What is up with this wood???

[cbfarmall]

This stuff ruined two of my round chisel loops and burned a 24" GB Titanium bar on my 066. Cover and clutch got hot too, but it didn't hurt the crank seals. I know the oiler is working, since I checked it before and after and it slings off a bit of oil. Can anybody tell me what it is? Pretty dense stuff, heavier than he!!

Chris B.

 

[cbfarmall]

Another shot.

 

[glens]

I'd guess bitternut hickory, but I've never had such problems with it.  Are you sure there was no foreign material embedded?

Glen

 

[cbfarmall]

I'm not sure if there was crap in the wood. First cut--partial cut--I made dulled the chain, so I removed it and the cutters looked as if somebody took a file to the top plate and proceeded to round the tip over. I looked closely at the wood but I didn't see any wire or rocks. Property owner tells me later that the area used to be a pasture. I wish I'd known that before hand. At least I'll never see the stuff again.

Chris B.

 

[Lewis Brander]

Type of wodd:

cbfarmall. I don't pretend to know one wood from another, but could it be what is called hard hack. Not sure if hard hack gets that big or not, but it makes good handles for variouw stuff if you want to whittle on it for awhile. Seems that my brother got inot some and he had trouble with his chains and bars burning up. Lewis.

 

[glens]

If it is bitternut hickory (I'm fairly confident it is, does <a href="http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/ccordiformis.htm">this</a> look about right?) it's just about my most favoritest firewood, and it puts a heck of a flavor to meat when cooked over or smoked with it.&nbsp; It burns a bit slow, but it makes coals that last a <i>long</i> hot time.

Pop a piece open (might be tough if it was an open-grown tree; definitely stand the chunk upside down to split) and see if it doesn't smell very much stronger, but a lot like bacon could have been smoked with it.&nbsp; Thing of it is, you've got to split and stack it, waiting for a good long summer (at least) to season, and then you've got to use it within a couple of years as the bugs love to munch it.&nbsp; Leave a log laying in the woods and it'll be dirt probably the quickest of anything we got growing 'round here (west central Indiana).

Hackberry (which we <i>do</i> have around here) will mess with cutting gear, but I'm confident that ain't what we're looking at, Louis.

Glen

 

[glens]

Sorry, I meant "Lewis".

 

[Gypo Logger]

I really haven't seen wood, regardless of species, ever mess up a chain and that includes Ironwood. There must be some abrasive material somewhere, maybe even sand. If the saw isn't cutting true then the bar and chain will burn.
John

 

[cbfarmall]

I'm guessing the wood was dirty. Though they weren't buried in the dirt. The logs were left over when a company cleared a section of a lot to build a polebarn. Seems they left the logs for a reason I just found out. I know I got a couple sparks but a close inspection didn't reveal any wire or anything out of the ordinary.

I'll chalk it up to bad luck. Same as the rest of the trip. We blew a radiator tank seam and my friend rolled a Rav4 3 times into a ditch after being cut off by a Honda Civic.

glens,

Pictures are all I have. The wood is around Bull Shoals Lake, AR and I'm in NW Indiana.

 

[glens]

John, Hackberry doesn't dull the chain (I didn't intend to imply that), but it'll get under it and into the bar groove like nobody's business.&nbsp; Maybe I should get a loop of skip or semi-skip chain to use in it and that would cure the problem.

cb, that area shows as included in the native region for the tree.&nbsp; I'd have guessed what I did even if you hadn't said the wood was heavy.

Glen

 

[buckwheat]

In much of the mid-west at the beginning of the last century, pastures were "fenced in" with osage orange trees that were pruned to grow short and squat. But when left to grow, they can become pretty sizeable trees. They have large, tough fruit; prickly spines like barbed wire, and the wood is hard as cement. Its also probably the best firewood going.

I've heard stories of it dulling chains, throwing sparks, and guys standing over the cut with oil cans; although I've never experienced those issues. Any chance it might be osage orange, or what many call hedge apple?

 

[Stumper]

That absolutely, positively is NOT Osage.-I'm with Gypo --Wood doesn't generally dull steel very rapidly. Sounds like a foreign matter problem.-I did cut an unidentified wood once that gummed up the top of the cutters about 4 times worse than Ash-it still didn't damage the teeth.

 

[eric_271]

Ive cut down many of the osage orange and one thing they all have in common is they are all very yellow inside then two or three weeks of air on those cut turns the color orange. The bark on osage orange is a lot deeper and more rough then the wood in those pictures. On osage orange logs that have seasoned for two or three years will smoke a new chain in less then a half day of cutting and I have seen my fair share of sparks while cutting it.

 

[rb_in_va]

Originally posted by Stumper
I'm with Gypo

Good luck with that

 

[racereric]

The tree probably got used as a fence post at some point and had a little bit of wire in it. I've hit some of that on my property. I'm usually very careful when I cut the bottom 5ft. of my trees. Break out the metal detector. Eric

 

[Crofter]

There are bark inclusions in the pics, so probably some sand got included at the same time. Doesn't take much and if you dont stop now, you're are going to damage a whole lot more. I am bucking a load of 2 years dry, mixed hard wood. Sometimes you can get two or three tanks of gas before sharpening and then sharpen twice in 5 minutes.

Frank

 

[Stumper]

rb_in_va. -Fortunately I didn't use that wording in the "gay marriage" thread.

 

[user 2993]

Looks like willow oak to me. The heartwood is the wrong color for any of the hickories. So is the bark. I agree about the sand, though.

 

[Al Smith]

Not bitternut

Hello;It's not bitternut hickory.Bitternut,is of the same family as pecan,and has a bark ,that starts out looking like a white ash,but farther up the tree,"spalls off"somewhat like a shellbark or shag back hickory.I will send a picture tomorrow,of a shell bark hickory[Ot's 10 p.m. and dark now] Al

 

[glens]

The heartwood is correct for bitternut hickory (one of the pecan [lesser, or not "true"] hickories).&nbsp; The bark is correct for bitternut hickory: in color, form, and thickness; in every way.&nbsp; Trust me on this one, I've got at least a dozen of them out in my "yard", probably 75' average height for the "adults".&nbsp; I just cleaned up one about the size of the one shown here in the thread from a neighbor's yard the other day&nbsp; (Got two saw logs and a half a cord of firewood.)&nbsp; I've got more shagbarks than bitternuts, and the bark all looks almost exactly the same on the juveniles and upper limbs for all of them.&nbsp; Same as portrayed in the images in the link I gave earlier from vt.edu.

I'd put $20 on it in a heartbeat.&nbsp; I only wish the material in question was still readily accessible.

Glen