Strange things you find in wood.

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woodbine

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Cutting up some 30" dbh sycamore a couple of days ago ( after hitting the obligatory couple of nails buried deep under the skin - garden tree) saw a dark stain in the lowest round and decided to split it to see what caused it. In the very center of the round (this was at the base of the tree) was an intact undamaged metal float ball from a toilet ballcock. Why? How?
This wasn't in a crotch but the main trunk. I'm mystified.:monkey:
 
The worst steel I ever ran into was a lawnmower blade buried in the bottom crotch of an old forked mulberry tree. The case hardened steel knocked four teeth off the chain, ruining it forever. Sparks flew. The tree had completely grown around it. Be prepared for anything buried inside residential trees. :bowdown:
 
I actually used a metal detector but it was only one of those you use to find pipes and electric cables behind walls, it only penetrates to about three inches which is fine for anything hammered in fairly recently but not for something put there fifty plus years ago .
 
Gun

Best one that I ever saw was an old flint lock gun that a guy found in a tree. It used to be over the bar in a very small town in NE Iowa. No one knows where the gun came from or how it got there. The local legend was that some very early explorer leaned it on the tree to get a drink from the stream the tree was located by and died or was killed by indians, a bear, or who knows what, and the tree just grew around the gun. Gun was in pretty fair shape considering, and the story of how and when it was found was sort of vague. Don't know if all of this was true, but why ruin a good story with the facts, right? JR
 
for me the weirdest was finding parts of a old moon shine rig. the rig was in a oak tree. it really got me curios. looking around the area to see if there was any thing else,yup found a box with several olddddddddddd bottles of white lighting and a old revolver:hmm3grin2orange:
:cheers:
 
Found a fence post right up the middle of an old elm tree, Never have found a fence post lots of wire tho
 
Cut right through a large nail in the middle of a Manitoba maple in my back yard once all of the sudden my saw stopped cutting I was using my Eager Beaver I forced it to cut another inch of wood then swapped chains that nail was almost a 1/4'' in dia but the saw cut right through it and I was able to save the Sandvick Chain. I have found at least 4 bullets cutting firewood over the years only cut through one the rest were fond splitting the rounds. Two were .270 .277 bullet ya I put the mike on them one was a Cling core soft point made by CIL Canada very unique bullet only made in 160gr .You can tell by the notches about 1/4'' above the base of the bullet only company to do that Was CIL.
 
I worked in a factory that made wood window units in the early sixties and we found a Minie ball in piece of large molding. Part of it was exposed when the piece was shaped. We extracted it and it was a Minie ball like those used in the Civil War. The story behind that would have been interesting. Tom
 
Cement tree

I was taking down an old apple tree for an elderly gent in the neighborhood when things came to a halt with sparks and a dull chain. What the heck???
It was then that he remembered he'd poured cement into the tree to seal a hollow spot. Makes for a good story now but I wasn't real amused at the time.
 
tomdcoker said:
I worked in a factory that made wood window units in the early sixties and we found a Minie ball in piece of large molding. Part of it was exposed when the piece was shaped. We extracted it and it was a Minie ball like those used in the Civil War. The story behind that would have been interesting. Tom
Click to expand...
Funny you should mention black powder I had a neighbor who recently passed away a real shootist if that is a word. He went to many of the big battle scenes of the Civil war to look for stuff he showed me a few slugs he had found.We became friends when he saw my bullet mold collection and borrowed my 250gr 41 mag mold for a few day's. I learned allot from him, Now on the + side have to go introduce myself to his youngest son who moved into his home.
 
superfire said:
for me the weirdest was finding parts of a old moon shine rig. the rig was in a oak tree. it really got me curios. looking around the area to see if there was any thing else,yup found a box with several olddddddddddd bottles of white lighting and a old revolver:hmm3grin2orange:
:cheers:
Click to expand...
Was the shine smooooooth???:greenchainsaw:
 
I know that I posted this in another thread a while back but it seems to fit in here also. I ran my 660 into a horse shoe buried near center of a 32'' yellow birch , hit at wot and busted 5 teeth completely off and ruined the rest any way. Scared the daylights out of me as I thought the saw had exploded from the initial impact to the jump and kick back when the bent teeth jammed against the sides of the cut, the bar nearly came out of the cut and the kick back was severe.Had a purple bruise on the inside front hip area where the rear handle impacted me and walked with a limp for a couple weeks. I pray I never do that again. Pioneerguy600
 
Well... I can tell you one thing... I must have a magnetic personality. If there is metal in a tree, I will find it with a saw.

I have also cut through trunks with cement in them... That was the old way to "stiffen up" a tree with a hollow core...

Gary
 
GASoline71 said:
Well... I can tell you one thing... I must have a magnetic personality. If there is metal in a tree, I will find it with a saw.

I have also cut through trunks with cement in them... That was the old way to "stiffen up" a tree with a hollow core...

Gary
Click to expand...

I went to house to get wood from HUGE oak. It was right next to house and cutter had to rent crane truck took two days to cut down. On first day I was loading truck i seen homeowner crying cause husband wanted it down. On second day tree cutter was crying, previous homeowner filled hollow trunk with cement.12" around and 8' long. OOPS:cheers:
 
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not weird

but when cutting the hollow trees 2 weeks ago i ran into a lot of hand sized rocks at the base, probably thrown in by kids over time.

Maybe a tip when felling, do it a bit higher than normal and clean out the stump before flush cutting.

:cheers:
 
I have hit all kinds of things with the sawmill and chainsaws nails wire chain horseshoes bullets broadheads. The worst is a Glass/ceramic insulator it will ruin your day quick.
 
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