You gonna need a bigger boat

[peakbagger]

To quite Chief Brody from Jaws, the tree guy needs to get some bigger gear for this white pine. The height from the ground up the first live branches is about 50 feet and the base is five feet across. Not sure of the term (choker) but the rope that he wraps around the tree to work his way up with spikes was too short to get around the tree. He had an 28 foot extension ladder and he still could not get around it. He needs to order a longer one. The tree is 116 feet tall but the weevil got at the terminal shoot as it grew on occasion especially in the crown so its not straight. In my area its a big second growth white pine. Its leaning away from where I was standing and if it was cut at the base the upper third would hit a bunch of utility lines, Power, phone, cable and three sets of fiber optic lines. Once he gets the right gear, he will climb it, strip the branches and then work down the tree until its short enough to drop. He did a smaller red oak this morning that was hanging out over a road and did a nice job.

Hopefully the pine has got good wood in it, although I am going to need to noodle it into pieces to get it small enough to fit my friend's sawmill. When it is down it will be interesting to count rings although I think its a fast growing "pasture pine" for some of its life. I have another one buried in the interior of my wood lot with about 10" more diameter but it looks like it was hit hard by lighting at one time and there is rot at the base. Luckily if it ever comes down it will not hit anything but will probably wake the neighbors up.
but for my area

 

[EatenByLimestone]

They were all pasture pines to start with. I read somewhere they need grass as a nurse plant at first.

 

[Simonkenton]

My hat is off to the guys who climb trees with chain saws. Dangerous work.

 

[Woody Stover]

the base is five feet across...116 feet tall

If he can get that one down, that might be enough wood to build that 'bigger boat!'
In a tree that big, is the wood a bit more dense than it would be in an average-size White Pine?
"Average" size here is way smaller than what you see up there, I'm sure; I don't think they like the heat, and strong storms also get a lot of em before they get real big. There are a couple areas here where residents grow a lot of Pines, and some of them are decent-sized...maybe 60 ft. or more.
I think there's some beetle that gets em here as well. We had two Red Pine(?) in the front--only one is left, and it has just a little spindly growth at the top left.

 

[peakbagger]

I really am unsure what the grain will be like. White pine is usually fairly wide grained as if the soil conditions are right and they have a lot of sun, they can put on a lot of growth every season. My guess is this one was an odd ball that grew up in a mostly hardwood stand so it had to fight to get up to the sun initially, but my guess is subsequently the surrounding hardwoods were cut for firewood (way too rocky for farming) and then the pine had lots of sun to form a big crown and started get big fast. One of the standing "jokes" about old houses in New England is that wide white pine boards were used for sub floors and attics, it was cheap and easy to saw. I have seen 2' plus wide boards in attics. Modern folks see that wide wood and want it for finish floors but its not a good idea. The problem is that the wide summer wood in the grain sucks in humidity and expands width wise a lot in the summer and shrinks in the winter. So put in a kiln dried white pine subfloor with tight joints in the summer and in the winter there will be 3/8" gaps in between the boards. Folks do not like cracks in floors so they fill in the cracks and then in the summer the board will re-expand and either pop the filler out or cup the boards. It also tended to be sawn flat regardless of grain so quarter sawn boards are rare. The grain is usually unequal top to bottom and they want to cup big time as the humidity changes.

It was great for sheathing and subfloors before air infiltration became an issue but as one recent member has found while trying to insulate his exterior sills, filling in all the those cracks is a PITA.

I would consider using it for roof sheathing as air infiltration is not an issue in a typical ventilated attic. It is not so good for wall sheathing as a board wall has far less diagonal bracing than sheets of plywood. To get around that issue diagonal braces were built into the wall framing. Even then from an air infiltration perspective its a lot more cracks to seal. They could grow tall and straight if the weevil did not get them and that is why the English claimed all the big ones prior to the revolution for masts for their ships.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I don't think I've seen any of the twisted grain or any of the visual oddities that can be seen in hardwoods. Just knots.

