Included Bark Archive

Friction Hitches

The picture below is a failed joint. This whole joint pictured, should have been torn up at the failing of this joint, that had very little connective tissue binding across. The 4 outlined faults below are easily seen in all the pictures of failed tree joints below. The Included Bark in the picture (where wood jointing should be) bears mute testimony to the lack of binding fiber, that should've supported the failed joint.

A-Of all the fiber not connected for support, this is the worst place; for it is the most leveraged position of support. The loss of connective fiber is not the whole story; the lost leveraged positions of those fibers (like this red square) could be the worst part of the loss of support; where the most bark inclusion is!

B-Only other disturbed wood (besides C), only leveraged help from pivot of C.

C-is most virtually Lone torn wood at ripping of codominate jointing

D-Shows the grain/fiber running parallel to the lost branch, not connecting to it. Bark growing into joint actually pushes joint apart!

In the native woods, trees have to be very lucky to grow, as every scrap of light is fought for. There is little chance of codominance, as there is little chance of life, let alone 2 branches in the same spot, as a function of the fierce competition. As trees grow to be taller than the canopy, then they get a codominate type of growth fault.

This growth fault does not allow the total of the growth to provide support, commonly setting 2 or more branches against each other, rather than supporting each other in balance. The divided house is set against itself. In an urban setting it is not uncommon to see low codominate, failure prone growth, from the abundance of light triggering the self limiting strategy. These are pictures that would have happened over time, but came to our town all at once with the hurricanes of 2004; as the sudden force thinned the herd of most of the weak! This was the best use i could find for what looked like a battle zone; as i walked through a virtual classroom in tree faults; all tested to fail at once, instead of over time!

Click Pictures in Photo Gallery to Enlarge