Stained wood: features and uses. Bog oak is a modern production technology. Scope and use of bog oak How to get bog oak

Humidity is determined using a special device - a moisture meter. There is another way. To determine the moisture content of wood, an alcohol solution of iodine is applied with a brush to a fresh chipped flake from the workpiece. If the tree is harvested in winter (less damp), then the veins will acquire a dark purple hue, if in summer (more damp) - yellowish. However, it is difficult to determine the moisture content of a knotty blank in this way, since the presence of knots will enhance the “sound” of the wood.
The best way to determine the moisture content of wood is by the chips removed from the workpiece with a jointer. The wood will be damp if thin and long chips can be tied into a knot, and dry if the chips break.
The density of wood can be determined by the degree of saturation of its moisture. So to select oak plank high-quality, identical-sized samples of several boards are placed in water for several hours, after which they are weighed. The heaviest specimen will be of the lowest quality, since it has absorbed a lot of water, which means that its wood is less dense than the rest.
The juices that the tree feeds on during its growth contain many different salts. When the wood dries, they remain in the pores of the checkered structure of the tree, where, when certain conditions moisture comes in with the air. This contributes to the decay of the material of the blanks. To get rid of salts, workpieces with a load are lowered onto a clean river bottom with a butt against the current. After a certain time (usually 7-8 months), the water will wash out all the salts from the wood. After drying, the wood becomes very durable, almost does not warp or crack. It should be remembered that not every tree can be freed from salts in this way, since many species rot in a humid environment. Therefore, only those species that are hardy to stay in a humid environment are subject to leaching: oak, pine, alder, yew and some others.

Do-it-yourself artificial aging of wood

Bog oak is a lumber obtained from black oak with a purple tint (popularly known as "blue wing" or "anthracite") and subtle silver veins. He was in a humid environment without access to oxygen according to radiocarbon analysis of 800 years.

material bog oak technology its extraction is quite heavy and the processing of bog oak is associated with a number of difficulties. It should be immediately taken into account that the bog oak, from the moment it enters the water until it rises, withstands many thousands of cycles of alternating physical and climatic loads. Imagine a mighty oak fallen into the river, which for many years firmly holds its roots to the high bank. Meter by meter, for many years the crown of the tree and the trunk itself are immersed in water.

There are three ways to extract bog oak. The first method is very time-consuming and painstaking - this is the extraction of bog oak when performing bottom-dredging works by water transport enterprises. A no less time-consuming method of extraction is in the development of peat bogs. The third extraction method is much more efficient and less expensive. It consists in the work of a specialized enterprise, consisting of a number of units equipped with modern equipment and environmentally friendly technology.

Bog oak is usually huge, so it is possible to cut bog oak directly at the place of lifting (the weight of 1 m3 of lifted bog oak is from 1.5 tons), which can significantly reduce transport and storage costs. Raised oak immediately after lifting is not difficult to clean from sand, and due to the increased moisture content, it is much easier to saw.

