I read a post on social media about how trees are prepared in old times, thought it was rather interesting...
In today’s logging and lumber industry, it is the new normal to treat nearly every piece of lumber used with various chemicals in an attempt to preserve the wood. However, this is often a temporary “fix” and these shortcuts have proven to be ineffective over time. But there are tried and true methods of harvesting and preserving logs and lumber the natural way. These techniques have been used throughout Scandinavia for centuries and have been proven to preserve logs for as many as 1000 years without the slightest signs of rot or decay.
The magnitude of this sustainability is unparalleled by any other industry. If we simply take a moment to look back and apply the knowledge our forefathers knew (before it’s too late), we can turn around today’s modern consumer based home building industry and greatly affect the environment, our planet, and even our personal health, for the better.
There are two known techniques of preserving the wood with resin and taking all the sugars out of it a year before felling it. They can be applied both on the growing coniferous trees or just one of these.
First is the “Ringbarking in Norwegian” technique. Removing the bark on the lower part around the tree 10” wide about 15-20” from the ground. Like all vascular plants, trees use two vascular tissues for transportation of water and nutrients: the Xylem (also known as the wood) and the Phloem (the innermost layer of the bark). Ringbarking results in the removal of these two vascular tissues and can permanently stop further transportation of sugars and water. This knowledge executed correctly will cause the tree to go through a slow death process, removing all sugars and drying the tree at the same time before it is even felled. The result is a material/log that is ready to use, more stable, experiences less cracking, shrinking and will last for many centuries.
The other one is the “Blæking in Norwegian” (Injuring/Scaring) technique. “Injured” meaning – the bark is chopped off randomly with an axe so that the tree can start to heal itself and push all the sugars out of the sapwood and fill/replace it with resin and antiseptics. It is an almost forgotten technique in modern forestry. This is one of the ways logs, in which log-buildings have been prepared throughout Northern Europe for thousands of years, make them stronger and resilient to rot as the sugars and water in the sapwood are in turn replaced with resin and various antiseptics. There is common to call such prepared pines an “Amberwood”. It takes a whole cycle of 4 seasons until the tree is ready to be felled after injuring/scaring or ringbarking.
It will start to die by the end of next summer (if you injure it in the winter before) and then by the next winter it is ready for felling. It should be felled when the roots are frozen and when the new moon is approaching based on the old carpenters calendar when is the best time to fell the trees for log buildings and timber frames.
In today’s logging and lumber industry, it is the new normal to treat nearly every piece of lumber used with various chemicals in an attempt to preserve the wood. However, this is often a temporary “fix” and these shortcuts have proven to be ineffective over time. But there are tried and true methods of harvesting and preserving logs and lumber the natural way. These techniques have been used throughout Scandinavia for centuries and have been proven to preserve logs for as many as 1000 years without the slightest signs of rot or decay.
The magnitude of this sustainability is unparalleled by any other industry. If we simply take a moment to look back and apply the knowledge our forefathers knew (before it’s too late), we can turn around today’s modern consumer based home building industry and greatly affect the environment, our planet, and even our personal health, for the better.
There are two known techniques of preserving the wood with resin and taking all the sugars out of it a year before felling it. They can be applied both on the growing coniferous trees or just one of these.
First is the “Ringbarking in Norwegian” technique. Removing the bark on the lower part around the tree 10” wide about 15-20” from the ground. Like all vascular plants, trees use two vascular tissues for transportation of water and nutrients: the Xylem (also known as the wood) and the Phloem (the innermost layer of the bark). Ringbarking results in the removal of these two vascular tissues and can permanently stop further transportation of sugars and water. This knowledge executed correctly will cause the tree to go through a slow death process, removing all sugars and drying the tree at the same time before it is even felled. The result is a material/log that is ready to use, more stable, experiences less cracking, shrinking and will last for many centuries.
The other one is the “Blæking in Norwegian” (Injuring/Scaring) technique. “Injured” meaning – the bark is chopped off randomly with an axe so that the tree can start to heal itself and push all the sugars out of the sapwood and fill/replace it with resin and antiseptics. It is an almost forgotten technique in modern forestry. This is one of the ways logs, in which log-buildings have been prepared throughout Northern Europe for thousands of years, make them stronger and resilient to rot as the sugars and water in the sapwood are in turn replaced with resin and various antiseptics. There is common to call such prepared pines an “Amberwood”. It takes a whole cycle of 4 seasons until the tree is ready to be felled after injuring/scaring or ringbarking.
It will start to die by the end of next summer (if you injure it in the winter before) and then by the next winter it is ready for felling. It should be felled when the roots are frozen and when the new moon is approaching based on the old carpenters calendar when is the best time to fell the trees for log buildings and timber frames.
