Saw cut logs of bog oak (www.teltinc.com)
Over the millennia of the use of wood, artisans, inventors and engineers have discovered, invented and brought to perfection technologies various methods of its (wood) processing. The most productive and efficient have been developed over the last century, they are mass-produced, repeatable, reliable and safe. But there are techniques that, having appeared a long time ago, have not reached the mass level. They served as a source of interesting ideas, went down in history, but, due to objective reasons, did not become industrial. One of these techniques is the extraction and processing of moraine (from the French marais - swamp) wood.
Natural, long-term natural staining gave the craftsmen a material that connoisseurs often call black gold - that's what bog oak is called, and they buy it expensively. At the heart of the modern attitude to it, in addition to its real value, is a commitment to antiquity, faith in miracles and the nature of some, and the desire of others to sell an invented jewel at a higher price, which no one will ever turn into mass consumer goods. The same attitude has formed, for example, towards a pair of natural/artificial pearls, natural/artificial diamond.
Products from stained (in water, in an oxygen-depleted environment) wood are a product of processing logs raised from under water. Basically, these are long naturally sunken trunks. However, it happened that equally valuable logs, extracted during the reconstruction of long-built bridges, dams, canals, locks, and mills, fell into the hands of craftsmen. Most of the wood that ended up in the water after the death of the trees simply disappeared. Moisture and air are what the biota, usually living on wood, needs in order to process living tissue into rot. Why are some logs lucky?
Wood that has lain in water for hundreds of years has turned into a valuable material. Quickly flooded trunks from recent (tens of years ago) alloys, with skillful drying, are not much inferior in quality to normal wood and differ little from it. Since it is impossible to trace the entire process of transformation in a reasonable time, it remains only to simulate and accelerate the conditions of maturation, to evaluate the role of various factors in this process.
Bogwood sculpture by Kevin & Michael Casey (www.bogwood.net)
The main factors that ensured the preservation and transformation of wood that got into the water into a valuable material are rapid flooding, prolonged exposure to water and / or silt without access to the air necessary for decay, the presence of preservative substances in wood and water (which prevents damage at the initial stage of maturation) , the presence of wood-modifying components in water, the presence of components in the wood itself, which in a given environment give the result desired for use.
Known for their value, bog oak and larch are prime examples of woods suitable for staining. They are heavy and sink quickly in water. The bark rich in tannins (and the wood less rich in them) form an environment that is detrimental to decay. Also, resin remains a good protection in the first stages of staining, and on land it resisted the enemies of the tree. If the trees in the first hundreds of years do not end up in the air and do not die from this (as a material) from cracking and decay, then the slow process of modification will continue.
Natural tree sap will be washed out with water and oxidized, the surrounding aquatic environment will be saturated with preservative poisonous phenolic compounds (tannins are just from this category), its acidity will change (acidify). Such conditions develop in lakes and swamps, in which trees accumulate for a long time.
When staining, processes occur that affect the wood to a different extent. On the one hand, due to the washing out and oxidation of natural wood preservatives, the level of protection of the wood itself will decrease. On the other hand, the need for it will also decrease - in the skeleton of resistant cellulose, there will be less and less low molecular weight carbohydrates suitable for the development of pathogens. Also, the loss and oxidation of soluble fillers of the cellulose-lignin skeleton of wood will lead to a deterioration in mechanical qualities (flexibility and strength will deteriorate) and greater permeability to water (as a result, greater hygroscopicity than normal wood, swelling in the dried state). At the same time, fossilization of organic matter will occur, which will increase the rigidity and resistance of wood in case of drying to decay and processing by grinders.
The process of transformation is slow, and the stagnant waters of lakes and swamps will be the best cradle for it. Important for the visual qualities of the future material is the process of interaction of the components (the same tannins) of wood with salts - it is believed that it is iron salts from water that give bog oak a dark to blue color with a characteristic sheen.
Natural underwater conservation is also optimal for the further use of such wood in underwater conditions. But who is interested and needs now the details of locks or ships? How to use stained wood on dry land? Modified wood that has lain under water for a long time is defenseless against dry air. A log quickly extracted from a depth of several meters at normal atmospheric pressure will be destroyed by actively released liquid and gases. Uneven drying will cause cracking and warping. Moreover, due to the loss of binder soluble components during staining, the destruction will be faster and deeper than that of normal wood. The network of small cracks and the porous wood itself will eventually be filled with atmospheric moisture, fungi and bacteria - the wood will rot.
