The photos show thinning wood from our Karelian birch plantation established in 2008. With each passing year, the trunks continue to mature and strengthen, while the quality of the wood’s valuable decorative figure improves. After sorting the trunks and cutting them into logs, further processing begins. Some logs are steamed (or boiled), debarked, dried, and then sawn into billets. Other logs are sawn into billets with the bark left on, in thicknesses of 35, 45, 55, 65 and 75 mm.
The final thickness of air-dried billets is 4–7 mm less than the dimensions listed above. While steamed and debarked material reaches air-dry moisture content (around 20%) in approximately two months, bark-on material requires about a year to dry. In addition, steamed and debarked logs do not develop cracks or checks during the drying process.
More information: www.veed.ee