Barry: I hope I don't ever feel any shame for using perfectly good white pines to build my timber frame house.
Tim On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 9:23 PM, Barry Caselli <[email protected]>wrote: > To me it seems a terrrible shame to waste a perfectly good dogwood tree to > make a walking stick. > > --- On *Sat, 10/31/09, [email protected] <[email protected]>* wrote: > > > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: [ENTS] What's the hardest hardwood walking stick examples > To: [email protected] > Date: Saturday, October 31, 2009, 11:21 AM > > > ENTS: > > Of all the smaller eastern trees I would give dogwood, Cornus florida a > vote for one of the hardest woods. Over the years I have used all sorts of > woods for walking sticks and I have found that dogwood does not split or > splinter like hickory and it doesn't shred or warp like hophornbeam. > Hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, seems to be fairly soft, it is easy to cut > with a knife it splits extremely easily and it will rot while you are > looking at it. > > Ostrya viginiana, hophornbeam splits extremely easily and warps very > badly. > > Walking sticks made out of dogwood never split on the point end and with > daily use will wear at a rate of less than half an inch a year. Nothing > else compares in terms of wear and no tree I have tried for a walking stick > has been more stable than dogwood is once it has seasoned. > > Oak and ash walking sticks break much easier than dogwood and are much > heavier > > If you make a walking stick out of dogwood it is best to dig out the entire > tree and trim the roots with loppers. The best size tree is, usually about > 1" in diameter and has a straight stem for at least four feet above the root > collar. Carve the handle out of the root ball. You can almost always get a > very comfortable hook to it. In my walks around the steep hills of WV a > dogwood walking stick has become my third leg....the one that never slips. > > When freshly, cut a dogwood tree can be carved into a walking stick with > just a jack knife but once it dries it is like trying to carve bone. > > When completely dried the wood is very light, which would mean it is weak > if one of the measures of strength is density. > > The walking stick in the photo is over five years old. The patina that > develops from long term use makes it very comfortable to hold and after > several years of use it becomes a fairly reliable tool.....that hook on the > end is extremely helpful to pull the tip of a 10' high limb down close > enough to tie plastic ribbon when you are marking a trail in dense brush. > > Other woods may be slightly harder in certain uses but nothing I've > encountered compares to the utility of a dogwood tree. > > > Russ > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Timothy Zelazo <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Sat, Oct 31, 2009 1:52 pm > Subject: [ENTS] Re: What's the hardest hardwood? > > Carpinus caroliniana is American hornbeam (bluebeech, water beech) and > Ostrya virginiana is Eastern hophornbeam and had the common name "ironwood" > often applied to this species. The Textbook of Dendrology by Harlow and > Harrar Fifth Edition published by McGraw-Hill. This was the info they were > pushing over thirty years ago when I studied forestry. The two trees look > very different in the forest. > > On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 1:36 PM, Josh Kelly > <[email protected]<http://us.mc544.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]> > > wrote: > >> >> Don, >> >> On the contrary, I think I noted hop hornbeam (Ostrya virgiana) in my >> earlier post. >> >> Josh >> >> On Oct 31, 1:11 pm, DON BERTOLETTE >> <[email protected]<http://us.mc544.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]>> >> wrote: >> > Josh- >> > >> > I guess that 'ironwood' (aka eastern hophornmeam, American hornbeam, >> Ostrya virginiana; member of the Betulaceae), member of the doesn't rate in >> this exotic group? >> > >> > -Don >> > >> . Learn more.http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pc-scout/default.aspx? >> CBID=wl&ocid=P.<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pc-scout/default.aspx?%0ACBID=wl&ocid=P.> >> .. >> >> > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
