Century-old logs that have rested on the bottom of lakes and rivers inthe Great Lakes region are finding new life as prized furniture,paneling, cabinets and picture frames. But the hottest demand for thelong sunken wood may be from musicians, as they discover the tone andresonance of water soaked wood. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s BobKelleherreports:
Transcript
Century old logs that have rested on the bottom of lakes and rivers in the Great
Lakes region are finding new life as prized furniture, paneling, cabinets and picture
frames. But the hottest demand for the long sunken wood may be from musicians, as
they discover the tone and resonance of water soaked wood. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Bob Kelleher reports.
Scott Mitchen logs old growth timber, huge red and white pines,
cedar
and maples that are rarely seen anymore, except on the bottoms of
rivers
and lakes. Ten years ago Mitchen was looking for shipwrecks under Lake
Superior but found instead a fortune of sunken logs. Huge logs, some
several feet across … the remnants of the old growth pine and
hardwoods cut 150 years ago. Thousands of the logs waterlogged and sank as they
were floated outside waterfront sawmills. They’ve been preserved since on
the lake bottom, in cold, fresh water.
“This wasn’t meant to go to the bottom and stay there. This was meant to be utilized.”
{Sound of mill}
Mitchen’s discovery has grown into a bustling business, now housed in a
sprawling, and dank, manufacturing building in Ashland, Wisconsin. He
calls the recovered wood Timeless Timber. Its density and tight growth
rings make it popular for fine furniture, paneling and floors. But its
most alluring use might be on stage where it makes spectacular
musical instruments.
“Every instrument maker and musician alive today wishes they could
go back; a hundred to four hundred, five hundred years ago, and use the wood
Stradivari’s used.”
Mitchen says wood grown today is different from wood grown centuries
ago. The ancient forests grew slowly, in the shade of a canopy of needles or
leaves. This slow growth created narrow growth rings. Such rings make
beautiful wood, and might also help create the tone in a wooden musical
instrument. But the real key to the timber Mitchen is harvesting is the
lumber’s long soak in very cold water. The wood is amazingly
preserved, but the wood cells have become hollow.
“When dried you have a zillion hollowed out cell walls that act like
speaker cabinets that resonate the wood. In drums it’s thirty percent
longer; in guitars it’s fifty to seventy percent longer. It various per
instrument, from harps to flutes. Just about everything’s been made that
I know of outside of a piano right now.”
California-based Drum Workshop Inc. has sold Timeless Timber drum sets
to set the beat for bands like N’Sync, Aerosmith and Rush. A Waukesha,
Wisconsin Company expects to turn our two hundred Timeless Timber
guitars.
Eau Claire Wisconsin violin make Scott Hootman says the tight annual
rings and hollow fibers creates a pine with amazing sound qualities.
“You have some, absolutely wonderful sounding wood. You can take
the billets, when you quarter the tops out, and you can hold them and rap on
them, and they ring. It’s just fantastic.”
He’s been building with Timeless Timber since 1997, making violins,
mandolins, cellos, and dulcimers.
{Sound of violin}
Ashland Violinist Debra Powers says the water creates magic in a musical
instrument.
“There’s something about wood that’s been submerged in water, that
enlarges the cells of the wood. And it helps it capture the sound,
better. It’s exactly how Antonio Stradivarius made his violins, and his violins are the best in the world.”
The top of Power’s violin is carved from ancient spruce, and the bottom
and ribs from a wood called curly maple. Powers say the result is a violin
with a very resonate sound.
“It rings beautifully, just .. (pling, pling) … and, I … it’s
not like putting any effort into playing it. It plays itself. (plinks)
It rings for a long time, it just has a beautiful resonance to it.”
It’s been ten years since Scott Mitchen first pulled water soaked logs
from the bottom of Lake Superior. The business has always been a struggle
between bureaucrats and regulations. There’s never enough cash. But
the tide may have turned. Now merged with a publicly traded company called
Enviro-Recovery Inc., Mitchen’s Timeless Timber is beginning to sell.
A major chain store is ready to market products from cutting boards to
floor panels.
“They want you to be able to guarantee a certain amount of board
footage every month, of a certain grade, of a certain species. And we’ve
never had that opportunity until this year.”
Mitchen’s Timeless timber is now harvested in New York, Michigan and two
Canadian Provinces. But, It’s hard to maintain supply when northern
lakes
freeze. So the company has expanded to southern rivers and swamps
and all the way to South America, where they’ve acquired a Brazilian
firm with logging rights from under the Amazon river. Just the trees still
standing behind Amazon dams could provide years of ancient lumber.
“Um, we have a reserve down there that’s estimated at ninety
billion board feet, with the third most common species mahogany.”
(Sound of violin)
But most gratifying may be the musical instrument market where the
wood can be seen, and heard.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bob Kelleher.