Personalities and Tree Bark

If your personality were to be described as the bark of a tree, which bark would your personality be?

Smooth.

it’s permaculture, so it depends!

for those who i want to see my bark is isn’t totally smooth, but the cracks between sections aren’t too deep and can house some interesting invertebrates/conversations. maybe like black walnut bark. if you’re a stranger, demanding unnecessary things of me, i’m likely to go full old-school honey-locust. four inches of spikes before you even get to the bark.

Haha! How many Shag-bark Hickories do we have here? I'll be the first!

greg mosser wrote:it’s permaculture, so it depends!

for those who i want to see my bark is isn’t totally smooth, but the cracks between sections aren’t too deep and can house some interesting invertebrates/conversations. maybe like black walnut bark. if you’re a stranger, demanding unnecessary things of me, i’m likely to go full old-school honey-locust. four inches of spikes before you even get to the bark.

We share similar thinking. I like it!

Flaky like a birch (I change my mind a lot)!

Hemlock!!

One of my sayings is, “that guy is tighter than bark on a hemlock”

It means the person is very frugal with his money.

Why hemlock?

Back in the day Eastern Hemlock had so much tannin in the bark that the settlers used it to tan hides. To the point they felled trees just for the bark and left it in the woods because hemlock is too dense to float in rivers. But the bark would only come off in the spring. After about July the bark would be too “tight” to remove so it was a spring only harvest

Myself, I am pretty frugal and enjoy building with eastern hemlock

Steve Zoma wrote:Hemlock!!

One of my sayings is, “that guy is tighter than bark on a hemlock”

It means the person is very frugal with his money.

Why hemlock?

Back in the day Eastern Hemlock had so much tannin in the bark that the settlers used it to tan hides. To the point they felled trees just for the bark and left it in the woods because hemlock is too dense to float in rivers. But the bark would only come off in the spring. After about July the bark would be too “tight” to remove so it was a spring only harvest

Myself, I am pretty frugal and enjoy building with eastern hemlock

Doesn't eastern hemlock have a strong tendency to twist/warp as it dries?

White Birch, but I’ve always admired the Himalayan Birch

William Attenborough wrote:

Steve Zoma wrote:Hemlock!!

One of my sayings is, “that guy is tighter than bark on a hemlock”

It means the person is very frugal with his money.

Why hemlock?

Back in the day Eastern Hemlock had so much tannin in the bark that the settlers used it to tan hides. To the point they felled trees just for the bark and left it in the woods because hemlock is too dense to float in rivers. But the bark would only come off in the spring. After about July the bark would be too “tight” to remove so it was a spring only harvest

Myself, I am pretty frugal and enjoy building with eastern hemlock

Doesn't eastern hemlock have a strong tendency to twist/warp as it dries?

Not any worse than spruce or fir, but it is very heavy which is why it is not used a lot commercially: carpenters do not want to use it.

It is also prone to "shake" which makes the annual rings not hold so well together which can be a problem. It is a bacterial thing, that may or may not be an issue in certain locations. My farm does not have that, so my Eastern Hemlock does not have a lot of shake to it.

It also has a hard time taking a nail and prone to splitting. The work around that is to use it green making it ideal lumber for a homeowner to build with. Once a nail is driven into green hemlock, it can never be pulled. The wood will literally splinter around the nail trying to be pulled. Cutting the nails with a sawzall is the only real way to remove nails driven into green hemlock.

It is used a lot in concrete form construction though because its cheap wood and strong. Because its so cheap, no one cares about chopping up lengths of it into very short pieces which is required in concrete form construction.

ponderosa pine and/or sycamore

My baby brother one time said if he had to use one word to describe me, it would be "abrasive".  That's from someone I loved very much and that loved me, so I gotta think it's pretty accurate.  That said, I'm going with the Australian Ironbark tree.

Very fun question William....as a Canadian...going with the maple. Rugged and strong exterior...yet sweet on the inside, if you know how to tap in.  

Cinnamomum loureiroi