Deciduous trees and their use in construction

The most important in carpentry are not conifers, but hardwoods. Of the variety of hardwoods, oak should be distinguished first of all.
Oak is distinguished by high strength, hardness, resistance to decay, ability to bend, has a beautiful texture and color. On the tangential section, the pores are clearly visible, and on the radial section, large core rays. The sapwood of the oak is clearly separated from the core in a light tone. Oak wood has sufficient viscosity and is well processed. cutting tool. After lying in the water for several decades, it acquires a silky dark purple color with a greenish tint (under the "crow's wing"). Its hardness is higher than dry wood, but its brittleness is also higher. Processing bog oak is difficult. Having a lot of tannins, oak wood is well pickled. The bark of a young oak serves as a source of tannins. In a decoction of a mixture of crushed bark and oak trunk shavings, wood of other species is kept and thus saturated with tannins. Soaked in such a broth and saturated with tannins, the wood is well pickled in solutions of metal salts, acquiring the necessary color. Oak wood is widely used for the manufacture of furniture, parquet, arts and crafts, as well as in cooperage. Oak veneer is used for facing low-value species, plywood, particle boards etc. Oak is used in mosaic work and for large carvings; for small profiles it is inexpressive. Oak wood does not accept alcohol varnishes and varnishes well, but sticks well. Ash wood is similar to oak, although it does not have pronounced core rays. When discolored, it acquires a shade of gray hair. It bends well after steaming. When drying, ash cracks a little; due to its high viscosity and strength, wood is difficult to process. Ash is easily damaged by a wormhole, so its wood is subjected to antiseptic treatment. The sapwood of the ash tree is clearly separated from the core. Its texture is beautiful, brownish-yellow. In adverse conditions (humidity, dampness), ash quickly rots. Flexible and durable, ash wood is recommended for making home sports equipment - gymnastic walls, gymnastic boards, as well as railings, tool handles, etc. Due to low frictional resistance, ash is not recommended for cutting tool blocks. Ash is poorly polished; requires, like oak, pore-filling. Recommended for ash decorative coating nitro varnishes or waxing. Due to frequent outgrowths on the trunk and a pronounced texture, ash wood is widely used in mosaic work.
Beech has a durable and solid wood; in terms of strength, it is not inferior to oak. IN pure form beech does not have a pronounced texture, but on tangential and radial cuts, its wood is very beautiful and these decorative qualities are used when veneering furniture with planed veneer. Beech is hygroscopic, so it is not used for products that are in a humid environment. The wood dries quickly and does not crack. Beech is easily pricked, sawn and processed with a cutting tool; bends well when steamed; hard to polish. The use of beech in carpentry is varied: from planer blocks to solid wood furniture. The wood is successfully used in carving, although it has a high hardness, as well as in mosaic work. It is well finished with nitro and polyester varnishes, waxing, dyed in various solutions and bleached.
Hornbeam is also called white beech. It has a hard, strong and dense wood of a whitish-gray color. The texture of the hornbeam does not differ in brightness, as, for example, in ash; light dots are scattered on an evenly matte background of its wood. Often this breed has a slanting structure of wood, so the hornbeam is pricked with difficulty. The sapwood does not have a large pinkish color with slight deviations in tone with redness or browning. Its wood is moderately hard and dense, well finished, polished and processed with a cutting tool, but it warps strongly. In mosaic works, it is used for sets of portraits, landscapes and geometric ornaments. In carpentry, it is used to make blocks for hand tools.
The chestnut has several varieties; of these, the most famous are the edible and horse chestnuts. Due to its softness and uniformity, edible chestnut is used in carpentry and carving. In its structure, this breed is somewhat similar to oak and ash, but in the radial section it does not have the luster of core rays characteristic of oak. Horse chestnut is obliquely layered and resembles pine in a grayish color; has strong wood and thanks to tannins it is well etched in solutions. It is used in carpentry and mosaic work in the form of sliced ​​veneer.
Rowan has a hard, dense, fine-grained wood, which is successfully used for the manufacture of handles for percussion carpentry tools and planer blocks. Only well-dried wood is used in business. The texture of rowan is weakly expressed. Karagach is a hard, strong and dense breed that is well finished and polished. Due to its beautiful texture, its wood is used in mosaics and carpentry, especially in the manufacture of fine furniture. Burls often form on tree trunks, which are widely used as veneers in mosaic sets.
Plane tree and plane tree (eastern plane tree) grow, like elm, in the south of our country. Their core color is brownish-brown. In a radial section give beautiful drawing wood fibers, which is successfully used in mosaic work. These rocks are moderately hard; processing them with a cutting tool due to the oblique layer is difficult; wood polishes well.
Fruit trees (plum, cherry, sweet cherry, apricot) and some shrubs (lilac, buckthorn, hawthorn, hazel, broom, cotoneaster, barberry, etc.) are used for the manufacture of small joinery. As a rule, their wood is thin-layered, hard, of various color shades - from white-pink to purple in the core parts of the trunks. Wood fruit trees well polished, painted and etched in chemical solutions. Many of the shrubs (barberry, buckthorn, cotoneaster, broom, hawthorn, etc.) are used as dyes. To do this, use their shavings, bark and sawdust.
Teak and rosewood are imported as sliced ​​veneers for furniture veneer. Teak has a uniform texture of light brownish chocolate color, rosewood has a very beautiful texture with a purple-brown background, along which black and dark brown stripes run. Their narrow sapwood is light yellow. Teak wood is easy to cut, but rosewood is very difficult. These breeds have a specific smell, similar to the smell of dried, prunes. Polyester lacquer does not bond well with them, especially with rosewood, which, more than teak, highlights essential oils accumulating in places with a black tint. Red, ebony (black), lemon wood and some other species are also imported into our country.

