76 rings in a tree cross section (w/Henry)

[Sir Henry]

I cut this tree down about a year ago. I counted 76 rings.

[CT_Shooter]

Now, that is truly awesome! What a day's work that must have been! Thanks for sharing it.

[RetiredSeabee]

I remember that project. Impressive bunch of wood from the tree.

[Josey Wales]

Very nice! Any plans for it Sir Henry?

[Sir Henry]

I remember that project. Impressive bunch of wood from the tree.

You were around when I was taking it down.

[Sir Henry]

I will often use a round for a background.

[Squatch]

That's impressive. I've cut a lot of firewood over the years. But personally don't want to saw anything that needs a bar that long!

I have 4 trees in my yard that were seedlings from the Wye Oak. We planted them in 1993. It was the Maryland state tree and the largest white oak in the US. The trunk was 31'10" in circumference and almost 500 years old. That's a huge tree here in the east. It came down in a storm in 2002.

If you like trees it's worth a web search to see some pics. We have a large print of a photo that was taken by a famous local photographer A. Aubrey Bodine in 1944. http://www.aaubreybodine.com/gallery/de ... k&rtn=spec

[PT7]

Impressive tree, and your firewood project is a "cut-above" what most folk do!

Again, some brief comments about my Dad. When he was a youth/young man in the former Yugoslavia, by trade he was a woodcutter. He knew wood inside out, and loved working with it. I caught that enjoyment, and have cut/split wood over the years for a number of wood stoves and fireplaces we enjoyed.

But when he retired and moved to a fairly large property he enjoyed (5 acres), at times he lost some of the elder trees. He would take them down himself, of course. What was always interesting is what he did with the stump. Never hired anyone to saw it up (into chips) in order to take it out. He got down on his hands & knees and manually dug it out! Never have seen the likes since.

Then he would take the stump base into his workshop for some type of project. Of course, a heavy-duty flat steel cart pulled by his John Deere was the way he move it from the yard to the shop -- heavy stuff. Then he would make tables, ottomans, whatever out of those stumps. My sister has one of his largest tables, and it doesn't move around very much in her house! And how he finished the tops of those stumps was incredible. He measured the depth of the stump, made sure it was the same at all degrees, and perfectly planed the top into an extremely smooth surface with little-to-no imperfections. Same with the base in order to build/attach whatever legs he turned on his lathe. He loved to finish with clear varnish, and that brought out the beauty of the wood grain. Those were some projects to see!

Finally, Dad did one project for me that we gave to my supervisor at my job. My supe had a special rock on his desktop, about 1/2 the size of our famous Henry mugs. He told me it was a piece of the torn-down Berlin Wall. Neat souvenir of a difficult "edifice." Well, I had an idea on how better to display it other than just "sitting" on a desktop. Reluctantly, he let me take the rock, and I showed it to my Dad. He took a larger branch from one his tree takedowns, and made a display case for the rock. He cut and smoothed a base on the branch with an angle maybe 30-35 degrees. Then he dug out by hand a "cavern" into the branch so the rock would fit snugly and completely within the tree branch. Encircling the rock, he smoothed out the front/face of the branch, and cut a piece of clear plexiglass to hold the rock in place. I asked my boss to write a mini-description of his rock, and I made signage on my computer like you do to describe an exhibit in a museum. We placed that description just below the rock underneath the extended bottom of the plexiglass. Of course, my Dad finished the branch "rock holder' with varnish, screwed the plexiglass into the wood to hold the rock securely, and we gave it back to my boss. The special rock sure looked great on his desktop, and he was most astonished and pleased at the unique display case. I know my description above is a little hard to envision -- it was hard to describe for me. Just wish I had a picture of it as the project turned out really neat.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share another memory.
And thanks again, Sir Henry, for some great photos.

[JEBar]

what model Stihl were you using

[CT_Shooter]

He [my Dad] knew wood inside out, and loved working with it.

Wonderful story, PT7. Thanks for sharing it.