Austrian wood industry

[florida]

We just got back from 3 weeks driving around Austria and saw all kinds of neat stuff. Austria is a very neat, orderly country with no litter anywhere. They have a healthy timber industry but appear to me to do more selective cutting rather than clear cutting. The slopes they are cutting trees on are scary. I really can't imagine how they do it as some of them have to be 50 or 60 percent grades. Once cut the logs are somehow moved to the bottom of the mountains and stacked. We saw a hundred stacks just like this and they seemed to all be cut to the same length.
 

 

Also saw stacks of stickered rough sawn boards everywhere in the country. Hardy saw a house without a stack or two



 

And firewood! Holy cow what stacks of firewood. It all looked like it had been measured and stacked b pros. Even one hotel we stayed at had a firewood stack! This was at a dairy farm we stayed at in Salzburg. This  wood was for sale and was cut longer than normal I suppose to reduce handling. he also sold what looked like wood flour in big bags for burning.



 

Out back of the barn he had 3 large stacks of timbers for a new equipment shed he's building. Some of these timbers were over 40' long.



 

He also had the 2 biggest wagons I've ever seen but I don't get out much. Apparently they use wagons rather than trailers because I only saw one trailer but lots of wagons.



 

I"ll post more later if anyone is interested.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Very interesting
Anxiously awaiting more on this
cheers pete

[sprucebunny]

Very interesting !

Do you have any pictures of the forests cut/uncut or just tree pictures ???

Is it mostly softwood ?

[WDH]

Austria imports lumber to the US. 

[lowpolyjoe]

Great pics!  I'd love to see more

[hackberry jake]

How difficult is it to back up one of those wagons?

[WDH]

 :D

I remember my peanut wagon days when I was a teenager  . 

[florida]

sprucebunny- I'll look. I don't remember if I have any close ups or not. If I do I'' post them. As far as I could see it's all softwoods. The only hardwoods I saw were in yards or around palaces. Certainly all the log piles and firewood we saw were softwoods.

[florida]

At Sconbrunn palace in Vienna there are very extensive gardens that cover about a square mile. Lots of lanes of trees that are kept trimmed. The trimming has forced the tress into strange shapes and made some of them one sided. This next picture is their trimming platform for getting all the way up on 50' trees. It's made of timber and looked pretty scary  to me.



 

This is the back side of one of those trees. I couldn't get a clear picture but even the trunks of some of the trees have been affected and are really strange with all kinds of knots and twists. It'd be spooky at night!



 

These trees, I'm not sure what they are, have been pollarded for 200 years. They are maybe 16 to 18' tall but the trunks are probably 24 to 36" in diameter. We saw lots of these in our travels. These were in the backyard of our B & B near Insbruck.



 

Here's another serious stack of timbers at the dairy farm



 

They use wood for pretty much all of their building and interiors. The barns are sided with 1 bys installed vertically and left to weather. In the older houses the barns were built across the back of the house and attached to it. All the wood I saw being used was rough sawn. Not to say they don't plane anything because of course the interior T & G is all planed.

Here's another log pile with some woods behind it. Being from south Florida I have no clue what the trees are.



 

I'll post more later.

[florida]

 Here's a roadside picnic table that won't blow away!



 

This is a way to use up all those logs that don't have a home. Looked like it was about a foot deep inside. We also saw lots of these being used as decorative water troughs with a steady stream of water running into them



 

Saw half dozen of these. Most looked like burls but some were just carved from log chunks. This one was in Oberammergau Germany which is a huge wood carving area.



 

Saw this in Brenner Pass. In the back was a wooden rake that looked well used. Actually the entire truck, if that's what it is, looked well used!



 

Then in a little village above Innsbruck I saw this brute! There were two more tires in there that obviously bolted on the back rims to make the axle two tires wide. I don't know what it is but I want one!



 



 

We saw lots of these old Majolica tile stoves in older homes and especially palaces. Some of them were 12' tall and must have costs a fortune. This one was in a hotel bar. I looked for an opening to see how it was fed but was told it was new and ran off electricity. They said it was still warm 2 days after they shut the power off.



