What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found in your wood when split?

Jimmy Hoffa . . .

Nah, just kidding . . . I haven't found anything of interest while splitting other than grubs and bugs . . . and honestly I would rather only find the bugs and grubs vs. finding nails, spikes, horse shoes, etc.

I did cut down a dead cherry tree last year (and I cannot tell a lie) . . . and unfortunately I didn't realize that there was a chickadee nest in the tree. One fledgling managed to hop/fly away, but the other bird had a problem with its neck. I know it may sound a bit stupid, but I felt so bad . . . the good news is that there is a bird refuge a couple towns over and they were able to rehabilitate the chickadee and let him loose a few weeks later.

Last night I cut through two trees that were grown up together for about two feet. fell the tree just fine (the other one had been taken down last summer, but there was still about three feet of it where they met), then trimmed and bucked it and was ready to cut it off as close to the ground as I could. throwing chips just fine, then suddenly I wasn't getting anywhere. After working and working I finally got a chunk of wood out and I had cut through some wire fence (you know, the old roll fences, not the new panel types) I think I went through about 3 wires, but darned if that wasn't all it took to really dull the heck out of my chain. I only cut about one cord of wood with that new chain. I need a backup chain, so i'm going to the store to get a new one, but I also really wanted to compare a new one to this one, because I'm looking at it thinking it might not be possible to resharpen!! hope I'm wrong.

Note to people, to please spend a the couple of extra bucks for actual fenceposts instead of using trees!

The other day I was moving my wood to winter cover. I throw my splits in my lawn cart and pull them to the storage area. Well as I started unloading, I heard the faintest chirp and I couldn't determine what was making the noise so I continued to stack after I emptied half the cart I found the bat. I tried to grap him and the bugger flew to the top of the garage (15' at the peak). I finally got him carefully out of there (big bug eaters) only to find him in the wood pile the next day.

Assorted bugs like everyone, and a lot of different sizes and shapes of nails - so far just with the splitter... Best one I've heard about was the guy that found a stainless steel maple sugaring tap - in an OAK...

Gooserider

Cannon ball and stage coach wheels in this thread.

http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/38899/

It wasn't in wood I was splitting or in a tree I had cut, but once I pushed over a standing dead tree--- more like a twelve-foot-tall rotten stump---(can't quite remember what kind) and when it hit the ground it broke at a weak spot and about a quart of dessicated mushrooms spilled out. I was feeling sorry for having damaged some squirrel's cache of food, until I walked by the tree a day or two later, and saw that the whole hoard had been removed. All's well that ends well, as they say.

Well I did not catch it while splitting but I found it while burning last night. I Went to reload the stove and while opening door a peice of chicken wire kinda sprungout, it was about 12inches long with a small loop in one end and it was twisted together in the middle. i first thought it was part of my new stove, I went to pull it out and realized it still had a hot coal on the other end, you could see the wire going right into the middle of the coal. so it was definatally not on the surface of the log, more like in the middle somewhere. As soon as I saw I thought of this thread.

good pictures, bats are always neat to look at.

I found a few spot light fixtures & wire. After a little research, I found out that the property the wood came from was formerly a picnic park. I've also found nails, screws, RR Spikes, etc. Although I never found it splitting or cutting, I'm a geocacher. Over on that site, I saw a picture of a Jeep Grill that was being consumed by a tree. It seems like years ago, someone put the grill in the crook of a twin-trunked tree. The tree has begun to consume it. Years from now, THAT will be a big surprize for someone to find.

I cut into a tree limb once and had about a gallon of fluid pour out. I assume rain water had been leaking into the limb and had no place to go. This was and still is a healthy tree (minus that limb).

Anybody who think it's stupid you felt bad about the bird nest is beyond stupid. If you didn't feel bad about accidentally screwing up the lives of innocent creatures, there'd be something wrong with you. I used to work with a bird bander and once had the incredible pleasure of holding a clutch of 9 tiny chickadee nestlings from a single nest in my hands. They're remarkable little birds.

Anytime you cut down a tree in summer, whether it's alive or dead, you're pretty much guaranteed to be taking a few birds' nests with eggs or young with it. Worth considering the timing if you have options about when to cut.