In order not to spoil the valuable material, it must be properly dried. The log extracted from under the water is well closed from air before being sent for drying, protected from high / low temperatures. Then it is slowly (over the course of months) dried at a normal, stable temperature and controlled humidity (in artisanal conditions, they surround the drying place without drafts and active ventilation with water containers). After the material reaches normal humidity, it is sawn and processed. The initial cut into a board can also be made at the site of extraction of still wet wood.
At the final stage, the product is protected with natural coatings. Although it is believed that wood conservation occurs during natural staining, this is not entirely true. With a long stay under water, the natural destroyers of wood and the nutrient medium for them are eliminated. Therefore, properly treated wood is indeed healthy, but also less protected than normal wood from the penetration of the disease. The advantages of dense (finely porous) oak and larch are also manifested during processing - even the increased hygroscopicity of stained wood will not be so destructive for them.
Stained pine table by sculptor and artist Pieter Koning (www.pietkoning.com)
Products from valuable stained wood are piece goods. Such wood itself can be considered just as piece - it is formed in natural conditions with a combination of many different factors. Therefore, industrial production or harvesting of stained wood can be discussed only with a big stretch. Soaked in suitable conditions for hundreds of years, an oak or larch is not at all like a driftwood raised from the bottom of a flowing river, which is tens or hundreds of years old at most. Of course, wood is a valuable product in itself. Under certain circumstances, and from a well-processed firewood, you can get a beautiful, durable material. However, it is not worth considering it better than modern products of deep wood processing (for example, thermal wood) just because it is natural.
The desire to replicate the visual features of a valuable moraine tree led to the emergence of accelerated chemical staining techniques and their exploitation to replicate fakes. Rapid methods for even deep impregnation/etching with stains are now well developed technologies. With their help, you can not only change the appearance of wood, but also carry out its conservation. But such staining is similar to natural staining only in name, and its product should also be distinguished from natural stained wood, like consumer goods from a collectible item.
Stained wood is a tree that has lain in water for many years, while gaining incredible beauty and strength.
Everyone knows that there are valuable tree species, but there are more affordable ones, such as pine or spruce. But there is a very special category of wood - stained. This is a tree that, having lain in the water for tens, hundreds, thousands of years, acquires incredible beauty and strength. Let's talk about stained wood.
Stained wood - incredible beauty and strength
Trunks and fragments of trees lying under water are commonly called driftwood. A logical name, given that the tree really turns out to be drowned, has been at the bottom of the sea, lake, river, swamp for decades. It is noteworthy that some trunks at the same time turn into dust, rot and, of course, cannot be used. But other trees, on the contrary, acquire a truly stone strength.
The most valuable stained wood is oak. This royal tree is already valued for its strength and beautiful texture. Having lain under water for at least 300 years, the oak acquires delicate pale shades. If the tree is black, then it has lain in the reservoir for about 1000 years!
In the pre-industrial era, “black gold” was not called oil at all, but bog oak. Products from it are almost eternal, not subject to rotting, fungus or mold. They do not need a protective coating, and stained wood looks extraordinarily beautiful.
In addition to oak, larch is considered the most valuable stained wood. This is not surprising. It is these tree species that, due to their high density, sink, sink to the bottom, where a transformation process takes place under a layer of silt or sand. Even in fresh water there are salts that interact with the tannins of wood and help it acquire special hardness and strength.
According to experts, in order for a tree to really become stained, it must lie under water for at least 40 years. In general, the longer the better, experts say. The stagnant waters of swamps or lakes are ideal places to obtain stained wood. But a tree that has lain in sea water, soaked in salt, will also be no less durable.
Literally anything can be made from stained wood: furniture, parquet, various crafts, figurines and figurines, caskets, billiard cues, pipes, other interior items and even jewelry. There are no drawbacks to this material, but it is not available to everyone. Stained wood, especially oak and larch, is very expensive! There are several good reasons for this:
- First, it is a rare material. Although, as calculated at the Central Research Institute of Timber Rafting, approximately 1% of the entire floated volume sinks in the process of transporting tree trunks, and about 9 million m3 of driftwood has accumulated in the Volga basin. That's a lot, you say. But finding sunken trunks is not easy. In addition, only 50% of all sunken wood can be classified as commercial, that is, suitable for further use. And oak among driftwood is no more than 5%. In Europe, the search for and lifting of flooded trees has been done for a long time and purposefully, so it is already very difficult to find driftwood in European countries. Russia still has reserves of this material;
- Secondly, it is technically difficult to raise a tree to the surface. Special equipment is needed, usually the help of scuba divers is required. The wood becomes heavy, you can’t get a solid trunk by hand;
- Thirdly, it is not enough to get a firewood. It also needs to be dried before use. It takes about a year, and in no case should the process be accelerated, drying should occur naturally;
- Fourthly, it is difficult to process a tree that has become very durable; special skills and tools are needed. Not all carpenters take up work with bog oak.
