Spiral grain

[southsoundtree]

What do you know? Observe? Consider about spiral grain?

I saw a conifer near Mt. St. Helens, laying in Coldwater lake, fallen post-explosion. There was a cavity on the side. There was straight grain inside with a shell of spiral on the outside.





Beware stumpshot and spiral grain.

 

[Njdelaney]

I have seen this on Wild Cherry here in Michigan frequently. It is always on really large, old trees. My take is that it is a way to stabilize the overall structure of a tree by changing up the plane of failure by changing the grain. Makes for a hard piece of wood to split.

 

[southsoundtree]

Cherries are a place I see it strongly.

 

[Bart_]

Pruned city conifers sometimes have hidden dowel pins embedded layers below the surface that can affect hinge or snap cut behaviour. Spiral grain is the curse of firewood splitting. Had a whole spar's worth that I ended up chainsawing because it was unsplittable. Can't remember the species.