[HN Gopher] 5k Year Old Bog Oak Table: Digging up 4k-year-old tr...
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5k Year Old Bog Oak Table: Digging up 4k-year-old trees for
furniture
Author : WuTangCFO
Score : 279 points
Date : 2021-03-09 08:27 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.lostartpress.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.lostartpress.com)
| zenbane wrote:
| That table is stunning, fascinating article. I wonder what the
| supply of these logs is like and whether we will see "Real Fake
| Bog Log Bedframe" coming out of the black market shops of Asia
| any time soon.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Probably already exists on Amazon
| panzagl wrote:
| Old growth wood is physically different from what you'll find
| at a regular lumberyard, so I would like to think no, but I'm
| sure it will be turned into marketing speak eventually.
| yitchelle wrote:
| While the furniture is beautiful, (that cabinet is out of this
| world), do you really need bog oak to give it that beauty? Can't
| it be manufactured to the same beauty using wood from today's
| trees?
| TylerE wrote:
| One case where old wood is actually useful is musical
| instruments. Old growth wood is much denser than modern farmed
| wood, and this does (usually Good) good things to the sound.
| bradford wrote:
| > Can't it be manufactured to the same beauty using wood from
| today's trees?
|
| I work with wood, and I'd like to think the answer is yes.
| While bog oak does have a special beauty to it (I can't think
| of another wood that's similar), most wood species have their
| own special qualities, and I wouldn't say that bog oak is
| inherently any more beautiful than walnut/cherry or many other
| varieties.
|
| Bog oak _is_ notable for its rarity and difficulty in handling.
| This drives up the cost and makes it coveted. But beauty really
| is in the eye of the beholder.
| madengr wrote:
| No. I cut down a 5,000 YO tree and the table I made out of it
| turned out great. Also, the Chinese will buy the sawdust as a
| libido enhancer.
| anonAndOn wrote:
| While artificial petrifaction is possible in a lab, I doubt
| it's practical at full log scale. You are only going to get
| this kind of timber from the right anaerobic conditions and (x)
| thousand years.
| oflannabhra wrote:
| Lost Art Press is worth a follow in general. If you're ever near
| Cincinnati, I highly recommend checking out their store front.
| They focus on keeping traditional woodworking books in print, but
| they also do a lot of woodworking (chair making especially) in
| their shop.
| deberon wrote:
| They produce a series of books about "Anarchist" woodworking
| which I recommend. In fact, they released the workbench book
| free of charge as a pdf:
|
| https://blog.lostartpress.com/2020/07/07/updated-anarchists-...
|
| They are my go-to for woodworking reading material.
| hdjfkkrrn wrote:
| Saw a documentary about ultra rich people houses in London.
|
| Another similar thing is water logged trees - they pull trees
| which sat for centuries in Slovakia's lakes. They fill the cracks
| with metal (bronze).
|
| A bonus point it's that the table becomes a "story".
|
| Pretty much everything in the house needs to have a "story",
| which is more important than the actual thing.
| smoe wrote:
| I'm far from ultra rich, but I like that many of the items in
| my apartment have at least little bit of story behind them or
| their makers and are not just being purely functional or
| decorative. Not that I feel the need to tell the stories to
| anyone, but at least to me, this gives the space a lot more
| soul, than if I just had hired an interior designer filling it
| with stuff or got complete IKEA sets.
|
| I live a fairly "minimalist" lifestyle (I don't subscribe to
| the ideas of minimalism, the Swedish "Lagom", "just the right
| amount", is closer), so I can spend more on fewer items,
| maintain them and have more time selecting, making or
| commissioning them.
| noir_lord wrote:
| > which is more important than the actual thing.
|
| When you can already buy the best possible thing then the story
| is what matters.
|
| > "Even the dog wouldn't--" "But humans will, Mr. Bent," said
| Moist. "And therein lies genius. I think he makes most of his
| money on the mustard, but there's a man who can sell sizzle,
| Mr. Bent. And that is a seller's market." - Making Money - Sir
| Terry Pratchett.
| dylan604 wrote:
| When moving day comes around, I'm guessing you have to offer more
| than just beer & pizza when it comes to moving a 43' table.
| quesera wrote:
| And 43' of table with the density of ebony..!
|
| From the article: 72 lbs/ft^3. Estimating the table width at
| 6', and thickness at 2", that would be a total weight of 3096
| lbs. Plus a healthy non-zero for the legs and other supports.
