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Native
Trees of the UK
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Light and brittle,
alder is often worked while still green. The more mature wood becomes
tinted and veined, making it desirable for use in the furniture
industry.
Its resistance to rot when wet made it suitable for boat making
and most of Venice is actually supported on alder foundations. The
catkins, bark and wood were all used to produce different coloured
dyes, most famously by the Celts to produce aladine red.
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One of the most
versatile of all the European trees, only oak is stronger and Yew
more elastic. Ash wood has more uses than any other, its strength
and flexibility enable it to carry more weight than any other wood,
making it perfect for use in joists and beams.
Its ability to take heavy knocks and bear tension makes it the wood
of choice for tools, from chisels to spades. It was also used to
make cart wheels, carriages and boat frames, as well as bows, arrows
and hop poles and many more things too numerous to mention.
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Beech wood is
short-grained, yet dense and hard. The short grain makes it easy
to work and excellent for use on a wood-turning lathe but also makes
the wood brittle.
It’s density and hardness however, make it ideal for use as
a mallet head. Its durability seems to increase when constantly
soaked, making it useful in the construction of water wheels and
ship building, when oak was not available. It was also used in making
turned furniture and it’s nuts used to feed swine.
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Despite being
deciduous, the Birch tree is soft like pine, and yet also heavy.
Especially before steel tools this was an advantage in shaping
it to make a great variety of objects for use in daily human life.
This included cups and bowls, broom-sticks, bobbins, furniture,
barrel staves and clogs. It was also the wood of choice to make
cradles from and traditionally besom-heads are made of Birch branches,
being thin, tough and pliable. It can also be used to make charcoal
and the sap can be utilised in wine-making.
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Blackthorn wood
is hard and tough, like that of most in the Rose family. The timber
is small, so can only be used in the making of small artefacts but
takes well to polishing. It has mainly been used for walking sticks,
tent pegs and teeth for hay-rakes.
The sharp thorns were used for centuries as awls. It was also the
traditional wood for the wands of community healers. Whole bushes
or crowns of the trees were used in the past to rake or harrow small
fields after ploughing. Their small sloe-berries are also used in
the making of sloe-gin. |
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| Boxwood is extremely
valuable; it is the hardest wood of any European tree, twice as
hard as oak only Ebony is harder. It has a very fine uniform grain
and does not warp. It can be cut into the finest patterns without
breaking and these qualities have given it a wide variety of uses.
It was used for measuring devices, mathematical and navigational,
as well as musical instruments like flutes and clarinets. It has
been used as inlay for wood-carving and cabinet making. It made
printing blocks and engraving plates as well as tools which get
a lot of abuse, such as chisels and wedges. It was also used to
make small carvings and chess pieces. |
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The wood of the hazel is a
whitish red. It has a close and even grain and has been used in
turnery, whilst well-veined veneers are obtained from the larger
roots.
The tree is mainly grown as coppice, its shoots being fashioned
for a wide variety of uses, including hampers, baskets, hoops, wattles,
walking sticks, fishing rods and whip handles. The coppice also
makes good oven wood and it’s charcoal is suited for crayons
or gunpowder. It is also traditionally used as a dowsing stick.
It’s nuts are also highly valued for which it is cultivated,
largely in Kent. |
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Oak is the strongest
of all British wood. This quality, coupled with its vast size and
durability, has given it a multitude of uses. It has been used extensively
as a construction timber in buildings and ships. It is also a favourite
for joinery as well as being used to make gates furniture, fences
and casks.
It is also commonly selected, by sculptors and wood-turners, for
it’s fine grain and appearance. Its bark was also valued for
its high tannin content, which was extracted for tanning leather.
Acorns are also traditionally used as fodder for pigs. |
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The wood of the
plane is quite tough, reasonably hard, difficult to split and fine
grained. It is often known as “lace wood” because of
the delicate tracery of the grain patterns. It is not durable, however,
for outside products.
It is useful for indoor joinery, light internal construction and
because of its attractive appearance and ability to take a high
polish, veneering and furniture. It has also been used as wood-pulp
for various products such as paper.
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Rowan
has a strong, flexible, yellow-grey wood, which was once widely
used for making tool handles, small carved objects, plough-pins,
pegs for tethering animals, cartwheels, hoops for barrels, churn
staves, tackle for watermills and rough basketwork.
If large enough it provided excellent planks and beams. It was used
by the hill people to make bows, instead of yew and ash. Due to
its quick growth it makes excellent coppices. Rowan was also used
for tanning hides and dyeing cloth black. It was also used for a
variety of mystical practices including wands and talismans.
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The trunks of
fully-grown wild Cherry are extremely valuable and much sought after
for their beautiful, decorative golden-brown heartwood and slightly
paler sapwood.
The wood is used to make veneers and fine quality furniture. Wood
turners and carvers value it also for its lively patterns. If the
wood is worked whilst still green it may take an orange colour.
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Yew wood is extremely
hard and durable and resists the action of water upon it. It is
also the most elastic of woods and can withstand great tension.
It was used for tool handles and for making weapons, famously long
bows. The Vikings used Yew for nails and in building long boats.
The beautiful patterns in the wood, with its darker rusty red-brown
heartwood, golden-orange sapwood and irregular ring structures have
made it much sought after for making furniture, ornaments and sculptures.
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