Features of oak wood and its application

Do-it-yourself wood aging video

Oak density=700 kg/cu.m.
hardness=3.7-3.9

Istari is the most popular material in Russia for the manufacture of joinery and furniture products. It is widely distributed not only in Europe, but also in Asia, as well as in America. At the same time, not everyone knows that oak belongs to the beech family and includes about two hundred varieties, and its strong, durable and resistant to external influences wood can be from light to yellowish brown, but subsequently darkens somewhat, and therefore oak furniture acquires a characteristic noble look over the years.
Oak does not tolerate accelerated drying (in which its wood can crack).
Several varieties grow in our country, but the most common summer oak is the pedunculate oak.
Oak wood is hard, heavy, characterized by high strength and resistance to decay, beautiful texture and color. Greenish-brown, with a powerful rough pattern of fibers, and the light parts of the wood are distinguished by a special strength and some kind of bone sheen.
Oak lends itself easily machining, well finished and bent, used for carving and in interior design. It is used in carpentry, furniture, cooperage and plywood industries.
In the furniture industry, bog oak is valued, which has a dark gray color.
Naturally stained oak is obtained from oak trunks that have been in river water for a long time (hundreds of years).
Bog oak is characterized by increased hardness.

Color and gloss of wood - description and characteristics

The color palette of wood species has almost all shades of the spectrum, and variations of these shades include countless tonal ratios. One breed can have several dozen.
The color of wood is one of the signs by which one type of wood differs from another. The wood of linden, pine, birch, maple, aspen is light, oak and ash is brown, walnut, teak is brownish, etc. If we compare the wood of pine and oak, we can say that it is light yellow in pine, in oak - gray-brown. But in both cases, the coloring and tannins that are in its cells give the color to the wood. More common are breeds with warm shades colors (buffy, brown, red-brown, yellow, orange), less often - with cold (green, blue, purple).
Under the influence of atmospheric conditions, the color of wood can change: within each climatic zone, wood of the same species has its own color shade. The color of wood is also affected by light and air: over time, the grain of the wood darkens. So, cut down alder becomes reddish after a while. To a certain extent, the color of the wood is changed by fungal lesions, as well as mineral salts in the ground, the environment of the tree (its darkening from the sun), etc. The wood is darker towards the butt, and lighter towards the top. With age, all trees also darken the wood. All this must be taken into account in carpentry and especially mosaic work, where texture and color act as a pictorial element when revealing a plot or image.
The color shades of various species can be classified into main groups, where one color of wood will prevail:
yellow - birch, spruce, linden, aspen, hornbeam, maple, fir, ash (whitish yellow with light shades of pink and red), barberry (lemon yellow), mulberry (golden yellow), hawthorn, Karelian birch, bird cherry ( reddish brownish yellow), ailanthus (pinkish yellow);
brown - cedar, poplar, elm kernel (light brown), beech, larch, alder, pear, plum (reddish-pinkish-brown), chestnut, mountain ash (brown-brown), acacia (yellow-brown), Anatolian walnut ( greenish brown);
brown - cherry (yellowish brown), apple tree (yellowish-pinkish-light brown), apricot, Walnut(light (dark) brown);
red - yew, mahogany;
pink - laurel cherry (yellowish pink), plane tree (dark pink);
orange - buckthorn;
purple - lilac, privet (core);
black - bog oak, ebony;
greenish - persimmon, pistachio.
The brilliance of wood is its property to reflect the light flux. Different breeds have different luster; to a large extent, this property is manifested in beech, maple, plane trees, white acacia. Poplar, linden, aspen, teak have a matte (satin) sheen; silky - willow, elm, ash, bird cherry; golden - cherry; silver - Siberian cedar; moire - birch, gray maple, laurel cherry.
The gloss of wood depends not only on the presence and size of the core rays, but also on the nature of their placement along the cuts: the larger the core rays (for example, in oak) and the denser wood, i.e., the more closely the core rays are located (for example, in a maple), the more significant the shine of the wood will be. The distribution of gloss over the surface is not the same and depends on the type of cut: in the radial plane it is stronger, in the transverse plane it is weaker.
Chiaroscuro overflows in some rocks are clearly visible only in the longitudinal section of the trunk, in others - in all sections. They significantly affect the decorative qualities of wood, enhancing or weakening its expressive sound, so the shine of wood is taken into account when compiling mosaic sets.

