Wound closure

[Redbull]

I was splitting this Burr Oak log today and came across this. Just thought it would make an interesting pic describing a trees ability to close wounds.

 

[Redbull]

I've been meaning to take more pics when splitting wood, but usually get in the groove and forget the camera. I run across a lot of neat things when splitting wood that you would normally only see in a diagram.

 

[bottlefed89]

Yeah, I've been splitting a LOT lately and notice the same type of things.. It's pretty neat sometimes.

 

[Tree Machine]

Good photos

Agreed. When I turn a tree into firewood blocks, I'll always cut the old, protruding wound site off flush with the tree trunk. This gives a cross-cut view of the decay (or lack thereof) from a short distance interior of the woundsite. As well, it gives better looking firewood in the end.

Then when blocking it down, I try to crosscut the trunk right through that same zone. This allows you to see how deep the decay goes, and where (and if) it stops.

This sort of dissection can help us to understand the decay process intimately, possibly better than academicians. I say this because our exposure to the direct witnessing of the tree's efforts is more frequent, abundant and regular than professors and grad students. We just need to set our intent to pay attention and be active in taking the opportunity to see and learn when the opportunity arises - Just like Redbull has expressed.

If we were to step out of 'the groove' for the few moments it takes to snap a few pictures, we collectively could create an amazing body of photos of decay progression and the compartmentalization process. However, just stopping to take mental note, really look at those wound sites, before and after you open them up, and learn from this direct observation, a lot of deeper understanding can be gotten.


Good pics, Redbull. Thank you for taking the time.

 

[Ax-man]

It's amazing the tree anatomy that is seen when splitting wood.

I always like to think of it as dissecting. Gives you a great insight as to what happens inside of a tree, if you can interpert what you are looking at the wood contains a storied history of the tree's life, unfortunately when they go to the morgue ( firewood pile ) end of story.

Larry

 

[Tree Machine]

So true. You just have to have that desire to 'listen' to the story the tree is revealing. With a few pics, a piece of the tree's history is preserved. Posting it here means that piece of history is disseminated worldwide in a matter of seconds.

That's pretty powerful stuff, coming from a piece of split firewood.

 

[Ax-man]

That is an excellent pic.

 

[Tree Machine]

Here's a man-made wound site that is in the early stages of decay. Full closure is less than hopeful since the wound is up-turned and water can flow in repeatedly over the years. Oaks are normally good compartmentalizers, but trees like this hard maple, with regular contact with water, the fungus doing the decay gains the advantage and we move from wound site to abscess to cavity to hollow to the eventual failure of the stem, or tree.

This tree was not a takedown so I don't know what the progression was like.

 

[Tree Machine]

Cool, this pic of yours shows that, although the CODIT model is alive and well, it doesn't always work for the tree, especially when man has cut off a living limb. Compartmentalization is a slightly different, more complete process when the limb dies on the tree as opposed to us whacking off something that is still living.

 

[Tree Machine]

I went out today and took a series of 4 pics to show what I described earlier; about cutting through a wound site in two dimensions to view the extent of decay.

You'll see from these images that the outside may look like a bump on a log, but inside its a completely different story.

 

[jamie]

ripped

TM to get a more detailed (but not the full) story, you would really need to rip down the log to get a better idea of the extent the decay has spread down the stem.

Why is it that when ever i have removed topped trees most of them are sound even right at the top, very little rot???? i know its bad but most seem ok.

Jamie

 

[Redbull]

I think it depends on the species, Jamie. TM, was that a Silver Maple? I see this type of decay pretty consistantly in Maples, where as you can see by the first pic I posted was of a Burr Oak and there was little to no decay, just closure.

 

[rebelman]

Jamie, my experience with topped trees is completely different than yours. I notice less stability imediately. I notice hollow and rotted areas around the old cuts and elsewhere. And when the tree hits the ground, I notice splits and decayed columns. When I cut the tree up, I see how the topping caused much of the decay. Sure, sometimes the tree seems fine, but I'd guess ninety percent of the time you can trace instability and decay in any species directly to the topping.

 

[Tree Machine]

TM to get a more detailed (but not the full) story, you would really need to rip down the log to get a better idea of the extent the decay has spread down the stem.

Then it shall be. I will do this, with a video camera and we can share the experience.

Tree Machine's mission, if he chooses to accept it, is to take a chainsaw, and cut through the center, cutting end-to-end, assumedly dead-center all along the length of the limb or log.

This, as jamie points out, is a rip cut.


My mission is to rip a log in half, flip it open, exposing the center, and do an inspection of it while on video.





















for you guys and gals to see.......

































I can do that.













We're opening up a cavity / hollow in the tree, and exposing it tangentially.










Is tangetially the word I was supposed to use?







I'm not sure, but it sure sounded good.




Ripping a log in half.










You guys.













I have done this literally hundreds of times.



















Making a video for you is not a stretch.


















The big question would be, what music to put with it. That's the hard part; that one I'm really going to have to think about. Ripping a log down the middle, freehaand, with a Husqvarna 395 is easy, made especially easy by the fact that you're ripping through an established decay column, your saw has unlimited power, and your chain is a whole lotta sharp..





E-Z.







I just have to set up the camera and do it. I've got about 20 trees on the slate right now, some really nice, big takedowns.



I will choose an appropriate wound site, and for the sake of this video, I will choose the biggest tree, with the biggest defect and









THAT






will be the one that I will do this video for you.






This will be fun.