All right. Let’s do it real, real, real, real, real easy. We’re going to go with the Encyclopedia of Wood. Yeah, those are water bottles down there. Understanding wood. Who’s this guy? All right, so this guy is a… I mean, he’s probably dead now because this book is… This book’s pretty old. But he was, there you go, you can read, University of Tennessee professor of forestry. Okay, look at this guy. Who’s he? He is Andrew Poynter. Wow, that’s crazy, a hundred types of wood to woodworkers around. That’s interesting. What, is this all just different random people? Oh, now he makes the music. Okay. Okay, very interesting.
I did not know all this about a tree, the anatomy of a tree. All right, this is the crown. The branches and leaves of the tree, where… photosynthesis takes place. Okay. The roots, they anchor tree and absorb water and minerals from the soil. Makes sense. Also called the stem or bole, supports the tree and channels nutrients to and from its roots. I mean, that’s kind of self-explanatory. But this is pretty… Okay. This is the pith, a small and often pulpy core running in the center. The heart… Okay, look at this. This is some really random information, whatever. I’ve heard of the heartwood, but I didn’t know that the heartwood was not just… I thought the heartwood was this entire thing right there. I was wrong. It is the entire thing right there besides the absolute middle, and that’s the pith.
Wow, so sapwood that has been clogged with resins, gums and other… Wow. The growth ring. I guess that’s the one you count to see all the trees, a concentric ring divided into earlywood and latewood indicating the amount of wood added to the tree’s diameter in one growing season. Well, in one growing season? How long is a growing season? The ray… what are we looking at, dude? It’s like, these are kind of the same. They’re all kind of pointing to the same thing. Carries nutrients laterally through the wood, also stores nutrients. One part of the tree, the bark. Insulates tree against temperature extremes, keeps sapwood from drying out. So yeah, wow. A tree is really is really… I mean, I understand, and I know that I’m about to say something really stupid, but a tree really is alive.
Wow. I don’t know how to pronounce it, that’s why I didn’t try, but this is basically like the highway. This is what’s bringing all the goodness all around, this thin itty-bitty layer. A thin reproductive layer that forms a new tissue adding to this, and the sap will increase the tree’s girth. This little girth, make it… bigger, wider, thicker. Sapwood, we’ve gone through sapwood a few times. [inaudible 00:04:41] active part of the tree’s wood through which water and minerals are conducted from the roots to the leaves. Also stores nutrients and help support the tree. All right, that’s actually, all this is pretty interesting. I had no idea. I mean, we really weren’t going to get into that, but… What the fuck?
Okay, hardwood and softwood. So what is the difference? I’m guessing this is the softwood and this is the hardwood. I mean, it’s a pretty cool picture. For this one, I’m literally just going to go through the anatomy of a tree and if I have time, maybe softwood and hardwood. But this is, I mean look at the size of that bad boy. I got some trees, but they’re nowhere near that size. And just, like man, this is pretty interesting. If you’ve ever tried to move wood before, it is not an easy task. Wood is really heavy, super heavy. I got myself one of the little mini sawmills, and yeah. Yeah right, not happening. Okay, look at this. The different cutting methods, three methods of sawing logs. They got the plain saw, quarter saw and the through, all to make different types of… Wow, this is interesting. I wonder how they cut that. It kind of seems like you’d get a lot of waste, but they know what they’re doing. Yeah, it’s more into it than just buying a saw mill thing and cutting things down.