Therefore, for three kilograms of bog black oak on the Internet they often ask about 2 thousand rubles! Or 200 rubles for one small piece, literally a cube, suitable only for cutting, for example, a knife handle. And a finished comb made of bog oak, such as shown in the photo above, will cost more than 12 thousand rubles.
You can imagine how much a parquet made of such material or a kitchen set will cost. Experts compare the cost of a good bog oak log with the price of a car. Cheaper bog birch, pine, aspen - they ask from 1.5 to 20 thousand rubles per cubic meter, depending on the condition and quality of the wood.
With such prices for stained wood, it is not surprising that manufacturers of furniture and interior items achieve similarity with the help of stains and special impregnations. Yes, this is already an imitation, in terms of strength and hardness such a tree does not differ from the usual one, but the color becomes darker, nobler, the structure is emphasized.
Stained wood is an elite material. Only for expensive interiors, yacht decoration, exclusive car interiors, furniture that is in the offices of presidents and heads of large companies.published
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If you have any questions on this topic, ask them to specialists and readers of our project.
Bog wood, bog oak is a unique wood, rare and fabulously expensive. Elite furniture, parquet and even jewelry are made from it, which are extremely strong, unique and durable. It is valued all over the world and the fashion for it is enduring, like the fashion for gold and diamonds.
But rarely does anyone think about its origin. Rather, the official information is:
For many hundreds of years, oak trunks sunk during floods or rafting lie at the bottom of rivers and oxbow lakes. They are partially or completely covered with sand and silt, which means that the wood is largely isolated from oxygen. In such conditions, the tree becomes strong, like a stone. It undergoes a change in the chemical composition, and at the same time it turns out to be treated with such a natural preservative as tannins. Further. Tannins, of which there are plenty in oak wood, enter into a chemical reaction with iron salts dissolved in water. After such a complex and long process, the sunken tree is qualitatively transformed. Its wood acquires unique physical properties: it becomes not only durable and strong, but also amazing in color.
But are the floods in the past capable of “cutting” so many trees in almost all rivers of the European part of Russia, Ukraine
My friend on LiveJournal tar_s shared his pictures:
Oaks under clay. Central Russia. The wood is stained, it was torn out of the river in large quantities for construction purposes.
Filmed on the phone. Yes, and in order to take a good picture, you need to shoot from the river, from the boat. It can be seen that the oak is even as a string and a meter in girth. Above the place where it goes into the cliff, four meters of soil - clay and sand. Chernozem layer on top is about 15 cm.
They usually have roots like this:
So I look at them - no more than 300 years maximum. But rather less. Pulling them out is really, really hard. Locals told how trucks dug in when they pulled a log out of the water, one end of which was in the bottom.
Apparently, the river changed its course (and there were several old women around), and simply washed out the place where the oak forest used to be. I was especially struck by the thickness and evenness of the oak trunk. It takes a large number of years for it to grow like this; in the area all oaks are at most 20 cm in girth. And there are no straight lines, all knotty, curved. This suggests that the conditions for the trees were more suitable. For comparison, in that photo the phone case is 12 cm long.
there was a real ship forest. I don’t see natural dams, trunks stick out evenly along the river, here and there. Rather, as I said, the river washed the previously covered trees.
The usual version - The river in the forest washes away the trees, they fall and are carried away by the stream. Further, in a whirlpool, they are covered with sand and clay and .. we are waiting for a couple of hundred years. But judging by the amount of it in the rivers, the rivers washed away all the forests, completely. Leaving nothing to posterity. The depth and condition say that this is several hundred years, if more than 500, then the tree will already petrify. I read that in the 19th century there was so much bog wood that it was mined to heat stoves. And this despite the fact that pulling it out is easier to cut down a few trees in the forest. But if they didn’t cut it, then there were no trees. All photos of the 19th century in Russia say that there was practically no forest. About the same and the current forests - trees, no more than 200 years old. By the way, in the 20th century there was a whole industry of building houses from stained wood - OAK, LARCH, BIRCH AND PINE! This is how many rivers washed away forests? And it was like this - The forests washed away by the wave were washed away into the rivers, and carried down by the stream. There were many trees, they made natural dams, because of which the level of rivers locally rose, sand and clay from the stream filled them up and "cemented". This is confirmed by rocks that are homogeneous in thickness and content in the layer of covered trees. Please let me know if there is anything in your case.
