Black jack oaks and chain saws

The 30 acres on which I grew up is partially-wooded, and Daddy generally would keep the dead trees under control by cutting them for firewood. Dutch elm disease took a heavy toll on those trees, and they were easy to cut and to handle. Occasionally, however, there would be a black jack that would die, and not to be deterred, Daddy would set in to harvest it. Now, black jacks are among the ugliest trees in creation with the scraggly lower limbs that die and can become genuine safety hazards; and they are certainly among the hardest of woods in our part of the country - especially when they are dead. In fact, I have likened cutting them to cutting an anvil. I have actually seen sparks fly from a chain saw cutting a dead black jack.

Today, I had to work cutting up the remainder of a black jack that my son had felled in our yard and had had to leave because his chain saw quit a few weeks ago. Before I started, I took the saw to the local shop and told the owner to do a good job on the sharpening because I was cutting a dead black jack. He laughed and said, "You will be in two or three times before you are through." He exaggerated only a little. The limbs had already been trimmed off this particular tree, and all I had to do was to cut up most of the trunk - and I barely made it before the chain was too dull to be of much use.