In cutting 80-90 year old Hedge. I found an intire hedge post in the center. Complete with old square barbed wire and staples. Folks would cut hedge post out of green trees and when they stuck them in the ground and they would root and take off into full fledged trees.

Gyrfalcon, what months from/to should we avoid taking trees down?

Specific advice best gotten from your local Audubon society, since you're in a very different region. But up here, early May through the end of August pretty much covers nesting season for most birds. (Avoiding those months has the added benefit of cutting trees only when they've got much less sap in them, too.) The one exception is hawks and owls, some of which start in Feb. and March. Most of those use pretty large nests towards the top of the tree that you can see if you look carefully. Tiny screech owls and larger Barred owls are cavity nesters, though, so you want to keep an eye out for likely holes. You can usually tell if a hole is currently in use by a nester because there will be fairly obvious fresh scratches in the wood at the entrance.

Obviously, the only way to guarantee not cutting down a nest is if you never cut any trees, but it's possible to at least minimize the possibility by being careful and observant. Wouldn't hurt to find out from the Audubon people the contact info for a couple of local bird rehabbers to have on hand just in case.

lets see between firewood and when I used to work at a sawmill in college
Plenty of spiles/spouts/taps in maple trees
Barbed wire and electric fence insulators
An unbelievable amount of bullets, evidently lots of people miss deer around here
The worst are gate hinges, big old cast iron suckers, I've ruined 2 saw chains on one (didn't know it was there), and had the head saw break on one at the mill.

I can understand ruining one chain but why would you go back at it with a second chain?

It was in the middle of a 5ft butt chunk of rock maple, that dulls chains fast anyway. Couldn't see it or the sparks, I was sick of cutting the piece so I slapped a new chain on. Not smart, found the hinge when we split it. I had cut into the iron a ways with the second chain. We rolled the chunk into the splitter and used it to pop the cut apart. Like I said not smart since 24" chains aren't cheap. The tree service guys drop these big chunks off at my father's since most people can't work them and mills won't touch sugar maple butts due to tapping.

found a rusty dog chain wrapped and ingrown into the bark of a big sugar maple ,i found it the hard way! and toasted a brand new 30 dollar stihl chsiel chain within 5 minutes of showing up to the site.what a waste .wasnt even my scrounge i was helping a friend out

Found this old hinge while stirring the ashes this morning. Apologies for the poor cell-cam picture.

Today I split the bottom piece (finally) of my 3-foot oak that came down in the big ice storm, and there was a strand of barbed wire in the very last split. Nothing strange about that, except that it was at the center of the tree. That's some old wire!

Found a pitching horseshoe about 8" in on an old 55" diameter swamp maple

Last year I was bucking up an old red oak and hit a nail. A red hot chunk of the nail came flying up and went right down into my glove. Couldn't get that glove off fast enough. Afterwards someone told me that they used to put no trespassing signs on that same tree for years. Would have been good to know before cutting it!

It's one of the reasons I like gloves that fit snug around the wrist as opposed to the old leather gauntlet style. Hot metal bits are rare, but I always used to get wood chips in mine, which would then work their way down to the finger tips and go under your fingernails the next time you put the gloves on... :ahhh:

IMHO the Atlas rubber coated stretch knit gloves are the most durable and comfortable gloves I've found for machine splitting and general wood handling (they are to "grabby" to work well with an axe or maul) or most other general working tasks - they have a thermal version that is amazingly warm in the winter... I have a Lumberworks pair of chainsaw gloves I got a while back, that are the best I've been able to find for saw use - lots of padding and other nice design, much better than the Husky gloves I see on a lot of saw equipment sites.

Gooserider

was cutting today and found many white grub worms. Then a big black widow spider ran across my hand. Old walnut trees hide many surprises. We cut one down that was filled with old beer bottles. Ironic, because they were the same brand of beer we drink and in a location where we used to have a few. Mother nature is a strange and wonderful animal.

Giant, hard, corrugated, white grubs in yellow pine. If you had to eat them, only a couple would make a meal. :sick: