Most usefull trees in UK

[Toddy]

The earliest bow found in the UK is 6,000 years old, and it's made from Yew That's a long provenance of being a good timber for the task.
http://www.carrifran.org.uk/about/why-we-are-doing-it/


cheers,
Toddy

p.s. The earliest arrows are of Rowan.

 

[Harvestman]

For construction where wood is immersed in water or soggy ground, then you need alder. It won't rot like other woods.

Historical evidence shows it was used for iron age (and earlier) structures in peaty ground, and for building bridges. It is pretty good timber too.

When cut it is a nice colour too, although that fades.

 

[NikolaTesla]

Birch, Maple/Sycamore, Pine, Spruce.

They all have it's uses, Birch you can drink it's sap, use it's bark for tinder, and even eat the inner bark.

Maple I like for transpiration bags, as they have a large leaf surface area, and for it's sap.

Pine you can eat the seeds in the cones, pine tea, and generally I like the look of the tree.

Spruce has good boughs for shelter. And it's roots are good for cord, and also I think pine is too?

 

[treebloke]

I did hear that the ropes which were used to transport and erect the stones at Stonehenge were made from Lime bark.

Apparantly they stripped the bark from an 8 year old tree and immerse it in the bottom of a flowing stream for a couple of weeks then dig it back up and make it into a rope like fibre. Sounds feasible, squirrels use the bark to line their drays which is one reason why you see so much deadwood in Limes.

 

[Toddy]

Alder has a problem though; it doesn't do well in the liminal zone of fluctuating water levels. So long as it's submerged it's really sound, but the rise and fall of the waters, and the subsequent weathering, that rots it pretty quickly.
It's proved to be an issue at the re-constructed crannog on Loch Tay.
Not sure about the bark on or bark off issue though. I know that when the bark is left on then the pile sends up leafy shoots even when the tree is buried 2m in the mud and 3m (+/- 0.5m water level fluctuation) in the water.

That red colouring can leave tools looking as though they're covered in blood when cutting the timber fresh. Lots of superstitions because of that.

Elm was a favoured native wood for piers, bridges and footings for buildings built on wetland sites, and such like, but piles for piers ended up being made from greenheart because it lasts much longer than other timbers. It does get attacked by things like gribble though.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Toddy]

Welcome to the forum Treebloke

The inner bark of the small leaved Lime makes the strongest natural rope in the British Isles. Stinks like an open sewer while it's retting though, and getting the smell off your hands when you strip the layers off to dry, is not funny

cheers,
Toddy