Coniferous wood species.

Pine is the most common coniferous tree. The color of its wood can be brown, reddish, yellowish and almost white with slight stains of red. best material obtained from those trees that grow on hills, dry hills, sandstones; their annual layers are located close to each other, and the wood has a dense structure. The structure of pine wood growing in humid places is looser. When dry, pine is light and pliable for carpentry work. Along the fibers, it is planed well, across - with difficulty, and sawn across - well, along - badly. Pine wood sticks well. Furniture is made from it (for this they select natural wood with a beautiful, pronounced texture), frames of carpentry structures and structures for facing with sliced ​​veneer of valuable species. Pine is widely used for the manufacture of doors, windows, flooring, etc. Wood is well processed with dyes and varnishes after deresining. Pine is also used for mosaics and carvings.
Spruce is softer than pine, but it has a large number of small and medium knots, which makes it difficult to use in responsible carpentry structures. The texture of its wood is inexpressive. Spruce is less moisture resistant than pine, and is more likely to rot, but its wood is not very susceptible to warping, which is positive quality this material. Spruce gets off badly, but sticks together better than pine. It is widely used in mosaic sets due to its knotty texture. In carpentry, it is mainly used for non-critical furniture designs that do not experience heavy loads during operation.
Larch occupies a special place among others conifers. Its wood has a reddish-brownish, sometimes brownish tint and is highly durable (stronger than oak) and moisture resistant. Dry larch wood is processed well, although during long-term processing of parts, the sole of the tool becomes tarred. Larch is not very susceptible to warping, but with rapid drying, internal cracks may occur in the wood of the trunk. For finishing larch, mainly nitrocellulose varnishes are used. The breed is used in carpentry and mosaic work, used for the manufacture of carved products.
Cedar has a whitish-yellow wood with various color shades depending on the place of growth. Cedar wood is not distinguished by high density and strength, it is resistant to decay, it is not very susceptible to wormholes, it has a strong specific smell, and it pricks well. In carpentry, it is used for products that are not subjected to heavy loads. Polishing of cedar wood is used little, it is finished mainly with wax. Cedar wood, like larch, is well processed by a cutting tool. Cedar - good material for carving.
Juniper - coniferous shrub, whose trunk diameter reaches 10 cm. Its strong thin-layer wood is well processed and polished, has a specific pleasant smell. Juniper is used in carpentry to make small parts, when turning, for carving and mosaic work.
Cypress and thuja are similar in properties to juniper, but their wood is broader and darker in tone. They are used for small carvings. Cypress does not crack or warp.
Yew has red-brown wood with dark and light veins. The sapwood is light, almost white. Yew wood is strong and hard with a significant number of knots on the trunk. It is almost not exposed to a wormhole and is little sensitive to atmospheric changes. Planed and polished well; looks great, especially black. In carpentry, yew wood is diverse application; it is a good carving material; yew veneer is valued in mosaic work.
Siberian fir is used on a par with spruce, although it has reduced physical and mechanical properties.

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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 protective covering, and stained wood looks extraordinarily beautiful.

In addition to oak, larch is considered the most valuable stained wood. No wonder. It is these tree species due to 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 the tree that lay 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 drift wood 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 to find in European countries firewood is already very difficult. 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 piece small size, literally a cube, suitable only for cutting, for example, the handle of a knife. And a finished comb made of bog oak, such as shown in the photo above, will cost more than 12 thousand rubles.

Can you imagine how much a parquet made of such material will cost or kitchen set. 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, finishing of yachts, salons of exclusive cars, furniture that is in the offices of presidents and heads of large companies.published

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Real or natural bog oak is a unique material created by nature. Its beauty and properties have nothing to do with human skills. Black, streaked with silver or greyish when cut, it inspires craftsmen to create unique pieces.

It is oak wood, mineralized with metal salts in natural conditions. For many hundreds of years, due to erosion of the banks and changes in the course of rivers, coastal oak groves were under water. Under the influence of tannin (gallotannic acid), the wood changes its chemical composition there.

Story

The earliest official information about the extraction of bog oak in Russia dates back to the 70s. XIX century. The researcher of that time Stal reported, describing the Sura River, that it had long been “clogged” with oak trunks.