 

[EbS-P]

To quite Chief Brody from Jaws, the tree guy needs to get some bigger gear for this white pine. The height from the ground up the first live branches is about 50 feet and the base is five feet across. Not sure of the term (choker) but the rope that he wraps around the tree to work his way up with spikes was too short to get around the tree. He had an 28 foot extension ladder and he still could not get around it. He needs to order a longer one. The tree is 116 feet tall but the weevil got at the terminal shoot as it grew on occasion especially in the crown so its not straight. In my area its a big second growth white pine. Its leaning away from where I was standing and if it was cut at the base the upper third would hit a bunch of utility lines, Power, phone, cable and three sets of fiber optic lines. Once he gets the right gear, he will climb it, strip the branches and then work down the tree until its short enough to drop. He did a smaller red oak this morning that was hanging out over a road and did a nice job.

Hopefully the pine has got good wood in it, although I am going to need to noodle it into pieces to get it small enough to fit my friend's sawmill. When it is down it will be interesting to count rings although I think its a fast growing "pasture pine" for some of its life. I have another one buried in the interior of my wood lot with about 10" more diameter but it looks like it was hit hard by lighting at one time and there is rot at the base. Luckily if it ever comes down it will not hit anything but will probably wake the neighbors up.
but for my area
View attachment 312579

If I was around I’d offer to help!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Is that a poplar?

 

[EbS-P]

Is that a poplar?

yes. I can pull a 43” cut with a 52” bar. Pine would probably be harder than the poplar.

 

[Woody Stover]

Is that a poplar?

Sure looks like Tulip to me. They grow pretty straight as well, but I don't know if they would make a mast out of it..?

 

[EbS-P]

Sure looks like Tulip to me. They grow pretty straight as well, but I don't know if they would make a mast out of it..?

Not if you had pine. Tulip poplar just isn’t very strong. Density is really low.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Yeah,I don't think I've ever heard of it being used repeatedly for anything other than secondary wood in drawers./furniture. I'm sure there are lots of things that it has been used for, I'm just trying to think of a spot that long, clear boards are a benefit, but that doesn't have ground contact and there isn't a convenient wood that's better for it. If there's no other wood available, poplar be used for everything.

Thered be lots of traditional uses for big sheets of the bark.

I'm thinking it'd be decent as shingle and clapboard barn siding. It'd dry out pretty fast and any rot that eventually happened could be easily replaced with a flat bar and hammer. Itd split like a dream. You could set a medium sized child aside with a froe and they could easily split out the shingles. Itd be decent winter work if you had a barn framed up, but not sided.

 

[stoveliker]

Dutch clogs are made of poplar (or willow). Soft, easy to hollow out etc.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I did not know that! Makes sense though.

 

[peakbagger]

I have access to a chainsaw mill but his chain and bar is not as long. I think white pine is softer that the local poplar (quaking aspen). The trade off is its loaded with pitch, so everything including the bandsaw mill blades get coated with pitch.

 

[EbS-P]

Yeah,I don't think I've ever heard of it being used repeatedly for anything other than secondary wood in drawers./furniture. I'm sure there are lots of things that it has been used for, I'm just trying to think of a spot that long, clear boards are a benefit, but that doesn't have ground contact and there isn't a convenient wood that's better for it. If there's no other wood available, poplar be used for everything.

Thered be lots of traditional uses for big sheets of the bark.

I'm thinking it'd be decent as shingle and clapboard barn siding. It'd dry out pretty fast and any rot that eventually happened could be easily replaced with a flat bar and hammer. Itd split like a dream. You could set a medium sized child aside with a froe and they could easily split out the shingles. Itd be decent winter work if you had a barn framed up, but not sided.

Wagon and stage coaches. It bends well.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

For the body?

 

[EbS-P]

For the body?

think it was for curved seats but might have been more.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

What a neat profession!

Those side boards sure look like poplar too!

 

[EbS-P]

What a neat profession!

Those side boards sure look like poplar too!

Check out the borax wagon play list. We could re-name the thread “you’re gonna need a bigger wagon”