Such a trunk can only grow in a forest, the thickness of 300 years, add 200 (let's say), a total of at least 500 years from birth. There are also oaks over 500 years old. In the European part of Russia, oaks over 500 years old are almost never found. Maximum single copies. Conclusion - 200-300 years ago, some kind of cataclysm washed away a huge number of trees into the water. The question is what could have done this, then flushing the uprooted trees into the rivers. I think those trees that did not end up under clay, water and sand without oxygen, the bacteria processed a maximum of a dozen or two years, completely into dust, so there are no traces in the upper layers on land from the trunks. Only in clay layers.
I supplement with photos that I found on the Internet:
If you follow this link, you will see that the following souvenirs are made from this wood:
Extraction of stained wood in Ukraine
Why aren't these growing now? Haven't grown up yet. It takes hundreds of years for oaks to grow into such giants.
Please note that the trunk at the root is broken off. Those. washing the tree with flood water cannot explain this fact. This tree was broken off by a catastrophic stream.
Long-term natural processes contribute to the transformation of the tree species. By this concept, one can mean not only negative influencing qualities, but also positive ones. As a result of being under water for tens, hundreds of years, and even millennia, oak trunks acquire invaluable qualities, becoming extremely hard and getting a unique color of a singed or even blackish tint.
Under water, the integrity of the oak is preserved due to a unique characteristic - the presence of a special tannin in it.
Bog oak is a component of a refined and expensive interior.
Features of the passage of the reaction
Changes in the physical and mechanical characteristics of wood associated with the passage of complex chemical reactions: leaching of water-soluble substances contained in the cell walls. The process has been proven by the results of numerous studies conducted by N. T. Kuznetsov back in the 30s of the last century.
As a result, it was possible to establish that stained wood contains 75% less water-soluble substances than natural wood. This indicates an increase in the porosity of the cells and a decrease in their density, which as a result leads to an increase in the moisture content of the saturation limit, balancing the shrinkage, maximum moisture. It is this factor that explains the absolute shrinkage of boards or blanks during the drying of the sawn material.
The analysis data contributed to the development of thought and the formation of a new technology for drying wood species and blanks made from it with a thickness of up to 22-32 mm in a convective or convective-microwave dryer.
The use of advanced technologies has resolved the issue with the temperature treatment of wood. Internal and external cracking is practically absent. Collapse in such cases is unacceptable.
The interesting concepts put forward by researchers and scientists do not end there. The study of properties is in the process of processing geoanalysis data and continues its evolution in the world.
Features of extraction and processing of oak
The process is complex and time-consuming, and not every specialist can handle wood. Despite this, the products deserve the highest praise due to their qualities.
Important! If you intend to process or decorate the surface with stained wood, then try to prepare the material in advance. It takes more than one year to process a tree.
To obtain such valuable material, water areas of significant volumes are examined, especially the bottom of reservoirs. At the same time, the work is carried out in very difficult conditions.
How is a tree brought to the surface?
Having found the trunk, the bog oak is raised ashore. In this case, one cannot do without the use of technology, since one tree weighs in the region of 10-20 tons. Before proceeding with the sawing of the material, the wood pulled out of the water at the first stage is evaluated for quality. Sometimes a tree that has been taken out of the water and prepared for processing is completely unsuitable for further work. As soon as the material is sawn, immediately proceed to the manufacture of parquet, furniture, doors or window frames. Untreated stained wood, aged under water for many years, quickly becomes unusable on the surface. Therefore, it must be processed immediately. As you have probably already noticed, the extraction of bog oak is a labor-intensive process.
Scope of application of the material
Even if you have never heard of such a material, you can imagine that this type of wood is used in not one, but at least five applications.
Due to the fact that bog oak is quite rare and even more valuable material, it involves manual fine processing.
Most often, furniture, souvenirs are made from wood, which are doomed to turn into antique items. It is worth noting that the floor or other types of coatings used in interior design have a long service life.
Is it possible to produce bog oak in artificial conditions?
Thanks to the development of innovations and the movement of technological progress, it is possible to change the natural characteristics, properties and performance of natural wood. Today, scientists manage to successfully imitate the color of stained wood, while maintaining aesthetic and durable characteristics, achieving maximum moisture resistance.
As an option - oak staining at home. This option is simple and affordable and is ideal for those who want an unusual oak material with silver veins inside.
To do this, a stain is useful - a special mixture that imitates the color of a natural moraine of a wood species.
The product is applied in two stages: the first time on the surface of the tree under a slight slope, drawing strokes across the fibers, the second time along. During work, they use a flat wide brush - a flute, intended for applying stain and simulating imperceptible natural tone transitions. This is the best tool, characterized by softness and at the same time elasticity of the pile. Stains are often used to mimic the "bog oak" shade for laminate flooring.