 

Not about wood but it sure is beautiful. This is Mt Witzmann in Berchtesgaden Germany



 

I've got more!

[terry f]

Please

[Lazy logger]

Love to see more, I was born over there.

[lowpolyjoe]

Great stuff - thanks for sharing.

[petefrom bearswamp]

More more more please,
Great pics and commentary

[florida]

I can do this all day! My wife kept asking me why I was taking pictures of wood piles. I told her I knew a bunch of guys who would love them.

This is typical barn construction on the outside. They are all just alike in size and construction.



 

This is a tractor shed in the backyard of our B & B near Innsbruck. Beautiful construction.



 

Just a yard decoration now but I'll bet it's seen plenty of use in its day



 

The village bread oven in Natters Austria. Still in use although most people buy their bread at the bakery.



 

The Hapsburg family greenhouse. They could get a lot of tomato starts in there! Actually it was and is the Palm house at Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna.





 

[sprucebunny]

WOW !!

Great pictures ! Thanks. I could look at pics of foriegn countries all day as I will never be able to go there.

That greenhouse is amazing ! Wonder if they need to wash the windows ???  :D

[Larry]

We had a couple move here from Austria.  They built a new furniture factory along with a large retail building.  Opened right at the start of the recession and only lasted a few years.

When they were open I got acquainted with the owner.  Fitting enough, all of his machinery was brand new Felder from Austria.  Very expensive and top of the line.  That was my introduction to European woodworking machines.  He told me if I bought a new table saw, Felder would buy me a ticket back to Austria so I could be trained properly in its operation.

I enjoy the pictures, as my interest was really sparked seeing all those magnificent machines and different thoughts on furniture making while the factory was open.

[florida]

sprucebunny- Sure you can go! I used to think just like you but found that with some work it doesn't have to cost a fortune. We fly on points, stay in inexpensive B & Bs and usually only eat one meal a day at restaurants. Some of the best times we have are the picnics we have in secluded beautiful locations.  My wife sells on ebay all year to save the money for our vacations so we are out of pocket very little.

Larry- Yes, very high quality stuff. Lots of craftsmanship there. Even the logging is neat, you can rarely see where trees have been cut or skidded.

[florida]

I'm a sucker for doors so I always end up with lots of local door pics. The Austrian doors are mostly carved in intricate designs.



 

Typical farmyard. There's a barn on the right and one straight back. You can see the cow inside the door if you look closely. Also the stack of lumber on the top left. The house is attached to the back barn just out of sight on the left.




  

A stack of tops in the yard I assume to be cut up for firewood. People in rural Austria obviously depend on wood for at least some of their heating.





 

This was the only firewood crib I saw but it looked like an interesting way to dry wood.



 

Some of the Barvarian Alps near sunset. Views like this went on as long as you wanted to drive. We got to the point where  saying " Wow!" was worn out!




 

[snowstorm]

the wagons will follow almost in the same tracks as the truck pulling it. so they work better on narrow winding roads

[coxy]

WOW that's some nice pics thanks for sharing keep them coming if you have more 

[r.man]

Great pics. I love pictures of everyday things in different places. I would much sooner see a compilation of outhouses than palaces. When I see a picture of a palace or grand building I think of oppression, colonies and poor people who are poor so others can have too much room to live in.

[Ron Wenrich]

On the bucket list.  After seeing those pics, it's moved up quite a bit.

[thecfarm]

Nice pictures pf how wood is used.

[Magicman]

Austria imports lumber to the US.

Help me.  Exports to the US or imports from the US?  Which way is it going?

[WDH]

Sorry.  They export to the US. 

[Magicman]

My Sister is presently traveling in Norway, which is not Austria, but she just posted a bit about how the lumber was prepared before many of the old 1000+ year old churches were built: 

"We also learned more about how trees were prepared for these churches–and by extension gained more understanding of how wooden buildings in general can last so long.

Of course, they were starting with what we today call "old growth" timber which has grown slowly. 10-20 years before cutting the tree down, they would begin cutting off its branches. This would cause the tree to produce more sap. Then somehow that I didn't understand, they would gird the tree to cause it to expend its moisture without splitting.  It would take 20 years to prepare the wood, carve, etc., then a church could be erected in a summer. "

[WDH]

You could not do that down here.  The beetles would eat it up and bring in the rot fungus. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Fla,

   Great pix. Interesting to see how things are done in other countries.