|
| If you carry the tabletop (legs and trusses removed) with 24
| people, 12 on a side, one every 4 feet, that would be 129 lbs
| each. OSHA would not approve.
|
| You could probably find 24 people at a woodworking school who
| are up for the challenge. It might be harder to find a place to
| put a 43' table in the first place!
| hu3 wrote:
| For metric system folks: 129 lbs is roughly 58.5 kg of mass
| per person to lift.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Metric system conversion should not be difficult, however,
| I recently learned it has been made convoluted.
|
| Attempting to find out the per gram price of something
| bought in a kilogram bundle, I simply divided the kilo
| price by 1000. This is where it got confusing. I was told
| there are only 985 grams in a kilo. Me: huh?? It's
| literally the definition of the word kilogram, 1000 grams.
|
| Fucked up maths: 1kilo = 2.2lbs * 16oz * 28g = ~985g
|
| Further discussion on 1oz = 28g and least significant digit
| only made matters worse. Apparently, this is the standard
| on purchasing of items sold in kilograms.
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| Who told you this? I can't find anything talking about
| 985 grams.
| dylan604 wrote:
| The people selling things in kilo bundles do not
| appreciate names being used. While there is no NDA in
| place, repurcussions are more severe than NDA's could
| dream. Silly questions like this are also not condoned.
| mkl wrote:
| > Apparently, this is the standard on purchasing of items
| sold in kilograms.
|
| That sounds like nonsense. Standard where? What items? In
| countries that just use the metric system, there would be
| no conversion to pounds and ounces (most people would
| have to look up how to do it).
| dylan604 wrote:
| Hello logic, meet brick wall. Enjoy the conversation.
|
| Lots of in between the lines intentionally left for the
| reader. No, I'm not in a country that normally uses kilo
| for weight. There are not many things sold by the kilo in
| non-metric using countries, but some items are
| regardless.
|
| Trust me, I've already had this argument until I was blue
| in the face. It doesn't change the fact that this still
| occurs.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Does OSHA have any say of something occurring in the UK
| though?
|
| One of the image captions states 18 people carried a single
| slab, so there's no way 24 would carry the full table, even
| without doing the maths.
| quesera wrote:
| Naturally OSHA is not relevant, nor are feet or pounds, in
| the UK.
|
| But I feel fairly confident that there are UK-localized
| versions of each.
|
| > One of the image captions states 18 people carried a
| single slab, so there's no way 24 would carry the full
| table, even without doing the maths.
|
| That does not follow. 18 people make many carrying jobs
| easier, but they are not necessarily all required.
|
| However, since the four tabletop planks are not joined into
| a single piece, it is clear that 12 people on a side is not
| a reasonable approach.
|
| If the tabletop is removed from the support structure, then
| 12 people make multiple trips with each plank, at 65 lbs
| per person, per plank.
|
| If the tabletop is _not_ removed from the support
| structure, and we conservatively estimate legs etc at 50%
| of the tabletop weight, for a total weight just about 2.3
| (US /short) tons ... you would need 66 people, properly
| distributed, to stay within the OSHA recommended lifting
| maximum of 70 lbs each.
|
| To get 66 people around that table, they would need to be
| about 3 feet apart, which is just barely adequate working
| space.
|
| Fortunately we don't move things like this using people.
| Not even in the UK!
| lmilcin wrote:
| I would say, in case of this table, "if you have to ask for
| price you can't afford it".
|
| Just the raw wood material probably costs a fortune. Given the
| fact there aren't many people that can produce anything out of
| it I assume that the prices are astronomical.
| samdb wrote:
| People have been volunteering their time and they are still
| raising PS200,000 to get the table completed.
| wcarss wrote:
| forgive me for pulling such a large quote out, but it just glows:
|
| > "Don't ever underestimate a craftsman," he emphasizes, "because
| they're highly disciplined, highly trained, very determined
| individuals. I'm a real advocate of traditional apprenticeships.
| I don't think you could be good at this job other than by doing
| it as an apprenticeship. Doing it as an apprenticeship teaches
| you humility. One of the people I worked with said, 'Somebody who
| never made a mistake never made anything.' Processing bog oak
| went so wrong, so often; you could take the view that it's a
| waste of time. Or you can say, 'I've applied myself to this in
| the wrong way, so what can I do to do it right?' A craftsman
| accepts that they've made a mistake. Then, rather than saying,
| 'That's a stupid idea,' or 'This is impossible,' they say 'What
| did I do wrong and what have I got to do to make it work?'"
