Turpentine was produced by distilling the pitch or “gum” from living pine trees. Workers would cut V-shaped galleries into the side of a pine tree and place a reservoir at the point of the V to collect the sap as it flowed from the wounds. Reservoirs were simply hollows carved into the base of the tree. These were called “chop boxes”. Chop boxes gave way to clay collection cups during the second decade of the 1900s, and these were in turn replaced by tin cups.
In South Carolina, turpentine trees were worked from March though October or November. One V-cut was added each week during the season, creating a chevron effect or “face” on the side of the tree. Old stumps and sometimes even living trees can still be found with the characteristic turpentine scars. The collection cups were emptied of gum every three weeks. Barrels of crude gum were then hauled to a turpentine distillery (“still”) to be rendered into turpentine and various by-products.
Barn Raising
A large amount of preparation is done before the one to two days a barn raising requires. Lumber and hardware are laid in, plans are made, ground is cleared, and tradesmen are hired. Materials are purchased or traded for by the family who will own the barn once it is complete. Generally, participation is mandatory for community members. These participants are not paid. All able-bodied members of the community are expected to attend. Failure to attend a barn raising without the best of reasons leads to censure within the community. Some specialists brought in from other communities for direction or joinery may be paid, however. One or more people with prior experience or with specific skills are chosen to lead the project. Older people who have participated in many barn raisings are crew chiefs. On the whole, the affair is well organized. At most barn raisings, the community members have raised barns before and approach the task with experience both in the individual tasks and the necessary organization. Young people participating physically for the first-time have watched many barn raisings and know what is expected of them. Only certain specialists are permitted to work on the more critical jobs, such as the joinery and Dowling of the beams. (Post and beam construction is the traditional method of construction in barn raisings.) There is competition for these jobs, and they are sought after. Workers are differentiated by age and gender: men construct the barn, women provide water and food, the youngest children watch, and older boys are assigned to fetch parts and tools. Most barn raisings were accomplished in June and July when the mostly agrarian society members had time between planting season and harvest season. Timber for the framing was mostly produced in the winter by the farmer and his crew hewing logs to the correct shape with axes or felling the trees and bringing them to a sawmill. The barns were typically raised within a couple of days, which was another reason neighbors helped one another, as a farmer could not be gone from his own farm for any great length of time. There was usually a job for everybody; the older boys would help the older men, and the wives and daughter's would help with the meals and take care of the younger children. When the barn was complete, they would have a big celebration including a big meal and barn dance.
Dovetails
The name “dovetail” comes from the appearance of the joint, resembling the triangle shape of a bird's tail. The earliest examples are from furniture placed with mummies in Egypt thousands of years ago, and also in the burials of ancient Chinese emperors.
For thousands of years, a dovetail joint was created by a skilled cabinetmaker using small, precision saws and wood chisels. Tiny angled saw cuts were followed by careful cutting by a sharpened chisel on both sides to avoid splintering. One board had tiny “tails,” and the other had the larger “pins,” carefully measured to match and fit together exactly. When the joint is expertly executed, it is a thing of beauty, and a secure joining of two boards that can last for centuries. A little glue cements the connection, and a good dovetail joint has great strength and durability.
How wood was once harvested:
Lumberjacks worked in lumber camps and often lived a migratory life, following timber harvesting jobs as they opened. They also had to take a long time to move the logs from place to place, because of low technology. Being a lumberjack was seasonal work. Lumberjacks were exclusively men. They usually lived in bunkhouses or tents. Common equipment included the axe and crosscut saw. Lumberjacks could be found wherever there were vast forests to be harvested and a demand for wood. In the U.S., many lumberjacks were of Scandinavian ancestry, continuing the occupation of their parents and grandparents. American lumberjacks were first centered in northeastern states such as Maine and then followed the general westward migration on the continent to the Upper Midwest, and finally the Pacific Northwest. Stewart Holbrook documented the rise and eventual westward migration of the classic American lumberjack in his first book, Holy Old Mackinaw: A Natural History of the American Lumberjack, and often wrote colorfully about lumberjacks in his subsequent books, romanticizing them as hard-drinking, hard-working men. Logging camps were slowly phased out between World War II and the early 1960s as crews could by then be transported to remote logging sites in motor vehicles. The division of labor in lumber camps led to several specialized jobs on logging crews, such as whistle punk, chaser, and high climber. The whistle punk's job was to sound a whistle as a signal to the yarder operator controlling the movement of logs and act as a safety lookout, and a good whistle punk had to be alert and think fast as the safety of the others depended on him. The high climber (also known as a tree topper) used iron climbing hooks and rope to ascend a tall tree in the landing area of the logging site, where he would chop off limbs as he climbed, chop off the top of the tree, and finally attach pulleys and rigging to the tree so it could be used