Lightening Struck Lumber

[bgam65]

I have several hardwood trees that have been struck by lightening. What are the opinions of the masses on using this lumber for Turning or Lumber.

[Hobbyman2]

you will know when you saw it up.

I wouldn't have a issue .

[JPG]

you will know when you saw it up.

I wouldn't have a issue .

Perfect for making baseball bats.


If you did not see the movie, that will not make sense.

[reible]

That is an interesting question. I have no answer but you could certainly try it and see what happens.

I once got a piece of a stump left after a forest fire, outside was well preserved and according to records the fire had happened over a 100 years before.

Turned out to a concentration of pitch. Must have been a pine tree and the sap just dried out in the heat and the charred and pitch turned it in to a well preserved something, but not really usable wood.

Now I don't know what lighting does to a tree but from ones I've seen it seems the exterior where the moisture is gets damaged but perhaps the core is fine.

Or resident expert on all things trees might have some answers for us. What say you Charlese?

Ed

[Hobbyman2]

I once got a piece of a stump left after a forest fire

==============

Years ago we added on to the house, it required removing a section of roof, when we got to the rafters we found out the house had caught fire many many years ago, the rafters were so hard from the heat you wouldnt believe.

I made a work bench out of the lumber , all 2x4 rough cut that was actually 2x4 ,,,,, I bent a lot nails putting it together .

[Ed in Tampa]

No one can tell until you cut into the tree. I have dealt with a number of trees hit with lightning. Some were okay, some were almost Saw dust, and others were long tooth picks. In all cases there were obvious damage areas where the lightning hit, but what happened next was hidden inside the tree. One tree was almost dry lumber that later collapsed in pith, another was so wet inside you got soaked from thE water coming off the chain saw.
Saw one tree (pine) that got hit and you could not find a piece of the tree bigger than a large tooth pick, zillions of toothpicks laying all around. Had a cypress tree get hit and it exploded into chunks of wood about 2x4 size about a foot long that flew everywhere. Some over a 100 yards.

You will not know until you cut it.

[charlese]

Or resident expert on all things trees might have some answers for us. What say you Charlese?
Ed

I deny being an expert on all things tree, However I have seen many hundreds of trees that were lightning struck. These vary (as Ed in Tampa has said) from scars, to being blown apart. All of the strikes I have seen are in softwoods. (firs, pines and Western larch)

Lightning is a strange phenomenon. It sometimes comes from the sky to ground and sometimes from the ground to the sky. Sometimes forked other times not. (go figure)

Lightning is sometimes extremely hot and other times not so hot. Sometimes blowing a tree into pieces with no fire and other times igniting only the top of a tree.

My thought on sawing lumber from lightning struck trees is there will be no noticeable difference from those not struck.. of course splits and burns will affect how lumber is sawn.

[moggymatt]

The only tree I've ever seen struck by lightning was a pine up in the woods where I hunt. The only thing left of the top 15 feet was spread all over the forest floor for about 35 yards in all directions. Made me glad I wasn't around when it happened.

[Hobbyman2]

I have seen trees with storm damage came apart like a fist full of straws .
Others were good once you got away from the damaged area .
In fact there are some beach limbs in the wood lot waiting on me that were brought down from a storm last fall .

[bobgroh]

From what I have read, a lightning struck tree is only good for firewood. The lightning does bad things to the structure of the tree. And live is just too short to fool around with it.