-Things found in timber.. Sorry I had to
WillGeorge
| Posted in General Discussion on
Copied from another post… I loved it…
| I believe this could be the subject of a new thread-“things found in timber”. I have found 7.62 rounds in timber from Mozambique- did not cause any damage to tungsten saw blade in spite of the contact shock (lead in fill). I am now waiting to be struck by lightning<j>. I also remember seeing an item that resembled a prospectors hammer in the middle of a huge tree which had been felled in Durban, South Africa. The chain saw was history…. Ofcourse there are the more usual things like nails, barbed wire, fencing posts, bolts etc just to make our day. I am never surprised when saw millers look sideways at stock the origins of which they may not know about-imagine a 5 foot diameter break down saw blade with inserts encountering a prospectors hammer! |
Replies
The bookmatched sycamore boards I've just finsihed working carry scars from an old shotgun wound... I dug out hundreds o lead pellets... Judging by the reaction of the adjacent grain, the tree wasn't too impressed with it...
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
Sawdust! Every freakin' time I cut a board open a bunch of sawdust falls out..., I tell my lumber dealers "Look, I want solid wood!", they send me this crap that's full of sawdust.
Lee
they dinna grow trees like they used to huh....??
;)Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
Then there was the time I ordered clear fir. A week later I call em up, "Hey, where's my fir?", guy says he delivered it, I said "Where'd you unload it?", back dock he replied. I went out there and tripped right over it. Now I have em paint the ends so I can find it. Bloody expensive stuff, they tell me they can't find the trees to water them. Crummy stuff to work with too, full of splinters, only animals should wear fir.LeeMontanaFest
You'll have to excuse me, but I'm stealing all the lines from those last two posts of yours..... :-)
Just thought you should know.The older I get, the better I was....
I heard about a guy in England once who found a sword stuck in a rock . . .
Got a book about unbelievable coincindences, wierd stuff--like campfire stories...
Anyway, one was the called the slow but sure bullet. Seams a 100 years ago some 'boyfriend suitor came a calling on his gal. Her husband didn't agree with that so he declares a duel. They march off their paces and both fire. One bullet strikes the husband killing him, but his bullet hits the suitor in the forehead and glances off into a tree trunk. Suitor survives and they live happily after....Until one day. they decide to take down that 'big old tree out front'. Too big for a saw;let's use dynamite. Tree explodes sending the bullet flying out of it striking the suitor in the heart killing him 36 years later.......
I certainly won't fault you for having a sterling sense of humor. Let me know how it works out for you, I can't even get a decent groan around here, tough house.Did ya hear the one about the three woodworkers in the bar, one Scottish, one American and a Canuck...LeeMontanaFest
Edited 7/8/2005 10:33 am ET by Lee_Grindinger
ugh- I take it back....
Although did you hear about the cabinetmaker who killed himself by drinking a quart of shellac?
.... A horrible end, but a beautiful finish......The older I get, the better I was....
HAH, hah, ha leeMontanaFest
Lee.. GOOD ONE!
Now thats funny!!!
Tim
I'm about to steal your tag line
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
clear fir.. Crummy stuff to work with too, full of splinters..
Geee.. Sorry you got bad fir...
I an not sure how it is these days but back in the late 60's I built a boat from clear, straight grained Douglas fir.. Well, most of the boat was made of it except for white oak on the 'hefty' parts...
It was a wonderful wood to work with..
I wonder... did you get old growth back then??
I've worked both, Will, and I hate it. It's amazing to me those trees can stand long enough to become lumber. The early wood is so soft it just barely holds the latewood together and fails far too often. It's not too bad when others use it but I won't have the stuff in my shop unless I'm framing a wall.LeeMontanaFest
Old Coke bottle grown into crotch of a pecan tree. Quickly dulls a chain saw with out any sparks. Slugs in 3/4 pine for window jamb stock. They make a wierd sound when you rip into them. As a child, I heard of a local timber buyer getting a track of pine trees on military base that had been behind a WWII rifle range. Had to harvest them or forfit performance bond, totally worthless. Truely good money after bad.
Crotch wood sure can be interesting.Where I grew up was a tree that had the blade of a scythe hung in the crotch. Seems that a fellow had heard the call to arms back at the time3 of the Civil war and hung up his scythe in the middle of the days hay cutting and went off to war. Thought he'd only be gone a few weeks.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I was going to quarter-saw a 28" diameter walnut log. The initial cut was through the center of the log, where I encountered a tractor clevis. The blade on my bandmill was of course destroyed. I've got a container of items found in logs, ranging from small finish nails to the above-mentioned clevis and some 1/2" diameter lag screws.
Will,
I forgot the best one of all.
