Yeah positive. It’s ring-porous like BL but the weight’s not there. That and it’s got an unmistakable smell, plus the workability. It’s soft as far as hardwoods go, but incredibly strong.
I’ve already made arrangements with one of my sawmill-owning friends for when this one gives up the ghost. That large canker on the trunk will girdle it in the next year or two. It’s about 12” DBH which is a remarkable size for one of these to make it to before the blight gets the upper hand. With a little luck I hope to harvest some burs from it next month.
(You may have already answered this in here somewhere...) But - how big does the american chestnut commonly get up to these days, before the blight gets them? I never think to look for them but I'm interested to keep an eye out.
The young trees have smooth bark getting more furrowed with age. In a way they remind me a lot of aspen; the further up the tree you go, the smoother the bark gets. You can see the furrows starting here close to the base of the trees. Unfortunately once the furrows start, it opens up cracks in the bark which become entry points for the blight fungus.
My childhood home was late 1700's construction (the original portion of the house anyways). Old center-hall colonial. The original floors are Chestnut slabwood, most of them 18"+ wide. I wonder if the beams under the house are too?
Good possibility, especially if Chestnut was abundant in the local area where the house was built. Chestnut is notoriously strong and lightweight compared to other hardwoods, so perfect for applications like carrying beams.
Same here. It was never known as a premier lumber like quarter sawn white oak, cherry or walnut, but as a strong, light and durable building material it was hard to beat. This is me back in the 80s poking my head out of a barn that was mostly chestnut. I don’t know when it was built, but the aerial view from 1934 shows it and to this day it’s still there.
This is the All Saints Episcopal church located in Linville NC (near Boone). It was built in 1910 almost entirely out of chestnut timber with chestnut bark shingles (look at the interior walls).
Thanks for sharing I know there are quite a few churches, barns and other structures still standing today that were built from chestnut, but never heard of any where the bark was used for interior walls.
My apologies, I don't know how but somehow I missed your question. I've found more of these trees than I could possibly count in the last 3 or so years. Most are stuck in the understory of a more mature forest, starving for sunlight, and the typical sprout is anywhere from 3/8" diameter to an inch or two. That's what you'll normally see when you find one. They've more or less been relegated to the role of an understory shrub. It's fairly common around here to see them in the 3-6" range on sites with good growing conditions. I've found a couple dozen or so in the 7-10" category, a couple 12" and one 14" tree. But I haven't been everywhere. I've seen pictures of surviving trees on top of the Appalachian ridges in Pennsylvania that were 2' diameter or more, and several trees of that stature in that stand. Throughout the historical range, found sporadically, certain individuals live long enough to become respectable trees. My favorite places to check for them (other than sunny roadsides) are in areas that were harvested for timber in the last 2-10 years. In full sun with little competition they quickly shoot skyward for a few years before the blight eventually finds its way inside. These trees won't reproduce unless the canopy is getting full sun. Only then will the tree flower and bear nuts. To complicate this limitation, the trees are not self-fertile. They need the pollen of another flowering individual close by to make fertile nuts that could produce new trees. To make matters worse, factoring in animal predation of any trees lucky enough to produce fertile nuts, and the chances are extremely slim for finding trees that are naturally reproducing in the wild. But if you're ever in a forest that's been around since the early 1900s, you might find some sprouts. If you're in a spot with oaks, beeches, mountain laurel or rhododendron, or pitch pines, you're in chestnut habitat. They like slightly acidic, dry well-drained sandy soil and southern facing hillsides. I've found them in the lowlands too, but mountain ridges are where they were king of the forest.
I had this chunk of firewood-sized Chinese chestnut kicking around so I decided to see if I could saw it on the vertical bandsaw into something useful. Honestly, looking at the grain I’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this and American chestnut wood. It even smells very similar. Granted the Chinese species are an orchard tree that don’t grow tall and straight, which is why they were never cultivated here for timber. I’ll add this to the chestnut wood hoard nevertheless.
Our soil & water office is offering Hybrid Chestnuts for sale this year. I noticed them on the list when I ordered some white pine saplings. I bought a dozen chestnutes from them a decade or so ago and planted them in a couple different locations around the property. None of them made it. Surely my fault as I did not give them anything beyond a good watering when I planted them. 3 of them made it to about 5' height then just didn't sprout buds again one year, dried up and died.
I'll have to start looking out for them. We're covered in "hells" of rhododendron and mountain laurel. Plenty of oaks too.
