Never heard of this type of mark:
"..I ran North 15° 02' West, 2960.1 varas, where I found several corners together and a 26" Magnolia with a rather illegible mark, which I take to be a 0 or catface.."
I wasn't able to google a catsface. Did someone actually take the time to carve a catsface !?
Locally there is a mark called a gator.
On smaller trunks that will not accept a visible "X" we place an 0.7±ft blaze with hacked feet
Maybe a blaze with some hacked whiskers and ears
:cat:
I thought a catsface is the damage on the tree where a cat dozer hit it with the blade. It's not really a blaze; more like accidental damage usually next to a skid trail or logging road.
Never heard of a 'catface' either. I would probably take it to be a literal description, or some long-lost common venacular, similar to a "kilroy".
No help here.
Sometimes when an "X" is marked on a tree, the bark between the legs of the X will separate from the wood of the tree and will die back and not heal over correctly. If the bark does not heal back together, an open spot of wood will be left where the "X" should have been visible. This can happen when someone who is experienced marks a tree and the bark splits when marked, but it usually happens when someone who is not very experienced takes many hits with a machete to mark the X or "cleans" out the X to make it visible and leaves 1/4" to 3/4" wide strip of wood showing for the X. If you look closely at a catface, you can usually tell that it was someones attempt to make an X, Y, T, Z, etc. And then, sometimes a catface is nothing more than an unhealed scar made by a skidder tire.
"A "catface" is an old wound on a tree trunk that is closing over."
"The turpentine industry has its roots in North Carolina in the mid-1800s. Workers would scar longleaf pine trees (the scars are often referred to as cat faces) which would cause the gum, or resin, from the tree to run."
"A catface is a wound on a tree trunk that is healed or healing. A common cause is drought in cold winter areas. The damage usually appears on the southwest side of the tree."
The "catface" is simply a blaze because of the manner in which is scars, looks similar to the catface.
The alligator is a blaze with hacks on it. Whenever I do the alligator, I try to blaze the legs of the gator on it as well for definition.
If, you've found these trees, they were probably marked when they were smaller. That's the reason for no "X".
Many times, the only mark left that can be seen is the catface which sometimes occurs in the middle of a gnarly "X".
It could mean some sort of accidental blemish. The usage occurs in carpentry, denoting the crescent-shaped indentation caused by letting the hammer's last strike of the nailhead come down at an angle instead of flat.
Cheers,
Henry
Great Pics
Rich - thanx for the definition and the pictures. Your post is an example of why I visit Beerleg...to learn something new. Everyday is a school day.
> Never heard of this type of mark:
>
>
> "..I ran North 15° 02' West, 2960.1 varas, where I found several corners together and a 26" Magnolia with a rather illegible mark, which I take to be a 0 or catface.."
>
> I wasn't able to google a catsface. Did someone actually take the time to carve a catsface !?
I had no idea, but today I ran across these field notes:
(If you look at the last line in the note, he says he marked the trees with a stake nailed "to blaze & cat faces". He R.P.'ed and replaced many monumented corners in March 1972, and most of his field notes include a reference to "cat faces".)
Rich
Those pictures could have been taken on the farm where I grew up. Dummy me, I used to break all those old terra cotta pots that collected the turpentine. Now I'd pay for an unbroken one.
Andy
