Underwater logs for furniture use

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bell47

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
127
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Location
Maine
# of dives
I just don't log dives
I watched a tv show on some guys who recovered logs that had been underwater for a long time. They made wood verneers out of the logs for high end furniture. I know some guys who have retrieved what they called "blue" cypress logs out of the mississippi river for similar use. Has anyone here ever retrieved wood from the deep for personal use for furniture making or home use?
 
There are quite a few places where sunken logs are recovered for use in everything from furniture to musical instruments. They are sometimes up to 100 years old and are found in cold water usually because the cold preserves the wood. They use lift bags to salvage them. Very expensive wood.
 
I had an opportunity in the early 80's to drop out of college and go into a partnership salvaging logs. In a moment of monumental stupidity and/or lack of vision, I passed on the opportunity as I failed to realize the market for these logs that could be (and was) developed. Consequently I have a master's degree but am now stilll comparatively poor.

These logs are logs that sunk while being rafted down rivers, etc. In most cases they are large old hardwoods that are no longer available due to current commerical logging practices that favor rapid growing trees like pine as well as cutting trees before they get as large as old growth timber was 100-200 years ago.

Plus, the cold water affects the wood in ways that makes it ideal for musical instruments like violins. The combination of the fine grain in old growth timber and the chemical changes that occur during the long soak give the wood a resonance that cannot be created otherwise.
 
Interestingly enough, Japan is sinking several million dollars of wood into bays and other bodies of water in and around the island nation. They are stockpiling the wood for use in the future. I have heard that they coat some of the wood in an impervious material and leave other logs as is. The countries resource managers are banking on a future shortage of timber and they are planning ahead.
 
What about underwater standing timber that was flooded. How cold does the water have to be to preserve the wood?
 
bell47:
I watched a tv show on some guys who recovered logs that had been underwater for a long time. They made wood verneers out of the logs for high end furniture. I know some guys who have retrieved what they called "blue" cypress logs out of the mississippi river for similar use. Has anyone here ever retrieved wood from the deep for personal use for furniture making or home use?
I think the TV show you saw had the guys pulling logs out of New Zealand that were actually thousands of years old, they were on the fast pace to being stone.
 
scubamanny:
Interestingly enough, Japan is sinking several million dollars of wood into bays and other bodies of water in and around the island nation. They are stockpiling the wood for use in the future. I have heard that they coat some of the wood in an impervious material and leave other logs as is. The countries resource managers are banking on a future shortage of timber and they are planning ahead.

Very interesting Manny. I had no idea they were doing that.
 
In a mineral spring I dive in Texas, there's some real old trees that have been impregnated with all the minerals, so that they're less wood and more rock. We call the area "Ossified Forest". But they look a lot more like freshly sunken wood than petrified wood. I guess they're in some intermediate stage.


I need to dig out a pond and dump some lumber in it!:D
 
archman:
In a mineral spring I dive in Texas, there's some real old trees that have been impregnated with all the minerals, so that they're less wood and more rock. We call the area "Ossified Forest". But they look a lot more like freshly sunken wood than petrified wood. I guess they're in some intermediate stage.


I need to dig out a pond and dump some lumber in it!:D

I took out my knife and did a little scraping on one of those trees a little ways downstream from the spring. Carved down 1/4 inch thru the obvious deterioration. The grain looked like live oak and the color looked great. But it was a little too big for my lift bag.

Someone would probably get upset anyway.
 
I think that was a show 'Modern Marvels; The Lumberyard'.

They recovered pilings from Boston harbor that were used for custom hardwood floors. As well as the New Zealand and Great Lakes stuff.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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