Anybody heard from Scott Banbury?

[Harry Thornton]

I hope his ancient log project yielded some usable wood but I would not be surprised if it did not. From what I have heard, logs that have been submerged for a mere 100-200 years can be so inundated with minerals that they eat up saw blades. A 10-15 thousand year old log is bound to be a very different animal than when it was alive...I hope I am wrong.

[Scott Banbury]

Harry,

We didn't get to our ancient logs until Friday night and then only got one done. :o

It seems the heat here is draining my camera batteries and it went dead after only a few shots :(

We decided to wait for the batteries to charge before opening any more of our ancient mysteries and when we got back at it Saturday morning, we noticed that one of our pillow blocks on the drive wheel of the mill had busted its race :eek:

Long story short, we won't get back to 'em 'til parts get here--maybe Wednesday or Thursday.

Here's some pics of the one log we did saw. It's the upper most of three logs from the same tree. It was bright orange-red in the heart when I made the bucking cuts and it looks lovingly familiar despite the mineral staining :)

http://www.scottbanbury.com/oldcherry01.jpg
http://www.scottbanbury.com/oldcherry02.jpg
http://www.scottbanbury.com/oldcherry03.jpg

Hmmmmm . . . Cherry:D

[John Hart]

Wow!!!!!!!

[Harry Thornton]

OH MY GODDDDDD!!!!!! Scott, that is absolutely beautiful! I am very happy for you and your team. Based on my limited knowledge, I was not optimistic that you were going to get anything you could use.

Man, you have some wood, with which you can make museum quality pieces. I don't know how good you are, Scott, but I would consult with the best minds in the trade (if there are any better than yours). Again, congratulations! I am excited just to see what you have so far. Look forward to seeing more.

Harry

[Ian Abraham]

Harry, I believe you are right about normal submerged logs. If they are exposed to moving water, even if it's just seeping thru silt then oxygen gets to the logs and they deteriorate eventually.
The ones Scott has got hold of seem to have been burried deep and probably encased deep in clay or silt, like they were vacumn packed. No fresh water, no oxygen.. the decay is much much slower. The ancient logs dug up here in NZ have been similarly sealed in deep peat swamps. Although the properties of the wood has been altered over time it's still workable timber and the age makes for extra novelty value.

Logs are looking good there Scott

Cheers

Ian

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Beautiful wood Scott!

[Chris Padilla]

Scott,

Please keep adding to your original post...it'll make following your fun much easier. Wood looks great!

One question: Do you plan to kiln-dry this wood or air-dry it?

[Scott Banbury]

Scott,
One question: Do you plan to kiln-dry this wood or air-dry it?

I'll air dry it being that I'm afraid that kilning would kill the colors.

Besides, it's waited 15,000 years to be sawn, it can wait a few more to get worked. ;)

[Harry Thornton]

Scott, are you going to get those logs carbon dated? It would be interesting to know exactly how old they are. Another question I have is whether the logs were buried as the result of some particular event. The fact that they are in good conditioned indicates they were probably buried immediately as opposed to slowly being covered with silt.