50000 year old wood

[Rob Beckers]

While reading a building magazine I came accross an article on a company that salvages 50,000 year old logs from the ground. These logs are absolutely huge! Which incidentally goes to show the effect humanity has had on forests, since we have precious few living trees of that size left. The wood is available for woodworking, turning etc.

http://www.ancientwood.com/

Disclaimer: I have not bought anything from them, just thought it was an interesting story. Consequently I can't tell if their service is any good or not. I'm not affiliated with this company either.

-Rob-

[Chris Dodge]

If you go to the site and look at the gallery there is a picture of a stairway that was carved from a complete log. It is pretty cool looking!

I have seen these adds too and think the idea is neat but starting at $25 per board foot for flat grained boards I have never been tempted to order any of the wood.

[James A. Wolfe]

Rob,
I ordered a small quantity of the wood for turning some pens. I'll post my results. I kind of like the thought of turning wooden pens from wood that was around before people were and then engraving them with a laser. I knew a guy once who called these things "ironic juxtapositions".
Jim

[Keel McDonald]

Sure is nice looking gold, er, wood. It will make somebody some nice furniture, pens, stairs, whatever.

[Marty Walsh]

I won't get near the philosophical discussion that might be evolving, but I thought those of you interested in Kauri wood might be interested in seeing this post in another forum (forestry forum.com)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx direct link redacted

It shows someone's holiday pictures of the Kauri Museum. Pretty intereting stuff, albeit a bit lengthy.

I hope the external link is okie-dokie...I also hope non-members can read the post. :o

- Marty -

[Rob Beckers]

Second, I don't think the implication was that man buried these logs but that man has decimated the forests since such that there are precious few living examples of trees of this size.

In case that wasn't clear: Chip's summation is exactly what I meant in my previous posting....

Neat wood though! (If only it wasn't so expensive)

-Rob-

[Zahid Naqvi]

Reminds me of another company operating in USA which specializes in salvaging old wood from lakes, railroads, old sunken bridges etc. I think there was a thread on this a short while back.

[Matt Day]

There was a cool exerpt on Modern Marvels "Lumber Yards" about this type of harvesting. It was very cool to see it in action, and the size of the equipment needed to move these old trees. A full size tractor trailor pailed in comparison to the tree it was moving!

[Ian Abraham]

It shows someone's holiday pictures of the Kauri Museum.

Sorry for being a bit verbose over there ;)
It was a very interesting trip, visiting the museum, the forest and the ancient kauri shop.

Out of interest NZ has only been inhabited by humans for less than 1000 years, so we aren't to blame for the trees getting buried in the 1st place :o . Opinions vary, tsunami, cyclone, volcano have all been put foward as theorys, and the trees are often found in layers, so they have been buried by seperate events 20,30,40 & 50,000 years ago. The forest has regenerated and been knocked down again and again over time.

Although much of the original forest has been cleared for timber and farmland the tree is still common and even the forest that was logged and left to regrow is filled with young kauri trees. It just takes 500-1000 years for them to grow into the big giants.

Cheers

Ian

[Marty Walsh]

Sorry for being a bit verbose over there ;)
It was a very interesting trip, visiting the museum, the forest and the ancient kauri shop.
...
Cheers

Ian

Ian,

Nothing personal meant by my comment. I thoroughly enjoyed your posting...so much so that I've bookmarked it! ;)

Thanks for sharing, and I hope you don't mind my posting a link to it here.

- Marty -

[Tom Donalek]

I agree that it is sobering to think about the fact that our (human) influence on the world means that there are far, far fewer huge trees in the world (essentially none?) like the ones that are being dug up in NZ. But I did want to point out a small silver lining. Some of the most amazing Japanese construction joinery came about when the available supply of large logs dried up. As a result, Japanese carpenters developed some pretty amazing joints and splices (most without metal connectors or nails/bolts). Necessity really can be the mother of invention!

(Oh yeah, and as for the risk of the thread going off on a tangent, I think we all can tell when our legs are being pulled...)