Later, in 1882, information about bog oak was published in an article published in the journal "Russian Forestry" No. 12 by the forester Chernitsky, where the author of the article points to accumulations of bog oak in the former Kostroma province.

Gradually, information about the extraction and transportation of valuable material is increasingly appearing in various printed publications.

But printed evidence does not mean that oak has not been mined before. WITH long time ago bog oak was developed artisanal way: trunks were found in the water by prospectors and pulled to the surface almost by hand.

Later developed and industrial way extraction of this elite material, it was used by the Moscow-Kazan Railway joint-stock company.

Usage

Speaking of bog oak, one cannot help but start with a story about. decorative design Gorodets donets with carving and inlay from bog oak arose in the second half of the 18th century.

They were made by peasants from the surrounding villages located in the picturesque valley of the forest river Uzola. Inserts carved from solid black bog oak effectively stood out against the background of the light surface of the bottom.

In Russia, presenting gifts made of ebony on especially solemn occasions has become a tradition. Cabinets, armchairs, bureaus were presented for anniversaries and official appointments.

For the wedding and the day of the angel, the ladies were presented with caskets, caskets and small carved angels made of bog oak. These souvenirs, along with family jewels, were passed down from generation to generation.

The generals bequeathed cabinets made of bog oak to their grandchildren, and the elderly countess could give her great-granddaughter little angel, which at one time she got from her grandmother, fortunately. Currently, bog oak products are kept either in museums and palaces, or in private collections.

Photo gallery

Helpful information

"Bog oak"
(from the French "marais" - swamp)

Peculiarities

Characteristic features of bog oak wood are increased hardness, heavy weight, high strength and resistance to decay.

Bog oak lends itself well to mechanical processing.

After 300 years of staining, wood acquires a delicate pale shade, and after 1000 years - black.

blacksmiths

In historical descriptions, one can find the name of bog oak as "ebony" and "iron tree". Such names are due to the properties of wood, but we are talking about oak aged under water.

It is characteristic that in Rus' there was no concept of "cabinet worker" - craftsmen working with elite wood were called "cabinet makers".

And today, the next centuries old traditions masters respect the natural uniqueness of each piece of material they work with, revealing and presenting its best qualities.

The main differences from artificial

Nowadays, there are technologies for artificially creating the effect of bog oak. But there are always ways to distinguish a fake.

• Bog oak is a fossil material, it is fundamentally different from freshly sawn oak, because for a long time in a humid, airless environment, completely different processes occur in it related to the conversion of internal energy.
• Natural bog oak used to grow in ecologically absolutely healthy, pre-industrial conditions, which makes it possible to produce environmentally friendly products from it, which are currently in high demand and attention.
• Stocks of natural bog oak are limited and irreplaceable.
• The vast majority of known products from bog oak are of cultural and historical value.
• At present, mainly 50-100 year old oak wood is being processed, that is, the wood that is cellular level was fully exposed to man-made factors.

Bog wood, bog oak is a unique wood, rare and fabulously expensive. Elite furniture, parquet and even Jewelry, 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 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.

Bog oak refers to the most valuable varieties wood. It is used for making art and decorative items. But the extraction and processing of bog oak is a long and costly process. Therefore, the price of the material is high. dry stained wood traditional ways problematic due to the peculiarities of its structure. We will tell you more about how to dry bog oak in compliance with all technologies.

Bog oak is mined on the banks of rivers. Wood can lie in water for more than a hundred years, and then it is taken out and processed. Products made of stained material have a pleasant dark color and are durable. In terms of density, moraine material is compared with iron, so it is even difficult to cut it. Humidity of freshly mined product can reach 117%. Compared with natural humidity in 50-65% the figure is impressive.

Material is obtained in three ways:

1. When bottom - deep works - the most costly and painstaking.
2. When developing peatlands - less laborious.
3. Manufacturing in specialized workshops is the simplest, but multi-stage method.

The weight of wet oak wood is 1500 kg / 1 cu. Therefore, immediately after extraction from the water, the material is cleaned of silt and sand and sawn into small pieces. Otherwise, transportation becomes more difficult.

The tree is afraid of sharp contact with hot air and direct sun rays, so drying is carried out in a gentle mode. A proven old-fashioned way to dry bog oak is to place small bars in the grain in the fall and leave until spring. Natural drying is also allowed, but it must be carried out in a room with good ventilation and constant indicators of humidity and temperature. It became possible to dry the material in a short time only in the last 10 years, with the advent of new technical means.