I worked in a factory that used to get Muninga baulks hauled up from Botawana, in the Chobe river area.(muninga is Pterocarpus Angolensis-the same tree as Indian Rosewood). The factory used a Wadkin circular re- saw bench to convert them into standard thickness boards.
The following conversation took place one day:-
"Sir, the saw is wobbling, and some people have run away."
Me: "Right Dixon, get ahold of yourself, let me see this."
To cut a long story short, the saw had cut diagonally across a 3/4 inch brass water tap, became semi jammed, ran hot and was distorting itself to death-however one gentleman hit the stop switch in time.
Er, for the ghouls, (see other posts involving a chipped tct tooth and lightning strikes), not one tooth parted company from the plate, but some were chimped -as I have said before-"that ther brazing is plenty strong."But the sawplate, being overheated had lost tension forever.
I still would like to know how that item got into the tree. Chobe is semi desert, vast, unpopulated, with lots of elephants and other crunchers, even now-so how about 80plus years ago?Tell me there are no aliens amongst us.... On further thoughts there may be one or two on this forum.
Edited 7/8/2005 1:23 am ET by Philip Marcou
brass would have been shiny once upon a time.Birds like to carry away shiny things and drop them a sa game
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Piffin,
Must have been one helluva bird! I wish I had photographed it (the sawn log).Who would be wandering aroud that neck of the woods in the time frame roughly 1850 onwards-with a tap???If you have been in that area you would know that it is Wild, even today.
Hi Will -
When I saw the subject line I thought I jump in with something out of the ordinary but I guess rifle slugs are somewhat passe. None the less, finding one in a chunk of birch spinning at about 1200RPM on your lathe does create a rather high pucker factor. Didn't know what to make of the silvery circumferential line that started to develop in the blank, stopped the lathe and thought "Oh-crap, hit a nail". Took my fingernail and I could mark it so figured it was a rifle slug.
Went ahead and finished the piece and gave it to the folks who gave me the birch in the first place. It came out of their front yard. Would probably make an interesting story if that tree could have talked.
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
I found a pint bottle of mercury in the crotch of a very old monkeypod tree (samanea) that I felled on Maui. The bottle was square and had a cork in it, obviously pretty old. Aloha, mike
Mercury - the way people react (mentally, not chemically, well sort of chemically . . .)to that stuff nowadays, I am surprised they didn't turn the whole island into a toxic waste site.
I am surprised they didn't turn the whole island into a toxic waste site.I didnt tell anyone...... I gave it to the recycling coordinator.....quicksilver is the other name for the stuff
I've seen horseshoes sticking out of the crotch of trees. When I was a kid I found a wetstone with a tree growing up through the middle of it. I missed a nail once and it ate my jointer blades. When I cut firewood I have to keep an eye out for barbed wire that the tree has grown around. Now I use my old metal detector which is useless for finding coins to find iron objects in the used lumber when I mill it.
When I was a kid there was a maple tree maybe twenty years old or so growing up through the frame and baody of an old Model T
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
how about a live round from a 20mm aircraft cannon? Tree was harvested a few years after WWII. Really made a mess of the saw when it went off
This was my latest find. This was from the heart of the city, and would have been fired toward a very busy street, and other houses.
Some of the kooks around here think that fire-arms are another form of fireworks to be set off on the 4th, and New Year.
Kooks? that's just plain good shootin. It looks like four shots right to the heart...............................................................................................................................................wood.LeeMontanaFest
Naaaah, This was a gut shot, and there were a couple that hit it in the foot.The best shot in my neighborhood fired his weapon into the air to celebrate the New Year with such a steady hand, that three of the rounds landed in my shop roof within 3' of one another. They were right over my big tablesaw, so the next time it rained, well you know the rest.
If he had been really good all three rounds would have gone right back down the barrel?
Hey Mook. I wish he had sent those rounds a little straighter up, but I was not wishing for them to go back down the barrel. About a foot over would have been OK though.
There was a movie about 20 years ago, " The Gods Must Hate Us". I think that was the name. A pilot throws a coke-bottle out of a plane somewhere over Africa. It lands right in front of an aborigine who initially thinks it is a gift from God. You should see if you can find it on DVD to explain the pipe. Later Root
Yah Keith,
I know the movie called "The Gods must be Crazy)-there were several similar made by a South African called Jamie Uis (sp) pronounced "ace". Hilarious .
Er, there are no Aborigines* found in southern Africa- these are found in Australia. The chap you saw is a Hottentot I think. There are also Bushmen (the true original inhabitants of Africa, who did all those marvellous rock paintings). Not To Be Confused with the present black tribes....
*and not to be confused with those in Africa....
