# 4 ft wide cherry tree



## roberthathaway7 (Jul 9, 2010)

Alright i just remembered that on my land I have a cherry tree that is 4 ft wide chest-high. I know this because I held a 4 ft pry bar that i happened to have up to it a couple years ago about it was a little wider than the bar. Is this tree worth something in timber? I have seen where some people make "flitches" out of wide trees like this, and veneers maybe? Also, if i remember right it is pretty knarly with a few big dead branches etc, so it might have some figuring in the wood? Do i have some sort of sought after item here? I wish we could admire it's beauty alive but it's tucked in the most random corner of out farm, and i think someone else would appreciate it more in their home..


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

That would be a big cherry, pictures would be cool. Sure wide cherry lumber is worth something, assuming it is a sound tree and not rotten/hollow...which it could well be at that size.


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## woody woodturner (Jul 9, 2010)

yep need a lucas mill


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## woody woodturner (Jul 9, 2010)

oh by the way daren gday from Australia


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

A swing mill with a slabber to go with that big cherry would surely make me a happy camper. I second the motion for pictures.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

woody woodturner said:


> oh by the way daren gday from Australia


Hello back...do you have a swing mill ? They are very popular in Australia...lot of big trees.



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## woody woodturner (Jul 9, 2010)

not yet the my club has a extended band saw on its side it works pretty good but am trying to get them to buy a mobile lucas mill and yes there are some monster trees here really big


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## roberthathaway7 (Jul 9, 2010)

*4ft Cherry pics*

Well like i said it had been a couple years since i have went to look at this thing, and sadly enough it had died out over the last couple years. One 24"diameter branch had fallen off earlier this year with brown leaves and another slightly smaller limb had died off recently with leaves still dying. The core was hollow and rotted out..Sad day. I wonder what might be salvagable of this beast? I think I may cut the limbs for firewood. Oh and there is a picture of what I believe to be a burl? Do I cut it off flush with the rest of the branch or do I cut that section out? I didn't know if the burl went all the way into the branch or if it's just something you clip off. There are actually several of these


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Boy at one time that was a majestic tree. It just lived past it's prime...I would have like to have seen it alive a decade or so ago. It's hard to say how old a tree like that, grown under cover, would be...pretty darn old to get that big. Not a prime specimen for sawmilling (even if it was not dead and busted in a million pieces) because it branched too low...but still a cool old tree.

And that is not a burl. Just a dead then overgrown limb.






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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

That sure would have made some killer flitches. 

I wonder if that tree was in the middle of a field. The trees around it are all young or juvenile. I realize it's not a wide angle shot, and you won't get big trees growing right beside another big tree but I'm not seeing any in the background either. Unless the area was logged at one time, I could see that tree having been left behind on purpose for shade and fruit when the sod buster cleared it. Has this land been in your family for generations Robert?


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## jeffreythree (Jan 9, 2008)

Those big dead branches down low show that tree started life in a more open area, possibly a little one left when it was logged in the past. Then the rest of the forest grew up around it and passed it up since it never grew tall in competition. I have post oaks similar to that.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

jeffreythree said:


> Those big dead branches down low show that tree started life in a more open area . . .


Looks like we were on the same page, at almost the same time. :smile:


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## roberthathaway7 (Jul 9, 2010)

*Closer Look*

Yeah guys I totally agree. I went out again lastnight to surgically (with a chainsaw) investigate a little more, to see if I could get any firewood or anything from it and after standing and staring at it for a minute I also decided that at least 5 years ago it needed to have all of the trees around it cleared out. With such a low trunk, the extremely old branches had tried hard to poke up out of the cedars/small oaks to get to the sun but looks like it just choked out.

I did find some extremely cool pieces in some of the branches though that I think could turn into some really neat projects. I will try to get some pics on soon so you can see them and tell me what you think about their potential. One is a branch that had a hollow spot in a bulb where a branch split off, the other is where some branches oddly fused together that I think I could make some sort of a coffee table out of. To be continued..


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## Kirk Allen (Nov 7, 2006)

Dont be fooled by the rottet out core of that tree. I have dozens JUST like that the the first and second boards from the log were AWESOME and solid as a rock. The main rot is inside and the outer portion will have some usuable wood. 

I suspect what you thought was a burl is nothing more than a branch knot. Cherry burl is well defined and I would say its not a burl if the pic with the bottle is what your talking about.


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