[Pete Simmons]

I anyone would like a small sample of this wood I have a little. I would sell a 6 x 7/8 x 7/8 piece with a certificate from ancientwood for $5 plus postage. $1 less w/o certificate.

I bet postage would be less than $2.

Send me a PM if interested. I am not trying to make $$ with this. Just if I do 5 or 10 I do not want to lose $ on it.

It is interesting wood with a great story and makes a nice but kinda bland pen.

I also have Birdseye Maple Timeless Timber which is in another class completly! It is beautiful wood with a great story - First cut virgin forest of this country!! I guess I would sell a few pen blanks of that also if someone wants to try one, as I always keep some on hand.

[Ian Abraham]

Marty

No worries about linking to the post, if it was secret I wouldn't have posted it on the net ;)

Dont worry there are a lot of BIG Kauri trees left out there, but yeah, 90% of them have been cut down. On the other hand if the trees hadn't been cut then we wouldn't have farms and houses :confused:

The trees are amazing, not just the size but the form they grow, straight trunks for 50-100 ft before the 1st branch, so the big trees can have a 12+ ft dia log with 90% CLEAR timber. No wonder the loggers 100 years ago thought they had struck the motherlode.

If only we could grow these things on a 50 year rotation :rolleyes:

Cheers

Ian

[Randy Meijer]

.....so I suggest you count growth rings to determine the age of the logs .....

Counting rings will give the age of the tree when it was burried; but won't tell how old the trees are. The tree could have lived for 500 years and been burried yesterday or 50,000 years ago.;)

[Jeff Watson]

Man, I need to go to New Zealand and check out those logs in person!!! Marty, that was a cool link. Thanks for posting.

Jeff W.

[Ian Abraham]

Some Pics from Kauri country...

Pic1 is a Kauri log in the museum thats been slabbed into sections lengthwise.
Pic2 is a pretty normal Kauri tree on the side of the road, notice Lil attempting to do a tree hug :D
Pic3 is Tane Mahuta, the biggest surviving Kauri tree, you cant get close to the base because excessive tourist feet would be harmfull to the roots, but the tree is 18ft DBH and 70 ft to the first branch. :rolleyes:
Pic 4 is a table top at the museum. Yes it's one piece of wood and weighs about 1 ton :eek:

If you ever visit NZ, spend a couple of days up north to check this stuff out :)

Cheers

Ian

[Marty Walsh]

Man, I need to go to New Zealand and check out those logs in person!!! Marty, that was a cool link. Thanks for posting.

Jeff W.

Jeff,

I'm glad to share. But it's Ian we should be thanking, since it was HIS holiday the post chronicled. I didn't realize he's a member here as well! :o

Thanks for sharing Ian!

- Marty -

[Robert E Lee]

Rob, Sorry if I was a little abrupt. I think it is where one lives. Within 130 miles of my home there is the Red woods of northern CA. One of the largest Douglas firs in Oregon is 35 miles from here. I find it very hard to understand how is in best to let millions of board feet of timber that has died of old age, the wind has blown down or fire damaged and it is laying in our National Forest rotting. Big waste.
Bob

[John Hemenway]

Robert,
I must have missed something, I don't see any other post by you in this thread.
Leaving forest giants where they fall can seem like a waste. Of course we (humans, woodworkers) are not the only organisms that have a use for wood. A downed tree has great value to the ecosystem of the forest. Removing it is like withdrawing your savings to play the lotto.

Don't get me wrong, it's alright to cut some trees. Just let's leave some so the ecosystem can survive.

FWIW, I work within sight of 'The Redwood Highway', US 101, in Sonoma County, CA. (aka, the Redwood Empire).


Rob, Sorry if I was a little abrupt. I think it is where one lives. Within 130 miles of my home there is the Red woods of northern CA. One of the largest Douglas firs in Oregon is 35 miles from here. I find it very hard to understand how is in best to let millions of board feet of timber that has died of old age, the wind has blown down or fire damaged and it is laying in our National Forest rotting. Big waste.
Bob