|
| _chef 's kiss_ this is sage and serious advice, well told
| tpmx wrote:
| This is obscene. Don't do this.
| hawkjo wrote:
| So, how do we find out when they put it on display at Ely
| Cathedral?
| bombcar wrote:
| If I remember something similar is done with "logging" the Great
| Lakes for sunken old-growth wood.
| 52-6F-62 wrote:
| Anyone with any knowledge know if bog wood like this oak has been
| used as a tone wood?
|
| Really interesting read I didn't expect to see this morning.
| VBprogrammer wrote:
| My friend has a very nice spalted swamp ash custom guitar. I
| forget the name of the builder but it's pretty rare to go along
| with it.
|
| As for tone wood, its very existence is mired in controversy.
| This is probably not the time or place to get into it!
| ejs wrote:
| I've used bog oak for a bunch of things, it behaves about the
| same as white oak to me - so I doubt it would be great for tone
| wood uses.
| 52-6F-62 wrote:
| Thanks for the behaviour note--it sent me on a hunt! Of
| course, before I'd asked I hadn't searched up whether or not
| it's been used in instruments.
|
| Seems like the consensus is mixed. It might be a sleeper tone
| wood for a specifically-tuned instrument?
|
| Either way, the results can be quite pretty...
|
| https://www.brentrup.com/page2/page2.html
|
| https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/21176740531/in/album-.
| ..
|
| https://reverb.com/item/9428705-brand-new-avalon-a1-oak-
| cara...
|
| One of the criticisms leveed against it was in line with your
| dismissal of white oak--because of it's structure there's
| more damping than a rosewood but it's otherwise bright just
| with a fast decay. So I suppose that lends itself well to
| specific playing styles. Not a standout (aside from maybe
| looks and rarity), but not useless either.
|
| Found a clip: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/21176740
| 531/in/album-...
| hbarka wrote:
| This is all so fascinating. The idea of using wood thousands of
| years old. The craft of the people doing it. The realization that
| there are colonies of trees still standing, yes still standing,
| that are hundreds of years old.
| mikeyouse wrote:
| There are trees still standing in parts of the world that there
| are several thousand years old. Some of the oldest trees in
| California's redwood groves took root before the Roman Empire.
| E.g:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagg_(tree)
| danans wrote:
| Old growth woods like these are obviously unbelievably unique
| (and expensive).
|
| But even if you can't find or afford anything like that, if you
| are ever remodeling, it's worth reusing weathered but intact
| lumber from your house when possible.
|
| I pulled and reused about 50 ft of existing redwood 2x6 off my
| house recently as part of a remodel, refinished it with shou sugi
| ban (Japanese wood burning technique) and built a new gate
| structure with it, and it turned out beautiful.
| evanlivingston wrote:
| This advice should have a very large disclaimer.
|
| A majority of old finish lumber in the U.S. has been painted
| with lead based paint. Unfortunately the safest thing to do
| with this lumber is throw it away.
|
| Also in many homes floorboards have been covered with asbestos
| containing adhesives when newer floors were laid on top.
| cosmodisk wrote:
| While we on this: I noticed lots of interior design projects,
| where old pallets are used( Euro Pallet being the most
| popular). They are all treated with chemicals to withstand
| harsh environments and definetly shouldn't be used indoors.
| driverdan wrote:
| This isn't true. Most pallets are heat treated now and can
| be distinguished by "HT" on the side.
|
| You should still be careful about selecting and working
| with pallet wood. They can be subject to hazardous spills
| and can have random debris embedded in them that will
| damage blades.
| tvb12 wrote:
| I think this site was on HN a few days/weeks ago:
| https://www.1001pallets.com/pallet-safety/
|
| I checked a few of the pallets where I work; they're heat
| treated, no chemical treatment. But! While I'd feel safe
| using the pallets used to ship corrugate bundles, the
| pallets used to ship the sketchy drums of mystery
| chemicals look identical and end up in the same trailers
| headed off to some pallet recycler.
|
| I keep forgetting to check the CHEP pallets.
| evanlivingston wrote:
| Also, dust from certain species of wood can be quite bad
| for you. If I didn't know the origin and history of a
| piece of wood, I'd likely avoid working with it.
| danans wrote:
| Good point. My house's original wood is from 1998, so no risk
| of lead paint. Even in old houses, a lot of framing lumber
| was never painted though, so it should be safe to use.