MM,

    I worked a project in Kristiansand Norway from 2007-2009. I did not see any lumber being cut or stacked around the houses like Fla showed. We had a Norwegian daughter (former exchange student) we'd visit. I did see lots of firewood which is still widely used.

    Firewood I saw there was mostly birch and cut to about 1' lengths on a buzz saw on a tractor PTO. Looked dangerous to me but while many restrictions there that did not seem to be one on that. They'd drag the small logs to a landing then cut them with the tractor powered cut off saw and use conveyer rollers to move the logs and wood. They split logs as small as 4" diameter 4 ways which I thought was excessive. They'd place on pallets and shrink wrap and you bought a cubic meter of firewood. They used small wood heaters as individual room heaters. I have a big wood heater as a whole house heater but their little individual one (look like old coal heaters in the caboose on an old western movie) are much more efficient I am sure. Also the homes were built in the valleys and often real close together and the community councils would periodically send around chimney sweeps to clean everyone's chimneys so they did not have chimney fires from creosote build up. A fire there spread easily.

    Ruth showed us how to tell if the wood was dry enough to burn. She'd blow through one end of the stick and air had to pass through it.

   Another neat thing we saw in Norway was old buildings built on wooden posts. The posts were tapered up then suddenly flared out sort of like a flange on top of the small end of a funnel. This design helped keep mice from being able to climb around the "flange" to get in the building. Some of those old building were hundreds if not thousands of years old. We did visit a tiny church that during rebuild they found dates of 1011 on the rafters.

    Hope your sister gets to Flam (tail end of the Bergen fjoid - longest and deepest fjoird in the world) and the town there. Old farm is et up overlooking the fjoird is where Ruth works. Has a railhead and lots of people come in by ship and leave by rail or vice versa.

[florida]

 I'm running out of wood related stuff but I'll see what I can find.


This guy was watering a tree in central Vienna. We all have to help in our own way I suppose.



 

I managed to sneak a photo of the Lipizzaner Stallions at practice at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. The horses and riders are both amazing. The horses start training at 4 and spend as much as 6 years training. Same with the riders who spend 6 years to 10 years riding before they become Master riders.



 

I'm always as much interested in infrastructure as the scenery. This is a standard toilet. Wall hung, short and flushes with pressure bu pushing the large plastic thing on the wall. It works great.



  

This was on top of a mountain near Brenner Pass. See the very, very  obvious electric fence? I didn't! It was one of two I missed. It sure wakes a guy up.



 

This is the highest, longest suspension bridge in Europe. The Highline179 near Reutte, Austria. 450' high and 1200' long. It will sure make you pucker!



 

For those who are really, really interested you can read my travel blog of the trip at

https://travelwithrickandcathy.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/austria-hungary-and-beyond-2015/

[WV Sawmiller]

Fla,

   Did you see many P/U trucks? We saw very few in Norway when there. Heard they are expensive to buy and operate. Even Auto transmissions are pretty rare and cost much more to rent and run. They used trailers a lot. All had electric brakes and the cars all had electric brake hookups. Instead of our ball hitches on a receiver hitch they had a curved arm with what looked like a 1-1/2" (or smaller) ball head. Seemed like every gas station had 3-4 trailers to rent. Tiny cars would be seen towing these 5X8 or bigger (approximate sizes) trailers on the really steep hills.

[Ken]

I've had the opportunity to visit Linz Austria for a wood pellet conference a few years back.  I remember the countryside being very beautiful and some of the coniferous forests were amazing.  Not forestry related but was able to spend a couple days in Vienna.  Amazing history there. 

[florida]

WV Sawmiller- Saw 1 pickup in 3 weeks. Even my wife noticed it because it was so unusual. Mostly big vans made by VW. You'd think they would be  a slam dunk for builders and loggers.

Drove past Linz without stopping, one of the few places we didn't go.  Yes, Vienna is beautiful and a nice place to visit if you like cities.