How to Find Out How Old a Piece of Wood Is?
- 1). Examine the grain on the piece of wood in question. If you're trying to tell the age of a tree trunk, for example, you would need to look at the cross section. The cross section is the portion of the trunk that, when cut, is the flat "top" part of the trunk. On a piece of wood that has been cut and finished, the grain will typically be visible on all sides of the piece of wood.
- 2). Count the number of rings in the wood, moving from the center circle (which counts as one) to the outer circumference of the wood. If you're looking at a piece of wood cut at an angle, you can still count the growth rings, but they may not be perfect circles.
- 3). Subtract the total number of rings that you counted from the current year to find the age of the wood. For example, if the year is 2011 and you counted 20 rings, 2011 - 20 equals 1991. You can reasonably determine that tree began to grow in 1991.