| tristor wrote:
| I had never heard of bog oak before, but this material is
| absolutely stunning. I really wish there was more appreciation of
| proper heirloom-quality furniture and things in general. I think
| it's part of making living more ecological, and it's a form of
| generational wealth. Unfortunately we live in an era of cheapest
| possible items, and disposal of things when they go out of style.
| Something like this never goes out of style.
| hellbannedguy wrote:
| I was watching that show called Antique Archeology.
|
| It's basically two grifters from Iowa who take the good stuff
| from hoarders, and collectors.
|
| This one guy (Jersey John) pull out a 1886 Windsor chair, and
| acting like he's doing the owner a favor by offered the guy
| $25. The owner shot back with, "I can get $40 at a yard sale?"
|
| Anyhoo--it just reminded me how far we have gotten away from
| buying beautiful handmade things that will last forever, and
| going with junk make in the cheapest country.
| mywittyname wrote:
| People have different tastes. Just because something is old
| or handmade, that doesn't make it desirable.
|
| Plus, 140 year old furniture takes specialized maintenance if
| you want them to last. It's kind of expensive to properly
| maintain or refinish antique furniture. Chairs, especially,
| need proper maintenance, they experience much more wear than
| something like a chest, and an improper fix can destroy it.
| rabf wrote:
| Older furniture can be much easier to repair its just a
| shame that the knowledge is somewhat less commanplace than
| it once was. Shellac finishes are a known quantity, easy to
| touch up or remove an re-apply. The animal glues used in
| woodwork of the past also allows joints to be easily
| disassembled for repair and often you can just reactivate
| the existing glue with some moisture and heat.
| mywittyname wrote:
| Of you break a spindle or a stretcher, especially at a
| tendon, then doing a proper fix does take skill and
| specialized tools. Disassembly really isn't an issue,
| because, like you said, some heat and pressure will
| release most joints with ease.
|
| But actually fixing a break does take skill. If you're
| _lucky_ the pieces will mate back together seamlessly and
| you can use wood glue and maybe some wax to get the piece
| looking like new and just reassemble them. But if the
| break is not clean, or there has been a previous repair
| (maybe involving screws or nails) then replicating a
| piece is pretty difficult. Turning a new piece requires a
| lathe, color matching stains is definitely a skill you
| acquire through experience.
|
| Chips on surfaces and the like pretty much require you to
| have a decent collection of veneer on hand, in order to
| luck out and find something with similar grain patterns.
|
| I do a fair bit of antiquing and (proper) refurbishing of
| old furniture (not 'upcycling'). It's not for the faint
| of heart. It's a time-consuming labor of love that's akin
| to maintaining a classic car.
| sigstoat wrote:
| > it just reminded me how far we have gotten away from buying
| beautiful handmade things that will last forever, and going
| with junk make in the cheapest country.
|
| selection bias. all the cheap junk your grandparents bought
| was disposed of before you were born. you never even saw it.
| Mediterraneo10 wrote:
| One reason for less interest today in heirloom products that
| last forever: falling birthrates often mean that just one
| person is inheriting all the possessions left behind by
| multiple people. No surprise that that one person doesn't have
| that much room in his or her home, especially since sometimes
| younger generations are likely to have smaller living spaces
| than their parents.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| I first encountered bog oak (morta) in the world of tobacco
| pipes. Turns out that some pipe makers have been using the
| material for quite a while because the grain patterns are
| stunning.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| Ikea has made millennials think furniture is disposable.
| quesera wrote:
| That's a shallow dismissal.
|
| IKEA has been around longer than millennials have.
|
| And some IKEA products last forever.
| SavantIdiot wrote:
| I think that's a bit misplaced, as millenials are in their
| 40's now, so they probably don't just throw things away like
| you assume. But also...
|
| I used to live out in the woods and had to haul my garbage to
| the dump every few months. (I didn't want to burn plastic,
| like some of my crazy neighbors did.)
|
| The city dump changes seasonally. After Christmas, there are
| piles of old toys that were replaced. After summer, there are
| hundreds of discarded blue-plastic kid pools. After fall
| there is a TON of furniture. I have no idea why: do people
| buy more furniture in the fall in preparation for holidays?
|
| Anyway, I see more cheap furniture from Target and department
| stores than I do IKEA. Ikea is inexpensive furniture, but
| vastly better than Walmart, Target, Sam's Club, etc. So I
| didn't see a lot of IKEA at the dump.
