AxMen questions....

[mrcaptainbob]

There have been a few questions about logging coming up while watching one of the more favored programs (AxMen): mention of 'old growth' timber. What's the difference between that which was two hundred years old and cut down a hundred years ago and another that's tow hundred years old and cut down today? Also, what is 'second growth?  Also, mention was made by S&S that logs in the water for such a period of time have had the sap driven out by the water it's submerged in. How would that happen and why is that a good thing?
Thanks in advance for any help...

[WDH]

Old growth has never been commercially logged.  Second growth is the forest that replaced the old growth forest after it was initially logged (second after the first).  Many natural forests are third growth like in the Southern US.  What many consider "old growth" is actually second growth or later.

As to sinker logs...the minerals in the water are absorbed by the wood over many years and the minerals give the wood its distinctive color.  With the log being in a fully saturated solution from the river water, the minerals migrate into the wood over time.  "Sap" in a log is water and sugars that the tree has stored from photosynthesis.  Over many decades, the river water replaces the natural "sap" of the tree.

[Banjo picker]

One of the major producers of quality banjos use those sunken timbers for the rim that the tone ring sits on.  They get a high dollar for them.  The company is Stelling.  Tim

[mrcaptainbob]

Great info. Thanks for the help.....

[Dave Shepard]

Could you pressure treat a log with those minerals, and skip the hundred years at the bottom of a river?

[Phorester]

Don't see why not if you could get the minerals, mix them at the proper proportions, and the chemical reactions needed for the tree cells to absorb the chemicals would occur in the pressue treatment process.