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"Old" Wood - What is it? |
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Before the days of railroad and truck
commercial shipping, the great lakes, specifically Ontario, were major
thoroughfares for shipping wood harvested in the colder climes of Canada
and northern United States. If you've ever listened to the song "The Wreck
of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian
singer/songwriter, you'll know that the weather on Lake Ontario can be
somewhat fatal to shipping there. Thousands of tons of primitive,
sometimes even original growth forest lumber went down in that great lake,
as well as other places including the Mississippi river. This wood was
dense enough such that it eventually sank and lay on the bottom for years
until some enterprising guys with side scanning sonar figured out they
could not only find these logs, raise them, but sell them for lots of
money. In the ensuing years since these logs went down, we continued to
harvest trees until old growth is nearly gone, but here's a treasure trove
of it lying there waiting to be raised. Why didn't it rot? Why is it
valuable? Well, Ontario is very deep. The logs having sunk to the bottom
would not only be protected by coverings of silt, but at those depths, not
much deterioration happens to wood. The temperatures, lack of light and a
number of other factors result in very well preserved wood.
Once raised, the wood is carefully dried so as not to warp or crack the wood, then cut for all sorts of purposes, acoustic music instruments being just one. This old, tight grain wood also makes beautiful furniture. |