| TylerE wrote:
| > After fall there is a TON of furniture. I have no idea
| why: do people buy more furniture in the fall in
| preparation for holidays
|
| Students moving into new places/moving out and going home.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| _I have no idea why: do people buy more furniture in the
| fall in preparation for holidays?_
|
| Veteran's Day furniture sales :)
| sillyquiet wrote:
| yeah, spot-on, it's less IKEA and more the cheap assemble-
| it-yourself knock-offs you find at Target and Wal-Mart and
| the like that gives that kind of furniture its poor
| reputation. IKEA furniture I bought a decade or more ago is
| _still_ in great shape.
| mywittyname wrote:
| Quality IKEA furniture is made of solid fir/pine/spruce
| and is finished with a resin paint that resists
| scratching pretty (though, pine is still soft and dents
| easily). If you put it together using some wood glue, it
| will hold up for years.
|
| IKEA absolutely sells cheap furniture made of laminated
| MDF, and it's often half the price of the quality stuff.
| And it's not fair to lambast IKEA for sacrificing quality
| to hit a price-point when they do allow people to pay
| more to better stuff.
|
| The step up from the good IKEA tier is a big step. Even
| cheap hardwoods like oak are a lot more expensive than
| s/p/f. And that's not even getting into how much more
| wear hardwoods put on tooling or the weight difference.
| novok wrote:
| Half the time it's not even MDF anymore, it's just
| laminated reinforced cardboard with chunks of MDF here
| and there for screw points. What I find really sad is how
| a lot of expensive furniture also uses MDF.
| mywittyname wrote:
| Solid wood is _expensive_ and it does have a lot of
| seasonal movement. I do some furniture building and there
| 's something to be said for how workable MDF is. It
| doesn't warp, it's dead simple to cut through, it's
| pretty light, and it's _cheap_.
|
| If it's used correctly, MDF is a fine material for
| furniture. The key to quality pieces with it seems to be
| in the finish. A piece that's primed, painted with high
| quality, durable paint, then sealed/lacquered will last a
| good long while.
| ballenf wrote:
| I wonder if the original purchaser of that antique dresser
| you love would have chosen a nice Ikea one if given the
| choice? (Especially if you adjusted the prices for relative
| purchasing power.)
| minikites wrote:
| We're not stupid or tasteless, we just don't have enough
| money to buy furniture that is actually nice. Also, it's not
| like we can afford to own homes so Ikea futons in a studio
| apartment it is.
| zo1 wrote:
| Or that you don't need to own it - you can just rent it...
| Isn't that the "exxagerated" trope regarding that these days?
|
| Don't need to own a car, just use Uber! Don't need to own
| your servers, just provision (rent) them from AWS! etc.
|
| Wonder when it'll apply to furniture?
| dzdt wrote:
| I am amazed in an article about bog oak no mention of
| dendrochronology. Scientists have been collecting and matching up
| tree rings from samples including especially bog oaks. This
| builds an unbroken chain of ring width measurements back to the
| last ice age. It lets wood pieces be dated to calendar year
| resolution, serves as the basis for calibration of radiocarbon
| dating curves, and enables study of past climate conditions.
| toomanybeersies wrote:
| In New Zealand, there are old swamplands filled with swamp Kauri.
| Around a year ago, construction workers found a 16 m (52 ft) long
| log which had been buried underground for 40,000 years [1]
|
| They used to dig up $200 million worth of timber a year, mostly
| exported to China, until the government cracked down on exports.
| It's illegal to export unfinished native timber, so exporters
| exploited a loophole by cutting the trunks into "tabletops", or
| adding basic carvings and labelling them as "totem poles", and
| then shipping the logs to China for further processing.
|
| [1] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/giant-ngawha-swamp-kauri-
| log-d...
| tomrod wrote:
| The limits of regulation. There is no way to plug all
| loopholes.
|
| That said, the added labor ensures a more finished product is
| exported. Was that the intent, or was the intent to force the
| wood to stay in NZ?
| CPLX wrote:
| The intent of finished goods laws like this almost invariably
| is to protect domestic jobs. Many other countries have
| variations on these type of laws.
|
| The concern is that a raw material export based economy is
| bad for the people who live in the country because most of
| the value is extracted from the country and only the most
| unskilled jobs are left.
|
| This type of resource extraction was a hallmark of the
| colonial era, which is one reason governments are very wary
| of it.