as a spar so logs could be skidded into the landing. High climbers and whistle punks were both phased out in the 1960s to early 1970s when portable steel towers replaced spar trees and radio equipment replaced steam whistles for communication. The choker setters attached steel cables (or chokers) to downed logs so they could be dragged into the landing by the yarder. The chasers removed the chokers once the logs were at the landing. Choker setters and chasers were often entry-level positions on logging crews, with more experienced loggers seeking to move up to more skill-intensive positions such as yarder operator and high climber, or supervisory positions such as hooktender. Despite the common perception that all loggers cut trees, the actual felling and bucking of trees were also specialized job positions done by fallers and buckers. Fallers and buckers were once two separate job titles but are now combined. During the era before modern diesel or gasoline powered equipment, what machinery existed was steam-powered, and animal- or steam-powered skidders could be used to haul harvested logs to nearby railroads for shipment to sawmills. Horse driven logging wheels was a means used for moving logs out of the woods. Another way for transporting logs to sawmills was to float them down a body of water or a specially-constructed log flume. Log rolling, the art of staying on top of a floating log while "rolling" the log by walking, was another skill much in demand among lumberjacks. Spiked boots known as "caulks" or "corks" were used for log rolling and often worn by lumberjacks as their regular footwear. The term "skid row", which today means a poor city neighborhood frequented by homeless people, originated in a way in which harvested logs were once transported. Logs could be "skidded" down hills or along a corduroy road, and one such street in Seattle was named Skid Road. This street later became frequented by people down on their luck, and both the name and its meaning morphed into the modern term.
Old Sawmills
The saw mill has an interesting history, dating back at least 2000 years in Roman days and even earlier in Egypt, Greece and China. (The early ones were the narrow blade, up and down saws (when they were run by power), and then earlier by pit and also scaffold on ground operated by two men.
Onbashira
Have you ever wanted to sit on an enormous tree trunk and slide out of control down the side of a mountain? What a ridiculous question—of course you have. During the Onbashira festival that occurs every six years in Japan, they do just that—and have been for the last 1,200 years. The trunks are used as pillars at the corners of local shrines, but custom dictates they be replaced every time the Chinese zodiac year of the monkey or tiger rolls around (yes, even though they’re Japanese).
The logs are chosen from fir trees, which are felled and dragged by hand to their destination. When a slope is reached, local men hop aboard and careen to the bottom to test their bravery. The process is as dangerous as it sounds, with people regularly being injured and killed. Despite this, it’s incredibly popular, attracting over half a million attendees. The dramatic hill riding is just one part of the several-month process of moving the logs, which is filled with numerous festivities.
Drugs From Trees
You might know that aspirin was originally developed from willow bark, but it’s certainly not the only plant-related drug. As with all plants, trees are a rich source of various biological compounds, so it makes sense that we’d be able to find a few chemicals that are useful to us. Some chemotherapy drugs are made from yew clippings, and if you live in the UK and have a yew tree you aren’t using, you can even donate some of it.
Another drug produced from trees is ecstasy. In Cambodia, a tree known as “mreah prew phnom,” which has no common English name, has become critically endangered due to the illegal drug trade. Four of the trees produce a barrel of safrole oil, an ingredient that is synthesized into pills in laboratories.
The process is dangerous—the distilleries needed to extract oil from the trees’ roots are known to explode. In addition, the environmental impact is devastating. Not only is the tree critically endangered, but the the Cambodian forests being stripped are host to other threatened species, such as the Asian elephant, a concern that oddly seems to have slipped the minds of ferocious drug cartels.
Different cuts from a tree
Most Dangerous Tree
There’s an official Guinness World Record for “World’s Most Dangerous Tree,” and it’s held by the manchineel tree from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The manchineel’s bark is covered in sap that causes skin to blister and can blind a person if it gets in their eyes. Even standing under the tree in the rain can cause blisters because the sap will drip onto skin.
The tree’s fruit, known as the “beach apple” or “death apple,” is slightly sweet but very painful to eat. Ulceration of the mouth and esophagus will occur from just a small bite and consumption can be lethal. Smoke from burning manchineel wood can cause blindness, and the sap has historically been used to coat arrows for hunting. Today it’s an endangered species in Florida.
Japanese Miracle Pine
The town of Rikuzentakata, on the east coast of Japan, was almost completely destroyed during the 2011 tsunami. Though the town was home to fewer than 30,000 people, over 2,000 were killed there, a tenth of the tsunami’s total victims. Before the disaster, the town’s coastline was home to 70,000 pine trees, which were designated an official “Place of Scenic Beauty.” After the wave hit, only a single tree remained alive.
The 250-year-old pine, naturally dubbed a “miracle,” survived the initial destruction, but exposure to salt water killed its roots. Experts removed the tree and created synthetic roots, along with a metal skeleton, to keep it alive. The tree served as a symbol of hope for the shattered community, and the town’s mayor, made a widower by the tsunami, was quoted as saying, “the miracle pine gave us the strength and hope to carry on living.”
