Awesome mantle. I love the history. That grain is unique, I like she really gets tight as it grows. I have a really nice chestnut pie cupboard that I bought in Maine. It was from the 1700's they thought. The plank is over 12" wide. Really is a treasure.
I didn't proof read my last post. There was a 2 foot diameter hole in the center. I fell the stob. That is what we call a tree that broke off. I could age the hurricane force winds that broke that tree off . It blew down a big patch of timber on that hill side just out of Coffman Cove . on Prince of Wales Island. The under story trees were released and took off growing. And seedling trees that were on the root wad of the uprooted, blow down took off growing. When I fell them , some were 24 " dia on the stump and 100' tall. I had to climb up the old root wads to fall them. Had to put a couple spring boards in to have a place to stand to fall a few of them. I counted the rings on the trees growing on top of the root wads , so I was able to age the event. Within 20 years or so. I was bushlin , so any time spent not in the cut really dropped my pay. But I had been cutting for 9 months steady and was happy to give up part of a days pay to learn something interesting.
Tomorrow, if I can remember to , I'll angle cut a 5" dia poplar and count rings. I remember rudely laughing at someone in Salcha than was moaning they were cutting old growth trees . When they cut the right of way for the train bridge over the Tanana. They said , well they are ancient, over 100 years old . That whole area was logged off for firewood for the paddle wheel steamers and cabin logs in the 1890s~1910 or so.
I've seen lots of popple in the north and the south and can say there is a big difference in what you have up there. Your's is better.
Here is the only good picture that I have of a red oak that me and Scotty Overkill cut down for an elderly gentleman. It was 4' at the butt. We cut a couple of cookies for some guys that wanted to make coffee tables. The one guy that I gave it to said that it had 87 rings. Boy that tree really had a good source of water because after we made the cut it looked like someone poured a gallon of water over the stump! That's a 42" bar on Scotty Overkill's 1957 Stihl Contra. That thing is a beast to run and it's a non-av so that makes it all the worse!
In order, spruce (farm tree), white pine (forest), red oak (twisted up yard bird), and black Locust (lake side.) Love the stories behind these posts! Being in Massachusetts, nearly every inch of land has been cut at one time or another, but on the flip side of that is that some areas haven't been cut in a couple+ hundred years. It's an interesting mix up here.
The rings on that tree are as big, as that saw that brought it down. The color of the oak is specular, I am not sure I have seen a red oak that red. Thanks.
The growth rings on red oak are something to behold. I picked up pallets, beams that were 8 feet long. The smell of them on the other hand...
My cousin over a "Footlong Milling" milled the logs (he worked out a deal with the property owner for the logs), he said that the grain tiger striping and grain was spectacular. A guy came by and gave him a $1.50 per board foot green!