| minitoar wrote:
| Certainly the former, but clearly not in the spirit of it.
| However as long as the tax man got his share maybe that's all
| that matters. Presumably the more finished product is taxed
| higher.
| lostlogin wrote:
| Not here in NZ. The wetlands were being plundered and
| trashed with all the raw logs shipped to China. The tax
| wasn't the issue, it was getting paid.
| TheIronYuppie wrote:
| Both the letter of the law and the spirit seem to point to
| just using the regulation around finished furniture as a
| way to limit over harvesting. Why do you see it
| differently?
| aantix wrote:
| Lawmakers are slow and playing defense all of the time.
| You're always a step behind when you have to react to moves.
| weregiraffe wrote:
| >The limits of regulation. There is no way to plug all
| loopholes.
|
| Sure there is. Just ban export of wood and wooden items.
| tomrod wrote:
| Then you find wood called "cellulose products" and the
| cycle starts again. It's impossible to limit creativity,
| and also why would a government want to pursue a ban as it
| impacts negatively woodworkers?
| weregiraffe wrote:
| >Then you find wood called "cellulose products" and the
| cycle starts again.
|
| Inventing new words doesn't magically absolve you of
| crimes, you know.
| tomrod wrote:
| Actually it does. Consider "bribe" versus "campaign
| donor." "Execution" versus "murder". Many cases exist.
| But that is beside the point.
|
| Laws have to be specific, and that is the issue. If you
| can perform a minimal treatment to the object under the
| law, then it can be transmuted under the law and the
| spirit of the regulation is sidestepped.
| tptacek wrote:
| A bribe is a donation made with an overt expectation of
| quid pro quo.
|
| A murder is an unlawful killing.
| tomrod wrote:
| The points stand. Campaign donations can have
| undocumented quid pro quos. Legality is what we agree it
| is, so if some consider an execution unlawful then it is
| murder. Consider how many innocents given death penalty
| and exonerated earlier (for a simple case, Salem witch
| trials).
| shuntress wrote:
| Laws cannot be specific for this exact reason.
|
| Reason, judgement, and consensus must be part of the
| process.
|
| To ban the export of unprocessed domestic wood, is it
| preferable to pre-define and include every possible
| "process" or is it better to have judges who asses
| whether any given would-be export is "processed"?
|
| Also, lets skip the argument of regulatory
| capture/neglect by just agreeing that government
| transparency/accessibility and voter enfranchisement are
| critically important to maintaining any reasonable
| consensus-based system.
| mellavora wrote:
| I really want to agree with you; this is how law should
| work (and why "law is like software" analogies are so
| fundamentally wrong, software doesn't make judgement
| calls). The problem is that people are involved, which
| means some of the judges will show poor judgement,
| including possibly okay'ing something if their friends do
| it but not if other do, or other less obviously unfair
| things.
|
| I don't see a solution; the obvious choice of trying to
| make the law more specific and thus less reliant on
| judgement gets us back to the idea you are opposing.
| SavantIdiot wrote:
| Yes, but still better than no regulations. It's an arms race.
| tomrod wrote:
| Why is that better, specific to this instance?
| jayd16 wrote:
| I would venture to guess the regulation, weak as it was,
| still slowed the exports.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| Right, but I'd argue this export was beneficial, both to
| NZ and China.
| tomrod wrote:
| I would imagine so, if only a minor amount. Seems like it
| increased the price I would gather, unless the
| international market for unique wood doesn't behave as
| I'm speculating :)
| sandworm101 wrote:
| There is also an environmental aspect. Limits on the export
| of unfinished wood/logs ensures that the wood isn't being
| sold to become firewood.
|
| Firewood is a thing. Something like 8-10% of UK electricity
| (2017) came from firewood harvested in the US.
|
| https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-06-20/uk-s-move-away-
| coal-m...
| alisonkisk wrote:
| Seems like another case of "this should have been a tax
| instead of an easily circumventable kverly-specific
| regulation".
| lostlogin wrote:
| The wood dug out of swamps in NZ is far too valuable to be
| firewood, but wrecking wetland does have a massive negative
| impact.
|
| It's worth googling images of swamp kauri if woodworking is
| your thing, the logs are truely massive.
| brabel wrote:
| I did just that... and found this interesting article
| about swamp kauri and how they helped understand what
| happened last time the Earth's magnetic poles reversed,
| 42,000 years ago: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-
| advocate/news/ancient-no...