Tree Poaching
Stealing trees has got to be a hassle. Trees are quite large, and if they’re not, then they’re hardly worth stealing in the first place. You need resources to steal a tree, yet it’s a surprisingly common crime for one reason: Wood is big money.
A report from 1996 showed that $1 million worth of lumber was stolen each month in Washington State alone. More recently, thieves in Canada stole a massive, 800-year-old cedar tree in a heist that required heavy-duty logging equipment. This wasn’t an isolated incident, and it’s a big problem for US national parks.
Science, as usual, has provided a handy tool for catching these thieves. As living organisms, trees have DNA fingerprints the same way people do. Investigators in Indiana were able to match the DNA of a stump to logs at a lumber mill. Unfortunately, many land owners don’t notice their trees have gone missing for a long time, so poachers are unlikely to be put off.
Moon Trees
In 1971, astronaut Stuart Roosa took 500 seeds aboard Apollo 14 as part of his personal luggage. In his earlier life, Roosa had been a smoke jumper, someone who parachutes into burning forests to fight fires (people with the balls of astronauts had to find something to do before space travel came along).
The US Forestry Service gave the seeds to Roosa to take with him because of his earlier career. The seeds orbited the moon 34 times aboard Apollo 14′s command module—Roosa never walked on the moon himself. When he returned to Earth, the seeds were planted, and five years later, saplings were sent all around the country (and even overseas) as part of American bicentennial celebrations.
Shortly after that, everyone forgot about them. It wasn’t until 1997 that they were rediscovered—by a bunch of schoolkids. Cannelton Elementary School in Indiana had a tree on their grounds with a “Moon Tree” plaque, but no idea what that meant. They called NASA, and no one there had any idea either. Their inquiries prompted scientist Dave Williams to do some digging, and he was able to root out the tree’s history. He’s since collected details on over 50 of them. There are likely hundreds more around the world, so if you know of any, you can email him and help reconstruct a piece of history.
For those of you seeking the key to tree superpowers and thinking “outer space,” we’re sorry to inform you that the moon trees have been compared with trees from their sibling seeds that never left Earth and found to be no different.
The Bunya Pine
The Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) found mostly in Queensland Australia is a pine tree known to drop its large cones which can weigh up to 10 kg (about 20lbs) onto unsuspecting people. It has been known to kill and injure people before.
River Red Gum (Eucalyptus)
The River Red Gum (Eucalytus camaldulensis) found throughout south eastern Australia along it's waterways is also a very dangerous tree in it likes to shed it's large limbs at random. Usually in perfect fine weather and night time. The problem is they dot camping sites and the only warning you may get on a perfectly still night is a loud crack before several tonnes of tree limb crushes your tent or caravan. It seems at least every summer a story will appear on the news of a tragedy or near miss.
1. In 1872, trained forester William Ferguson, reported a fallen Mountain Ash, which was 18 feet in diameter and 435 feet long.
2.The world’s tallest living standing hardwood tree, is a Mountain Ash named Centurion which is located in Tasmania, Australia. It is approximately 329 foot 8 3/4 inches tall.
3.The tree with the widest {diameter} tree trunk in the world is an African Baobab. Its trunk diameter is almost 49 foot, it has a circumference of 155 foot and is 72 foot tall.
4.The tree with the world’s greatest recorded tree circumference {girth} is the Santa Maria del Tule, an Montezuma Cypress. As the trunk of the tree is not circular in shape but in reality has a distorted and irregular shape, you can’t multiply the diameter by 3.14159 {pi} and come up with its true approximate circumference {girth} which is in excess of 160 foot. It is approximately 141 foot tall and over 2000 years old.
5.The blackest wood in the world is Ebony.
6.The whitest wood in the world is Holly. The Silver Striped Holly seems to produce the whitest wood of all the species of Holly. To produce the whitest wood, the best time to cut down Holly trees is in the winter when the sap is lower, and then mill and kiln dry it before summer.
7.The world’s longest solid wood/lumber board {no lamination}, is a piece of Ancient Kauri. It is approximately 40 foot in length and has an estimated worth of $100,000.00.
8.The world’s widest solid wood/lumber board {no lamination}, is a piece of Figured Claro Walnut. At its narrowest width, it is 56 inches and at its widest width, it is 74 inches. It is 3 3/16 inches thick, 12 foot 6 inches long and has an estimated worth of $10,500.00.
9.Osage Orange is the species of wood that produces the most heat when burned.
10.The most recently discovered tree specie is the Wollemi Pine. It was discovered in September 1994, by, a New South Wales National Parks officer named David Noble in a secluded area in the Blue Mountains of the Wollemi National Park, approximately 124 miles west of Sydney Australia.
