Tobacco barn wood, 1910 growth rings

Slacker

Slacker

Liquor and Whores...
Joined
Dec 17, 2016
Messages
4,014
Location
Mebane NC / Durham NC
Rating - 100%
32   0   0
Pulled this tobacco barn stick out of an old barn on my property. I'm estimating it was built in the 40s or 50s.
The tree was around 30 years old when it was cut based on the rings. That puts its early life around 1910.

Check out the difference in the growth rings. Looks like life started out with plenty of water, then things got dry.
Alternatively, it could have been temperature rather than water availability that slowed its growth.
Either way, stark difference.
Its 6.5" across, just for reference.
@Scsmith42

20181222_105135.jpg
 
Last edited:
Love it. !

The first 9 years it was growing like a weed.
Isn't it amazing that the fibers are still good in that log, 100 years later.

This sill that's on my house, I counted 60+ years. It was put there in 1846 . Puts it around 1786...
Who knows how old it really was, maybe 100+, 150+ ?.. Older than the Revolution Id believe.
And still just as strong. Could be 373 years old.... Blows my mind.


image.jpeg
 
Last edited:
I no longer have this plaque or pistol, but if you look at the right edge of the plaque near the top you can see that most of the plaque is cut from the heart of a heart pine tree. I once counted the rings, just that you can see. Can't remember the number, but that plaque was cut from the old pews of First Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville after they remodeled the church in the late 1960's. Those old pews had been in the church since around 1830.

DSCN0771.JPG
 
Mirac said:
Love it. !

The first 9 years it was growing like a weed.
Isn't it amazing that the fibers are still good in that log, 100 years later.

This sill that's on my house, I counted 60+ years. It was put there in 1846 . Puts it around 1786...
Who knows how old it really was, maybe 100+, 150+ ?.. Older than the Revolution Id believe.
And still just as strong. Could be 373 years old.... Blows my mind.


View attachment 93414
Click to expand...
I worked in an old warehouse for a couple of years while in school with old heart pine beams holding up the roof. It is my understanding that the fire rating for those old wood beams is better than steel beams due to how long it would take for them to burn and collapse.
 
fieldgrade said:
I worked in an old warehouse for a couple of years while in school with old heart pine beams holding up the roof. It is my understanding that the fire rating for those old wood beams is better than steel beams due to how long it would take for them to burn and collapse.
Click to expand...

I can see that, it'd take along time to burn thru a beam for it to collapse,
 
Slacker, I have some cypress live edge slabs in stock that have around 540 growth rings in them. That means that the tree sprouted around the time that Columbus discovered America.

Had to lay a scale on the slabs, photo them zoomed in and then blow the pix up on my computer in order to count some of the rings.

Next time you’re out here I’ll show them to you.
 
Scsmith42 said:
Slacker, I have some cypress live edge slabs in stock that have around 540 growth rings in them. That means that the tree sprouted around the time that Columbus discovered America.

Had to lay a scale on the slabs, photo them zoomed in and then blow the pix up on my computer in order to count some of the rings.

Next time you’re out here I’ll show them to you.
Click to expand...

Very cool. Easy to forget how short lived we are compared to many things around us.
 
This is a close up of a cypress log that had over 1000 growth rings! The stunning thing was that the log was only around 37” diameter and was harvested from approximately 60’ up the trunk.

Enlarged on a computer screen, I counted 88 growth rings between the 3” and 4” marks on the tape measure.

56669A26-190D-4FC0-A89B-744FE768890B.jpeg
 
Last edited:
This is a very cool thread

I was just talking yesterday, at an antique store in Fredricksburg, about old wood/lumber and the age and quality back then vs what you can buy today.
Loving the pics, look forward to more!
 
Awesome thread guys...…...thanks for starting this.
 
Scsmith42 said:
This is a close up of a cypress log that had over 1000 growth rings! The stunning thing was that the log was only around 37” diameter and was harvested from approximately 60’ up the trunk.

Enlarged on a computer screen, I counted 88 growth rings between the 3” and 4” marks on the tape measure.

View attachment 93559
Click to expand...

1000 growth rings = 1000 years?
 
Most likely cause of the difference in the growth rings is available sunlight not water or temp. When trees are young they grow fast competing for sunlight. As they get older they tend to shade each other out hence the slower growth. That is why they plant trees close together now and thin them at a certain age. It maximizes land usage. Trees will actually be stunted in growth if not allowed enough sunlight.
 
Schattenreiter said:
Most likely cause of the difference in the growth rings is available sunlight not water or temp. When trees are young they grow fast competing for sunlight. As they get older they tend to shade each other out hence the slower growth. That is why they plant trees close together now and thin them at a certain age. It maximizes land usage. Trees will actually be stunted in growth if not allowed enough sunlight.
Click to expand...
This is what I was thinking,
 
I remember from somewhere ( PBS show or something) that in some areas they can actually tell a year of the tree because of the rings. Like where they know the local history in respect to when there were floods, drought or fires that affected the local growth and count back. It was interesting.
 
Slacker said:
1000 growth rings = 1000 years?
Click to expand...

Correct. Typically a growth ring is comprised of a light and a dark band. On hardwoods, the light band represents “early wood cells” which are those that grow in the spring and early summer when the nutrition is plentiful. Typically early wood bands are wider than late wood bands, but there are exceptions.

The darker wood bands are late wood cells, which are developed in the summer when the grown rate has slowed. Together they represent one years worth of growth.

So when you’re counting bands on a tree, you’re actually counting each pair of rings (one light, one dark) as one years worth of growth.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom