  go so far and then sparks would fly and no more cutting with that chain.  looks like concrete but extends farther than i would expect.  seems to follow the pith and is fairly thin, but i can see sand particles in it.  does the tree ever incorporate sand into a wound in nature.  i assume it blows in.  I know some old timers used to plug hole with concrete to keep the tree from rotting, but the veins of this are small and extend a ways.



 



 



 



 

you can see i have been persistent trying to salvage some wood.  the slab is 10 inches thick

[redbeard]

Sometimes you just got too know what's in there and Why.

[crowhill]

Yup sometimes you just gotta know!

[doc henderson]

Yup!  i may throw it in the fire and see if a chunk is left, but seems too thin.  thought about a ct, but my insurance does not cover trees on the mill!

[firefighter ontheside]

Looks like the mystery stuff is filling bug damage.

[doc henderson]

i think you maybe right, prob an old timer fixen the tree. 



 

it is in the fire now, will see if there is a casting left in the am.

[Ianab]

Used to be the done thing to fix rot holes in trees. 

Until arborists started to have to cut said trees down. Then it quickly went out of fashion. :D

[Nebraska]

I really liked the CT scan idea, nothing like buried treasure. Interfering to see if it survives the fire.

[Nebraska]

Interesting... to see that  is.

[Dana Stanley]

Does it show up with a metal detector. I have seen rods of solidified lightning in the science museum. Not sure how it would get into a tree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite

[doc henderson]

I tried the wand and got an occ. blip but no signal to help me.  I had coordinates as I could see where the band blade stopped and had the circumference where the chainsaw tried to crosscut wood then flew sparks and dulled.  so I would say no on the metal detector.  the wood was green, live tree a month ago.  in the fire it is well charred and partially burned this am.  If it is concrete, I assume it may degrade in the fire.



 

my hope with the chainsaw was to get it short enough to split wood away on my log splitter.  it will do lengths up to 32".

[doc henderson]

Hey Dana.  that is interesting and may explain this.  not sure how to confirm this, but will cont. to post pics.  the color was a gray color with grit I could see in cross section as my stihl chain did its best to cut through.

[doc henderson]

so after burning over night with the cut down on the fire, still qhite a bit of wood.  flipped over and tries to push with skid fork, and scrape....




 



 



 

core in the middle about 3 inch diameter of concrete.  some ones grandpa must of spent most of a day making sure this remedy made into every nook and cranny.  Thanks Grandpa!!! :D.  maybe the original wound was from a lightning strike. oldest part of town.  I nearly made it through in one of the chainsaw cuts (1/2).  I have some old v conveyor roller I plan to make a frame (out of the 5 x 5 locust)  for setting whole tree logs to cut for firewood.

[Tom the Sawyer]

Several years ago I was offered some Ponderosa Pine logs from a city park.  All of the trees along a road next to a ball diamond had died and the park department was taking them down.  They offered to cut them to length and load them if I would take them and not charge for hauling them away.  Their chipper was limited to 12" diameters so these were too large for the chipper.  Made several trips (80 miles RT) and got about 35 logs total.  A couple of days later I got a call from the supervisor, warning me that there "might" be concrete in some of the logs.  They had hit concrete a couple of times with a new Stihl CS with a 36" bar. He said that someone remembered that was how they packed wounded trees back in the 70s.

I milled a couple of them and never hit any concrete, although I could see where they had cut through concrete on a couple (they finished the cuts with a concrete saw).  Here in the middle of hardwood forests, pine is of minimal interest and most were wasted.  I was able to get rid of some of them, an equine training facility took a bunch for trail riding hazards.

[doc henderson]

Well!  Here it is, dunt dunt duhhh...



 



 

spade is for scale.  concrete pulled from the ashes.  at least there were no nails in this yard tree! :D :D :D.  i got about 20 5x5 posts about 10 feet long out of the rest of the log.  the big slab is off my driveway.  it was just the 3 chunks on top, not the whole retaining wall. ;) 8)

[Nebraska]

That's a seriously impressive hunk of treasure, when you compare it to that spade.  Looks like about a 60.00$ deal with all that sharpening grief it gave you.  :D

[Southside]

Well Doc, now you know Locust is cheaper than Walnut... :D

[doc henderson]

@Southside yes but it was a high value locust.  :D.  @Nebraska it was a nice adventure.  I guess I am getting older cause I had the patience to spend 3 days finding out what the trouble was

[WDH]

You are way more persevering than I am . 

[Peter Drouin]

Good job, and thank's for the pix

[doc henderson]

Well here we go again.  I thought.  brand new box of blades.  Trying the silver tooth super sharps.  Of course they had been here for a month now, so got one out to try.  found a walnut log that had been around, ends sealed with white paint, so I know where it came from.  tired of moving it around the yard.  nearly had a cant, and a screech and almost killed the 38 hp Kohler.  backed it out, cut off the flitch.  cut the end off the cant.  put it on the log splitter and guess what I found.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the band made it through the eye bolt, but does not want to cut anymore.  It is retired.

[WV Sawmiller]

   That's gonna leave a mark. :D

[GAB]

Doc:
Glad to hear your metal detector still works.
GAB

[barbender]

A real slab man would have kept putting new blades on until the bolt was sawn through, and incorporated the bolt into the slab end table he was building 😁

[Jim_Rogers]

I hate when that happens.

Jim Rogers