11.White Oak is the species of wood that is easiest to steam bend. With thin stock you can bend it, into an extremely small radius.
12.Palm Sunday was named after the Palm tree because people took branches of Palm trees with them to greet Jesus Christ in Jerusalem.
13.The world’s tallest living uncut decorated Christmas tree is a Douglas Fir. It is approximately 160 foot tall, lighted with over 50,000 LED lights and is located in Blue River, Oregon USA.
14.To date, the world’s tallest cut down and decorated Christmas tree was a Fir of 212 foot. It was used to celebrate the Christmas of 1950 in the city of Seattle, Washington USA.
15.The world’s shortest tree specie is the Dwarf Willow. It is rare to find one more than 2 1/2 inches tall. They are also dioecious, producing both male, yellow colored and female, red colored catkins. They have been found growing on frozen tundra in the Arctic.
16.The tree specie with the thickest bark is the Redwood, its bark can be up to 24 inches thick.
17.The tree specie with the thickest bark other than a Redwood, is the Coast Douglas Fir tree. On the older trees, the bark can be 8 – 12 inches thick.
18.The tree specie that produces the largest cones is the Sugar Pine, ranging in size from 12 to 24 inches in length and 4 to 5 inches in diameter.
19.Lignin is the substance found in wood that helps determine how hard the wood will be. The more Lignin present, the harder the wood and vice versa, the less present, the softer the wood.
20.The bark of the Cork Oak is used to produce cork wine stoppers and flooring. The species grows in Northwest Africa and Southwest Europe with Algeria, Morocco, Portugal and Spain, manufacturing the majority of the world’s supply.
21.Up until a few years ago, the world’s oldest living tree, a Bristlecone Pine, named the Methuselah was located in the Great Basin National Park, California. It is approximately 4,844 years old. It is also the tallest living {55 foot} Bristlecone Pine.
22.With John White’s refined measurement techniques of today, The Lime in the Silkwood at Westonbirt Arboretum (Near Tetbury, Gloucester, U.K.) is probably around 6000 years old.
23.The Fortingall Yew, in Glen Lyon, Perthshire, Scotland, might be as much as 9000 years old. The usual way of calculating a trees age by counting the annual rings in the trunk or by carbon dating, are not accurate when it comes to Yews because a Yews trunk tends to hollow with age, while it continues to grow by rooting its branches and wrapping them around itself. There is even documentation of the formation of aerial roots growing inside the hollow trunk. Another reason are Yews have been known to stop growing for long periods of time, {documented 325 years}, thus having no growth rings for that period.
24.John White’s method of estimating a tree’s age is by measuring its trunk circumference approximately 5 feet from ground level. He had access to and studied more than 100,000 tree measurements and multitudes of growth ring patterns from broken or cutoff stumps and concluded that growth rings are closer together on the outside portion of the stump. His technique shows that trees grow at different rates in the three phases of their lifetime, Formative, Middle Age and Senescence (Old Age}. With the evidence he has compiled, tables of expected growth, relative to trunk size have been made for numerous common trees.
25.There are two types of trees that it is impossible to tell how old they are by counting their growth rings. Trees produce growth rings because of the distinguishable temperature changes that occur over a yearly cycle causing their growth to slow down and speed up. Trees in certain tropical regions that have a consistent year round climate where growth is ongoing do not form pronounced growth rings. Trees that are endogenous, the majorities of which is some specie of Palm tree, which grow by adding new material inwards, do not produce growth rings.
26.In 1964, after his coring tool broke and getting permission from the U.S. Forest Service, a research scientist to get an accurate age measurement cut down a Bristlecone Pine, in Great Basin National Park, since named Prometheus! It turned out the tree was over 4,950 years old making it older than the Bristlecone Pine named Methuselah, which at the time was 4,803 years old. He had not only found the oldest living thing on the planet, but he had also killed it. A cross-section of the tree is on view at the Great Basin National Parks, visitor center in California.
27.The world’s largest divided tree leaf to date was growing on a West African Raphia Palm. When measured, it was approximately 82 foot in length. Note: Only a very small percentage of tree species in the world have divided leaves.
28.The tree specie with the largest undivided leaves is the Bigleaf Magnolia. The leaves are 7 to 12 inches wide and 12 to 32 inches long.
29.The lightest American wood is Corkwood Florida. Its average weight/density/specific gravity is .21. It is native to the southeastern United States especially Florida.
30.The heaviest American wood is Lignum Vitae Holywood. Its average weight / density / specific gravity is 1.31. It is native to southern Florida.
31.The lightest wood in the world or on earth is Southeast Asain Indian Sola Wood. Its average weight / density / specific gravity is .044.
32.The heaviest wood in the world or on earth is Australian Bauhinia Red. Its average weight / density / specific gravity is 1.372.