Looking for ideas on how to utilize these trees....

[Cladach]

Hey everyone,

The area where I will be spending most of my time has plenty of Alder, Hazel, Willow, Oak, Ash, Rowan and some Birch as well as a bit of Sycamore. I can think of many uses for some of these but others not so much.

So far I've thought of these potential uses:

Alder - Charcoal, smoking fish/meat???

Hazel - Shelter frames, screens/windbreaks, tent pegs, camp furniture, pot hangers, nuts (edible).

Oak - Fuel wood (seasoned), acorns (flour, coffee drink).

Ash - Fuel wood, tool handles.

Rowan - Berries (rowan jelly), fuel wood???

Birch - Fire/tinder, containers (probably not given that bark around here tends to be thin), carving kitchen utensils, sap (drinking), glue from tar.

Sycamore - Carving utensils, tap for sap???


Am I wrong about any of the above ideas or would you suggest that some of these are just not worth trying (acorn flour and coffee I can't imagine being very nice for example). Any chance I can pick your brains for some suggestions or ideas about how to utilize these woods in camp? What would you typically use these for?

 

[Mesquite]

Alder - Carving, bark ground up to fine powder and used for kolrosing

Oak - bark for tanning or cordage

Ash - bow staves, bark for containers

Birch - make besoms. Also twigs used to make whisks for cookery.

Sycamore - excellent firewood

You can also make shrink pots from a lot of the woods you've listed

 

[Robson Valley]

Alder: fresh is soft for carving, dry is like bone. West coast smoke-wood of choice for salmon & sturgeon.
Birch: carvings, pack frames, snowshow frames. Sap for wine and syrup. Tool handles.
If Rowan = Mountain Ash = Sorbus sp., fruit for jelly.

 

[bobnewboy]

Decent bows can be made from the Hazel, Ash and Rowan, all once seasoned. But are you just looking to cut a lot of wood, or are you looking forward to things to make in the longer term?

 

[Cladach]

Some nice ideas there! I had to look up the terms kolrosing and shrink pots as I've not heard of them before. Those are definitely things I'm interested in trying and I will probably have another go at bow making. I made a bow from Rowan some years ago so it would be good to use Ash or Hazel. Tanning I have never done so that's something I also really want to learn about.

bobnewboy, not planning on cutting a lot of wood, I'm just thinking for things to try my hand at in the longer term and also ideas for anything that is going to make life around camp more comfortable or convenient. I will almost certainly have some Alder limbs to remove and there are areas of Hazel that are not being managed at the moment so coppicing might be an option.

 

[bobnewboy]

Hi Cladach, Ok, thats great, just wondered Ash can be good for bows, but it is hard to work, and likes to chrysal quite often during tillering or later shooting, which can be disappointing. If your tillering is good it can make a nice bow.

 

[Cladach]

Hi Cladach, Ok, thats great, just wondered Ash can be good for bows, but it is hard to work, and likes to chrysal quite often during tillering or later shooting, which can be disappointing. If your tillering is good it can make a nice bow.

That's useful to know. In that case I should probably stick with Hazel until I have refined the tillering process. With regards to kolrosing how durable is this on items which are used frequently, lets say I tried this on a handle for a spoon which would have to be left unvarnished for instance?

 

[Mesquite]

With regards to kolrosing how durable is this on items which are used frequently, lets say I tried this on a handle for a spoon which would have to be left unvarnished for instance?

It's extremely durable.

Once the pattern has been carved and the pigment worked into it you oil the item which locks it all together. I've a spatula I did some years ago which you can just make out the artwork on despite its regular use.

More info about it can be found here

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Hey everyone,

The area where I will be spending most of my time has plenty of Alder, Hazel, Willow, Oak, Ash, Rowan and some Birch as well as a bit of Sycamore. I can think of many uses for some of these but others not so much.

So far I've thought of these potential uses:

Alder - Charcoal, smoking fish/meat???

Hazel - Shelter frames, screens/windbreaks, tent pegs, camp furniture, pot hangers, nuts (edible).

Arrow shafts. It's a nice wood to carve.

Oak - Fuel wood (seasoned), acorns (flour, coffee drink).

Oak leaf wine is quite nice. Oak galls can be made into ink. I wouldn't fell oak just for firewood, that's a waste, it's a brilliant timber. Sure burn the thicker branches if you fell one, but the trunk, keep that for timber.

Ash - Fuel wood, tool handles.

That is massively underusing Ash, you may find The man who made things from trees interesting. The guy fells one ash tree and then uses it to make many many things.

Rowan - Berries (rowan jelly), fuel wood???

Birch - Fire/tinder, containers (probably not given that bark around here tends to be thin), carving kitchen utensils, sap (drinking), glue from tar.

Nice wood to carve. Leaves are edible in spring (still edible in summer, but nowhere near as tasty).

Sycamore - Carving utensils, tap for sap???


Am I wrong about any of the above ideas or would you suggest that some of these are just not worth trying (acorn flour and coffee I can't imagine being very nice for example). Any chance I can pick your brains for some suggestions or ideas about how to utilize these woods in camp? What would you typically use these for?

You mention willow in the list in the beginning, but then didn't actually list it in the uses section. So.

Willow - cordage, high yields of poor firewood (google short rotation coppice), basketry, etc...


J

 

[Cladach]

Mesquite, thanks for the link, there is a lot for inspiration there.

Quixoticgeek, I won't be felling any Oak, even the dead standing stuff mostly gets left well alone for the insects and birds but there is the occasional blown tree to be cleared up or more often just fallen limbs. Anything of a decent size gets milled down, not for my own use unfortunately. There are plenty of dead branches and limbs about though, some of them sitting up off the ground so I was more thinking of using those as firewood. I forgot all about the Willow.... cordage and basket weaving did cross my mind. I was also thinking dead dry Willow for friction firelighting. Having said that are any of the other woods a better option for this purpose?

 

[Robson Valley]

I hope that it's understood that not all wood anatomies are the same. If fact, they are so different that wood ID = species ID.
Ash (Fraxinus sp) is ring porous. Study that anatomy and you will find that staves can function like compound leaf springs.
Birch and willow are diffuse porous so the density is fairly consistent and that's an advantage for carving.