For drying bog oak in a short time, the following methods are used:

1. Vacuum chamber.
2. Pulse.
3. Adsorption.
4. Infrared.

But when drying in the chambers, the moraine material becomes discolored and becomes not so dark. Therefore, many criticize methods of unnatural drying. But with natural drying, the areas where the sun hit, also brighten. Chamber drying of bog oak saves time, and if it is carried out in accordance with the technology, then cracks will not appear and the product will not be subject to internal stress.

At chamber drying slight changes are allowed up to different humidity values geometric shapes. But if you pre-process the product chemical composition, then the changes decrease. Details are shown in the table below:

As chemical processing a penetrating antiseptic solution is used. In it, the product is soaked for 2-3 hours. And also the shrinkage is affected by the temperature regime in the chamber and the humidity of the air. Maximum allowable temperature 50 degrees - shrinkage is maximum. Smaller changes are permissible at a temperature regime of 25 degrees.

Main processing steps

How oak is dried different ways we'll tell you more. The technology is followed step by step and it is unacceptable to skip one of the stages. Otherwise, the wood will crack and become brittle.

Vacuum exposure

vacuum drying oak is carried out in special chambers, where, under the influence of low atmospheric pressure, excess moisture is drawn out of the wood. It takes place in several stages:

1. Bog oak is soaked in an antiseptic solution for 2-3 hours. Sanezh will do.
2. The product is placed in a drying chamber, where it is kept at a temperature of 25 degrees and a humidity of 50% for 5 to 10 days. Temperature and humidity must be constant.
3. The oak is placed in a sealed chamber, where, under the influence of a vacuum, it is secondarily treated with an antiseptic solution.
4. Dried at a temperature of 35 degrees and humidity not higher than 25% for 10 days.

The method has advantages:

• Oak wood dries to a predetermined temperature.
• Color change is only 2-7%.
• Complete readiness within 4-5 weeks.

Of the minuses, high energy costs and the complexity of the process stand out. If you do not keep track of humidity or temperature, then the wood will crack and become unusable.

Pulse Method

The impulse method of drying bog oak is rarely used in Russia due to high costs. But it is considered effective and the material dries evenly.

It is carried out in the following steps:

1. TO wooden blank conductors are connected on both sides.
2. The second ends of the conductors are connected to a special electrical appliance that will supply current.
3. Under the influence of electrical impulses, the workpiece gradually dries up to the required moisture content.

If you have the skills and knowledge, then you can assemble such a device with your own hands and use it for work.

adsorption method

The adsorption method resembles the old grandfather method and is available to everyone at home. To dry, a small piece of oak is placed in a material that absorbs moisture as much as possible. Craftsmen use special mineral granules. But newsprint will do.

Drying is carried out in the following steps:

1. Small blanks are soaked for 3-4 hours in a container with an antiseptic solution. But you should not use solutions with bleaching effects, otherwise the black color of the valuable breed will disappear.
2. The blank is wrapped in several layers of paper and placed in a well-ventilated and dry place.
3. Each day, the product is unfolded and folded into new newspaper sheets.

Drying is carried out for 1-2 months. The wood will not crack and retain its noble hue.

infrared plates

The infrared light heats the wood evenly and the drying process is gentle. The workpiece does not heat up and no internal deformation is observed. The method is available at enterprises and at home. It is enough to purchase several infrared heating elements and place them on a frame made of timber or metal.

Drying is carried out in the following steps:

1. The workpiece is soaked in an antiseptic solution for 3-4 hours.
2. Placed on a flat surface under infrared heaters.
3. Once an hour, the workpieces should be turned over so that the heat is evenly distributed.

Humidity is checked with a handheld moisture meter. When the product dries out, it is allowed to rest for 3–4 days in a dark and cool place with a humidity of 15–25%. Then use as directed.

Of the advantages of drying under infrared plates stand out:

• Wood does not warp or crack.
• Does not lose its black color.
• Drying occurs evenly over the entire depth and length.
• Energy costs are minimal.

The method has no disadvantages, but because of its novelty, it is little trusted. The video below details one of the available ways drying hardwood:

How to properly dry bog oak is the secret of wood carving masters. It was passed down from father to son and carefully preserved. But with the advent of new technologies, it is not difficult to dry stained wood at home. The main thing is to follow the technology and follow our instructions.