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Austrian wood industry

Started by florida, July 07, 2015, 04:10:16 PM

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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.

General contractor and carpenter for 50 years.
Retired now!

petefrom bearswamp

Very interesting
Anxiously awaiting more on this
cheers pete
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

sprucebunny

Very interesting !

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

Is it mostly softwood ?
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

WDH

Austria imports lumber to the US. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

lowpolyjoe

Great pics!  I'd love to see more

hackberry jake

How difficult is it to back up one of those wagons?
https://www.facebook.com/TripleTreeWoodworks

EZ Boardwalk Jr. With 20hp Honda, 25' of track, and homemade setworks. 32x18 sawshed. 24x40 insulated shop. 30hp kubota with fel. 1978 Massey ferguson 230.

WDH

 :D

I remember my peanut wagon days when I was a teenager  :)
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

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.

General contractor and carpenter for 50 years.
Retired now!

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.



General contractor and carpenter for 50 years.
Retired now!

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!





General contractor and carpenter for 50 years.
Retired now!

terry f


Lazy logger

Love to see more, I was born over there.
I know the voices in my head aren't real,but sometimes their ideas are just absolutely awesome!

lowpolyjoe

Great stuff - thanks for sharing.

petefrom bearswamp

More more more please,
Great pics and commentary
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

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.





 


General contractor and carpenter for 50 years.
Retired now!

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
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

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.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

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.
General contractor and carpenter for 50 years.
Retired now!

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!




 

General contractor and carpenter for 50 years.
Retired now!

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.
Life is too short or my list is too long, not sure which. Dec 2014

Ron Wenrich

On the bucket list.  After seeing those pics, it's moved up quite a bit.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

thecfarm

Nice pictures pf how wood is used.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Magicman

Quote from: WDH on July 07, 2015, 09:16:30 PM
Austria imports lumber to the US.
Help me.  Exports to the US or imports from the US?  Which way is it going?
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