| njarboe wrote:
| The Earth's magnetic poles last permanently reversed
| about 780,000 years ago. The magnetic event that happened
| ~41,000-42,000 years ago is called the Laschamps
| excursion. An excursion is when the magnetic field gets
| very weak, becomes non-dipolar, but then returns to the
| original polarity that the field was before the
| excursion. Occasionally durning these excursions the
| field flips directions and becomes stable in the opposite
| direction. That did not happen for the Laschamps. Many of
| these excursions have occurred since the last reversal of
| the field.
|
| The article you linked to is a bit woo-woo, especially
| with all the Douglas Adam's stuff and the number 42. The
| article did not link to the scientific paper, which is an
| interesting read. It seems to be open access, so check it
| out[1].
|
| [1]https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6531/811
| lostlogin wrote:
| For those that aren't aware, there was also a scandal when the
| main fuel line for Auckland airport was ruptured by a digger
| looking for swamp kauri. To make it all more complicated, the
| company that did it had a director married to a high ranking
| MP. It all got murky fast.
|
| https://thestandard.org.nz/the-strange-case-of-oravida-and-t...
| itronitron wrote:
| So the job market in NZ for chainsaw artists is picking up?
| agustif wrote:
| kay, can't delete now, stand corrected lol. Sorry for random rant
| sambroner wrote:
| The article is specifically about digging up old trees that
| were found in bogs.
| 11thEarlOfMar wrote:
| Though not as astonishingly aged, the Brewery Gulch Inn in
| Mendcino, Ca. is paneled with lumber from 'sinker logs' that were
| lodged in the silt of the nearby Big River for ~150 years. The
| mineralization has created color variations otherwise not
| naturally seen [0][1].
|
| [0] https://www.brewerygulchinn.com/the-history-of-the-inn
|
| [1]
| https://media.expedia.com/hotels/1000000/900000/894100/89401...
| simonebrunozzi wrote:
| I didn't know what "Bog Oak" was, so I found this [0]: an
| interesting explanation of how these trunks are preserved over
| many years.
|
| [0]: https://davorinmortapipes.com/what-is-abonos-morta/
| jahlove wrote:
| Can someone explain how all the planks of the bog oak fit
| together so perfectly? The article says go to their instagram for
| details but I'm not really getting a whole lot when I click on
| individual photos.
| dahdum wrote:
| It looks like they cut a single 43ft board from the oak, then
| cut that into 4 planks for the kiln and milling process. After
| that completed they would join them back together. You lose at
| least an 1/8" for the blade width plus whatever they had to
| trim due to cupping, but that could be very difficult to see in
| the final top.
| [deleted]
| quesera wrote:
| The planks are expertly milled to fit together perfectly. No
| doubt this required extra handwork due to the density and
| length of the planks.
|
| It's usually done by machine, but the traditional process is
| manual of course.
| kevinpet wrote:
| I haven't seen their page, but I've seen this kind of thing
| before. After lining up approximately where things should fit,
| one piece is cut in a smooth curve just back far enough to
| remove the live edge. The other piece is cut to match that.
| This can be done using router templates. IIRC there's some
| trickiness with the size of the router bearings / guides to
| account for cutting on one side vs. the other.
|
| For the scale they are doing, they might be able to set up a
| more customized solution. For example, a router attached to
| some guide tracks like a
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantograph
| etrautmann wrote:
| digging through their Instagram posts, it appears as though
| they've developed a newish technique for this which they call a
| "river joint." They match the not perfectly straight edges of
| adjacent boards as well as they can, then they square up and
| rout a tongue and groove into the edges. Where there are small
| gaps, they add small filler pieces as necessary, but try to
| minimize that.
|
| It seems like a beautiful but laborious process that is mostly
| applicable to a very high effort piece like this.
| patrickyeon wrote:
| The project site has a page on the process, not quite a step-
| by-step guide, but probably enough to satisfy curiosity.
| https://www.thefenlandblackoakproject.co.uk/the-table-top
| intrasight wrote:
| Cool recycling story. Lou Stiver has been making mandolins for
| decades. Some time ago, a neighbor was renovating their kitchen.
| Lou knew that the original cabinets were made from maple
| harvested from the property. He asked the neighbor for the old
| cabinets, and made what he believes are some of his finest
| mandolins.
|
| https://www.yourheaven.net/2018/3-mandolin-makers/
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