dogwood source

[Frank Drew]

Phillip, interesting that you're able to harvest Cedar of Lebanon near you; it's native to the Eastern Mediterranean although I know that specimen trees were planted elsewhere (England, for example.)

Dogwood, however, isn't native to that area (Middle East).

[Nick Decker]

I think Phillip is referring to Lebanon, MO, which is along I-44. I can attest that there's plenty of cedar around there.

[Phillip Gregory]

Phillip, interesting that you're able to harvest Cedar of Lebanon near you; it's native to the Eastern Mediterranean although I know that specimen trees were planted elsewhere (England, for example.)

Dogwood, however, isn't native to that area (Middle East).

It was a couple of regional jokes and Nick Decker got them. The part about "eye farty far" refers to many St. Louisans with their nasal accents would pronounce 44 as "farty far" rather than "forty four." Those of us who grew up outside of St. Louis and its inner suburbs but close enough to the metro area to know they talked that way enjoy making fun of their unusual accent.

[Nick Decker]

Middle East, Middle West, whatever it takes.

[Frank Drew]

Too funny!

[jim mills]

Just watched some youtube videos today of someone riving logs, and his preferred wood for larger wedges (he had a name for them but I forget) was dogwood. He said it was tough, hard, and doesnt split. He was beating on them pretty good!

[Mel Fulks]

Jim, the term I've heard for the wood wedges is "gluts".

[John K Jordan]

'Bout 15 years ago I made both a maul and some gluts from green dogwood, following suggestions in some old book. For the maul it said to dig up a small dogwood to use the trunk as a ready-made handle and the root "ball" as the head. Looked like a caveman's club.

It was satisfying to use. A steel wedge or froe is easier to get the crack started in the end of a log but part of that was probably my lack of experience. I found out later the sharp edge of the glut should be a bit rounded when viewed from the side and mine had square corners which tended to deform. Once started the big wood glut does split the wood nicely. I followed the suggestions to split the hickory into handle-sized pieces and dry them for a year in the barn loft - I've made a bunch of handles from that tree, including one for an old froe, an adze, shovel, and hoe. I did cheat and use the lathe instead of the draw knife to make most of them, but riving the wood instead of sawing certainly makes sure the grain follows the handle!