Description

These sinker cypress filet knife scales were created by Stephen Clyburn, owner of Heart of the South Pine. The log was recovered from the bottom of Big Bull Creek in Horry County South Carolina in 2010, where it had been lost since sinking in the 1890’s. The beautiful colors are a result of being submerged underwater and in the mud for over a century. The tree that it was made from was harvested in the swamps bordering the Little Pee Dee River. It was cut down with an axe and a two-man crosscut saw in the period 1894 to 1899. After felling, it was drug by men and oxen out of the swamp to the river where it was tied to 4 other logs to make a raft. These logs had been “girdled” the previous year to kill the tree to make them buoyant enough to float. The raft was then floated, along with hundreds of other logs, down the Little Pee Dee, the Great Pee Dee, and then Big Bull Creek, destined for the Eddy Lake Cypress Company (1894-1920). This log, and an estimated 10%-15% of the others sank to the river bottom and never made it to the sawmill.
This log was typical of the logs cut by Eddy Lake. It measured 16 feet long and was tapered from 10 inches in diameter on the small end to 30 inches on the large end and weighed 3,000 pounds when pulled from the water. 
Year harvested 1894-1899
Recovered 2010 by Virgin Heart Sinker Cypress, LLC
Inspected & reported by Bill Barr & Associates, Archaeology
Handcrafted by Stephen Clyburn