What is included in wood stain?
Impregnation is made on the basis of three components:
- Water. Water-based formulations absorb better and are more readily absorbed by the wood species. During processing, the wood needs to be dried, which takes more time. The result is a uniform shade that is easy to correct with a sponge. After waiting for the material to dry completely, it is covered with paintwork materials.
- Ethyl alcohol. It lends itself to instant evaporation, therefore it requires high-quality and quick application and caution in actions. Work with such impregnation only in special gloves and a mask. Otherwise, it will not be possible to achieve uniform tinting of the material. Therefore, the masters prefer not to work manually, but using special equipment - an airbrush.
- Alkidov. In addition to obtaining wood in the desired shade, alkyd stain allows you to increase the resistance of the material to external negative factors affecting the material. Therefore, the coating of the product with varnish can be missed, except for shine.
Remember that home-dyed raw materials are easy to distinguish from natural bog oak. Therefore, artificial material is often used in baths, saunas, swimming pools, and other rooms with high humidity.
Why is stained wood popular?
Back in the days when man had just begun to explore the Earth, the tree took a reliable allied position as the first available material. No matter how the conditions and the development of scientific and technological progress develop, natural wood has always been in demand, and this trend will remain leading for more than one century. Environmentally friendly wood is not only safe, but also gives the room a special charm and comfort.
Considering that ordinary wood has become not so interesting in recent years compared to other progressive materials, it's time to collect laurels from bog wood. In terms of strength characteristics, the material resembles a stone due to the properties obtained during the period of stay under water.
The color of bog oak is not the main advantage that makes the material preferable in choice. Stale wood is not afraid of cold, moisture, or pests that destroy hectares of forest. The stained material does not require specific care or additional processing. At the same time, it remains the standard of naturalness, environmental friendliness, purity.
How does it happen that the result is stained wood?
The whole secret is in tannins, which, as a result of the formation of compounds with iron salts, are transformed into heavy-duty and durable. Stained oak boards can be called a newly reborn material with unique characteristics.
Interesting! The timber was rafted naturally along major rivers throughout the world. The banks of the rivers were strengthened, and when the trunks fell into the water, they remained there for natural processing by the elements of nature. 90% percent have already been recycled, but some of the trees were covered with silt, and have remained under water to this day, acquiring even greater value.
The use of stained wood in construction
Guess why such a house will not be afraid of snow, rain, windy or frosty weather. All thanks to the “school of survival” passed by the wood at the bottom of the bay, polynya, lake, pond or other body of water where it was located.
The main advantage of building from stained wood is environmental friendliness. It is difficult to imagine an even more natural material for constructing a residential building. Bog oak siding looks interesting.
The absence of shrinkage during the drying process also makes it a unique material ideal for construction. The newly built housing is completely ready for operation without risks to human life and health.
Stained wood in the interior
To create a unique style often use:
- larch;
- birch;
The only requirements for the material used in interior decoration are environmental friendliness and aesthetics, and bog oak products fully fill these requirements. Often in mansions you can find bog oak parquet, which looks unsurpassed.
No fungi or insects are afraid of wooden buildings of this type. Therefore, such a coating does not imply additional treatment with protective agents, and this is another plus for the environmental friendliness of the house.
The price of wood starts from 12,500 rubles per 1m 3. It does not matter how much bog oak costs, the main thing is that the material is of high quality.
Manufacture of stained wood furniture
For such purposes, best suited:
- larch;
- Birch tree.
Describing furniture made of bog oak, a simple name is appropriate - "exclusive material". The tone and texture of natural wood is unique. Color depth varies from light gray to black-blue tones, from pale pink to amber hues.
Interesting! Masters compare the pattern of cuts of bog oak with a map of the starry sky - the same unimaginably beautiful picture.
Unmistakably, such furniture is an unobtrusive, but pronounced sign of the taste and specific level of well-being of the owner of the house.
Manufacture of stained wood products
Products made from natural wood species that have undergone centuries-old natural processing are widespread on the market. From the bog forest produce:
- stairs of any shape;
- windows "bog oak" (shade);
- window sills;
- furniture boards;
- flooring;
- Wall panels;
- tinted doors "bog oak";
- siding and other materials for outdoor construction and home improvement.
Bog wood is an interesting solution for creating a Scandinavian-style room.
It's nice to look at the interior when there is something unusual in it. Bog wood is the element that fully meets the needs of the designer, creating new and new things to improve human comfort.