What is watered wood?
What is watered wood?
When a freshly felled tree trunk is put straight into water and left under water for a long time, it is called watering wood. This method is centuries old and was commonly done with woods that had a lot of stresses in them or tended to crack quickly. The trees were often placed in estuaries or streams. It is important that there is a slight current in the water and the logs are completely below the water surface.
Wood waters for several reasons:
- After watering wood, the stresses in the fibres are significantly lower. This minimises wood warping/deforming but also wood cracking.
- The water leaches substances from the wood.
- In some wood species like Elm, the sapwood turns the same colour as the heartwood.
- Woodworms, longhorn beetles and other wood-eating critters disappear from the wood.
- After watering, the wood is more resistant to fungi, which live off starch and reserve substances in the wood cells. Because the cells are leached, the fungi no longer have nutrients.
- Watered wood is easier to process. Such as when peeling veneers or cutting lumps.
We hardly put whole logs in water anymore. Nowadays, we can steam wood in special steam rooms. Beech and fruit tree wood is usually steamed to reduce the action in the wood.