Edited 7/9/2005 8:30 pm ET by Philip Marcou
<Er, there are no Aborigines* found in southern Africa- these are found in Australia.>Aborigine- means the original flora and fauna of a geographical area, and can be anywhere.Oh yea, Crazy, Did you see the "Quest for Fire"? Similar movie. The first time I saw it, I thought it was great fun. The next time I saw it I wondered why. Both movies were good to get us to think about our heritage. We all came from the same root-stock of beating rocks together, or rubbing sticks together, and gathering around a fire to keep warm.
Maybe that is why I like camping so much. I love to sit around a camp-fire and share stories. Something about it soothes the "savage beast" within me.
U C now,
This is how things get complicated- in Australia the indigenie are not called Australians, they are called Abbos (mate), but in Southern A they are Not called Aborigines unless you want to have a fight.But I hear what you say.
I think I have seen them all at one stage or the other. They are quite topical , so have more meaning to the ,er, locals.
I would dearly like to return to my roots-visions of reclining on my back on some sunny Greek island with grapes dropping into my mouth from the hand of a sea nymph or two.The rubbing of sticks is for somebody else to do (for me).
OK while you are in this dream state, There are two sets of moist foot-prints out in front of you leading away. One set seems to have sort of a blue purple, well grape cast to it, The other seems to have a little salt crust around the edge, and a fishy smell to it, and little fin flicks here and there. It could be a mermaid, the other probably leads back to the wine vats. They go in seperate directions, which one do you choose? Hah, shouldn't life be easier than this?
I give up- I would ask the forum first.
I'm not quite sure if this belongs here or not.
Growing up in NY we had some trees out in front that had a metal cage around it to keep it from blowing over as it grew. Planted well before I was born and when I left home in 1968 the tree was already growning around the cage. If it was not removed, by now it surely is inside the tree. My parents sold the house a year or two after I left and I know they did not remove it before selling.
I sure would not want to be anywhere near when they either take that tree down or possibly try to chip or mill it. - A warning to those intested in Urban timber.
1 - measure the board twice, 2 - cut it once, 3 - measure the space where it is supposed to go 4 - get a new board and go back to step 1
Edited 7/13/2005 4:58 pm ET by Rick503
Rick,
As a child, I used to visit relatives in the Blue Ridge Mtns in VA. Uncle Maynard had a big old oak tree in his side yard, about 2 1/2 ft in diameter. The tree was growing up through the steel rim of an old buggy wheel, about 3 1/2' across. It boggled my mind at the time, to imagine the tree ever being small enough for someone to have dropped that wheel rim over its top.
Cheers,
Ray
Keith,
A reasonable grouping there, even for the wild west <g>. Could you not incorporate that in some sort of turned platter, you know a lead salad or something?
I don't know if anyone here saw it but a few years ago in Bugle magazine, there was an article with a few photos of a bull elk head enveloped in a tree. A chunk o' trunk with antlers. The author guessed that either a hunter placed the head in the crotch of a tree and left it or the bull got stuck while scraping the tree with his antlers. It's in a small museum in the California redwoods area somewhere.
chief
Barbed wire, nails, buckshot etc.....
I haven't tried to cut any of these, but around here one often sees trees that have grown through a chain-link fence, and then been cut off above and below- so you have these gnarly chunks of wood embedded in the fence 4' above the ground.
Strange you should mention that!.. I got a few in my fence and my neighbor keeps askin' when I'll take the unsightly thing out of there?
I tell him after you take YOUR side of the fence wood off... Easier fer me then!
My chain saw blade found a railroad spike once in a tree. Seems it had been used as a deer hunting stand long ago.
I also found a large dead cedar log once that made some beautiful wall clocks. It was full of bee holes all through it. I thought I had got all the bees out. Made our clock in the winter and hung it over the fire place. The first warm spring day the wife called me at work and said the house was full of bees! About a dozen large wood bees were out in the house and mad as hell! Still have the clock hanging over the TV.
ps - I sold several of the clocks that winter and never heard from any of the buyers afterwards.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
PlaneWood
You wont believe this, but my Dad, planted an apple tree near his garden plot and tendered the vegetable patch'neath the shade of that tree. "Funny", He often said, "but the plantings nearest to the tree grew twice as large as the ones out of the shade."As the years passed' the swiss chard and the apple tree grew closer 'til they became entwined so badly, that it became impossible to gather the lettuce from the tree unless he cut part of the tree along with the greens.The cuttings were a Godsend to Dad, as they made the most delicious Waldorf Salads all those hot indian summers long ago.Steinmetz.Edited 7/15/2005 11:07 pm ET by steinmetz
Edited 7/16/2005 3:10 pm ET by steinmetz
swiss chard and the apple tree grew closer 'til they became entwined ..
I think 'DAD' gave the tree some modern drugs... Like Viagra... SHe grew closer...
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