Possibly most valuable log we've ever sawn!

[Scott Banbury]

This is quite possibly the most valuable log we've ever sawn though we're not exactly sure what it is. Any guesses?

http://www.scottbanbury.com/wolfgum01big.jpg

[Richard Gillespie]

Recovered from underwater in a pre-historic bog? :confused:

[Chris Padilla]

Has it been carbon-dated? ;) No clue what it is.

[Mike Monroe]

black walnut

[Scott Banbury]

Mr. Gillespie, you are very, very warm :)

Chris, this particular one hasn't ($1,100 to test) but others in the same strata have.

Mike, definitely not Walnut but it grows in the same forest type--Delta bottomland.

[Lee DeRaud]

Mr. Gillespie, you are very, very warm :)

Chris, this particular one hasn't ($1,100 to test) but others in the same strata have.

Mike, definitely not Walnut but it grows in the same forest type--Delta bottomland.Just a guess: mangrove?

[Mike Parzych]

I'd say it's the rare Lumpy Wood.

[Scott Banbury]

A better pic of the figure (I thought I had linked another pic in the original post ?) . . .

http://www.scottbanbury.com/wolfgum03big.jpg

[Donnie Raines]

Lignume Vitae

[Scott Banbury]

Lignume Vitae

Thanks for trying, Donnie, but definitely not. It didn't occur in the forest this tree grew in ;)

We will be sawing a 24" diameter 4' long Lignum Vitae log later this month though :cool:

[Donnie Raines]

Teak....olive wood......I give up..... :rolleyes:

[Scott Banbury]

Teak....olive wood......I give up..... :rolleyes:

Donnie! Don't be a quitter :(

Hint, it grew in a 100% native forest in the Mississippi Alluvial Bottomland ;)

[Jim Dannels]

I have to guess, based on color, that it is common but have never seen logs that large in my lifetime.

[Scott Banbury]

I have to guess, based on color, that it is common but have never seen logs that large in my lifetime.

Both of those would occur in the forest it came from.

As for color, we're not sure that it's showing the same colors that it would if freshly felled as it may have absorbed some minerals/metals since it did fall down at the hands of nature.

[Steve Clardy]

Butternut.

[Scott Banbury]

Butternut.

Y'know, I hadn't thought of that--I'll have to check the texts and see if that would have been occuring in this area then.

Butternut's gotten pretty high lately.

I wonder what 10,000 year-old #1 Common would sell for :rolleyes:

[Chris Padilla]

Scott,

I don't think necessarily that the age of the log would make it more valuable. #1 C is #1 C whether 10,000 BC or 2004 AD. :) Still, it is a heckuva provenance and that could make it valuable, too! :)

[Martin Lutz]

China berry or hack berry. I have some china berry with similar figure. I also have some "mystery wood" with like colors that came from the bottom of a pond in e. Texas. I think it is willow but the colors are amazing. I think due to the minerals in the pond. Your log looks to be about 12 to 14" dia. Correct?

[Lee DeRaud]

I'd say it's the rare Lumpy Wood."Rare"?!? Not around here....:cool:

[Scott Banbury]

Scott,

I don't think necessarily that the age of the log would make it more valuable. #1 C is #1 C whether 10,000 BC or 2004 AD. :) Still, it is a heckuva provenance and that could make it valuable, too! :)

Provenance is what I'm thinking too, Chris ;)

I don't think anything short of a medical emergency (knock on 10,000 year-old wood) could make me sell it . . .

Until I make something outta it, that is :D

[Scott Banbury]

China berry or hack berry. I have some china berry with similar figure. I also have some "mystery wood" with like colors that came from the bottom of a pond in e. Texas. I think it is willow but the colors are amazing. I think due to the minerals in the pond. Your log looks to be about 12 to 14" dia. Correct?

Martin,

This log was only abot 10" in diameter. While I'm fairly certain it's Black Gum (Tupelo), I hadn't thought of Hackberry, which would occur in the forest it came from. I don't think so though, since it's not ring-porous.

It's theorized that the forest this log came from was knocked down by a large seismic event approx. 10,000 years ago which resulted in widespread liquefaction and the overbanking of the Mississippi, possibly accompanied by one or more reversals in the river's flow. The alluvial deposition from the event buried the knocked-down forest very rapidly resulting in its preservation in anaerobic conditions.

We're going back to pick up several MUCH larger logs that we were able to convince them to set aside. :D

Sadly, they had already fired up burn pits before we were aware of the find and we weren't able to save it all :(