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14th Feb 2012, 08:35 PM
|  | Diamond Member | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: nth coast nsw
Posts: 1,408
| |  Huon pine..how old ??
I cut a piece off the end of a huon pine billet for a carving today..
it was 700mm long x 230mm 100mm..
I noticed the end grain was really really tight....so I tried counting the growth rings with verniers and a magnifying glass...
I counted 10mm sections at various points ..then averaged them ...(at about 44 rings per 10mm)
diagonally across the 230mm section I counted over 1000 years of growth  ....
If this is correct, it is by far the oldest wood I have ever used..
I would like to verify the age somehow...I've cut 3 end grain panels and would like to post them to anyone willing to have a closer look ( with a bigger magnifying glass and better eyes) and post up a count..
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14th Feb 2012, 10:23 PM
|  | Most Valued Member | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Munruben, Qld Age: 71
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I wonder if there is another way to calculate the age of it.?
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14th Feb 2012, 10:27 PM
| | Golden Member | | Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Dandenong, Vic
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There is, go to its next birthday party and count the candles. |
14th Feb 2012, 10:47 PM
| | Jim | | Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Victoria
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Quote:
Originally Posted by munruben  I wonder if there is another way to calculate the age of it.? | I gather that huon pine tree ring patterns have been pretty well mapped so some academic should be able to tell you what years those rings represent.
It's a sobering thought that you are cutting up something that has been so long growing. Puts us in our place.
Cheers,
Jim |
14th Feb 2012, 11:08 PM
|  | Most Valued Member | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: belgrave Age: 49
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Glad it is being made into something worthwhile. Not just a coaster !  |
15th Feb 2012, 07:47 AM
|  | Golden Member | | Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Bristol, UK Age: 54
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That's got to be some old pine tree!
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15th Feb 2012, 09:10 AM
|  | Dehydrated Hydrographer | | Join Date: Jun 1999 Location: Westleigh, Sydney Age: 65
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There are regular disputes about whether the oldest known living tree is a huon pine or bristlecone pine. - every now & then someone will find an older example of one or the other. I believe the oldest of each is over 2000 years old. |
15th Feb 2012, 10:48 AM
|  | Timber Hoarder | | Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Minbun, FNQ, Australia Age: 54
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15th Feb 2012, 11:50 AM
| | Golden Member | | Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: St George area, Sydney Age: 54
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Does that mean that you can sell the carving as an antique? |
15th Feb 2012, 12:42 PM
| | Necrotreeophile | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: Blue Mountains
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Australian Museum should be able to help as well.
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15th Feb 2012, 01:02 PM
| | Golden Member | | Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: McBride BC Canada
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The subject is dendrochronology.
CSIRO Melbourne or Hobart, Forest Products laboratory will be a start.
If you can afford to put a wipe of oil finish (or even olive oil) on it the rings are much easier to count. Don't forget that periodic droughts will yield a false growth ring in many species.
No idea at all if Huon responds in that way. |
15th Feb 2012, 02:40 PM
| | Most Valued Member | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Munruben, Qld Age: 71
Posts: 10,177
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If it's a female tree, it wouldn't want us to know its age anyway. 
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Cheers John |
15th Feb 2012, 02:44 PM
| | Most Valued Member | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Munruben, Qld Age: 71
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Robson Valley The subject is dendrochronology.
. | This is better than Readers Digest.. Another word to my list.
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Cheers John |
15th Feb 2012, 02:47 PM
| | Golden Member | | Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: bilpin
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One of the quickest ways of driving yourself nuts, is counting the rings on old huon pine.
I seem to remember an exibit in the Hobart museum displaying a sound bark to bark round, with all the worldy events marked on the appropriate ring. It went back to the birth of Christ and there was still plenty of wood to the centre, but the rings were then so tight they seemed to be nonexistant. One thing I did notice was that the rings were quite uneven in spacing. So to measure and work on averages would leave a lot of discrepancy over that distance. |
15th Feb 2012, 04:08 PM
| | Golden Member | | Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: McBride BC Canada
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Dendrochronology has been used to determine a record of climate in the SW United States (Arizona/New Mexico/Nevada) by correlating ring widths. . . there are enough overlapping sets of rings in construction timbers to run the record back some 12,000 - 14,000 years, The Laboratory Center For Tree Ring Research is in some Arizona University, I apologize for forgetting which one.
The argument has to do with the comings and goings of the first settlers in North America who crossed the Bering Straights land bridge (how many times?) during how many ice ages when sea levels dropped. That's enough to get you started. Did not much the same thing happen as the aborigines moved south into Australia?
A similar effort has been used near my home for the chronology of a 7,000+ yr old western red cedar forest. Unique to the site is that it has not been burnt over (lightning strikes) in that time.
Allow me: I am Dr. Brian W. Thair, Commonwealth of Nations Research Fellow (ret.), PhD (LaTrobe 72 Botany/Wood Science) Prof A.B. Wardrop, DSc., came out of CSIRO/Hobart to head up the Botany department at the newly constructed LaTrobe.
Perhaps oddly, but A.B.'s reputationbrought his first PhD graduate students from Canada. I was #2.
Regards from the magnificently mountainous Robson Valley.  | | |
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