Bog Oak

Organic, from the earth to your home. A natural, raw product that is earth friendly.

Reuse, we are reusing and recycling these beautiful trees that have fallen and lain in bog pits and rivers for hundreds to thousands of years.

Ancient, some bog oak exceeds Egyptian pyramids age.

Unique, no two slabs are the same. Colors vary from silver/brown to black.

Positive energy, since early times bog oak has been seen as a source of energy, providing strength and healing powers.

Limited, the earth's supply of bog oak is limited. Once it's all dug up and used

PIECES OF HISTORY

Depending on the timber age, which often exceeds the Egyptian pyramids age, palette of colours ranges from silver-gray through golden-brown and dark claret to navy-black. The black color is considered to be the rarest of them all.

Bog oak is a rare timber, which makes it greatly exclusive, valuable and desirable. It is called Polish ebony, but in fact the bog oak is much more precious than ebony.

Bog oak has been present in our culture for thousands of years. It has been used for floors, furniture, as a carving material and for manufacturing small objects (e.g. smoking pipes, handles), and also for incrustation and marquetry. Remnants of its presence can be admired up to today in the mansions of former magnates.

THE CREATION OF BOG OAK

Bog-wood creation begins with the trunks of trees that have lain in bogs, and bog-like conditions such as lakes, river bottoms and swamps, in soil that is mostly wet, sandy, gravel – and clay-like for centuries and even millennia. Logs have been found to be up to 8000 years old.

Deprived of oxygen, the wood undergoes the process of fossilization and morta formation. Oak changed its chemical composition under the influence of tannin (halotannic acid) according to the quantity of salt in metals (mostly iron) contained in the river water and tannin contained in the wood, changing the color tone.

EXTRACTION TO PROCESSING

Extracted logs must be wrapped in waterproof material and meticulously dried to prevent warping. Modern rapid drying techniques such as kiln-drying is used, but there is a danger of the timber becoming brittle and splitting as a result. However, most Bog Oak has to be dried artificially requiring very close monitoring. This may be a 7-month process.

Excavated trees in a truly exceptional state can be air-dried under very controlled conditions. A 4-year air drying time is not unusual. All timber must be quarter sawn and processed within 2-3 days.

Bog Oak is in limited supply.

Wood desiccation is complex, and despite great care, most of the raw wood is unsuitable for further processing. For this reason, the price of superior quality raw abonos is quite high. Experts completely acknowledge that the woodworks they possess are not only unique but created without any harm to the environment.

PROPERTIES OF BOG OAK

Wood, on the one hand, and as strong as a rock on the other while having a refined beautiful texture. Hardness to such a level that it can only be carved with the use of specialty cutting tools. "Maturation," turns the wood from golden-brown to completely black, and no two trunks can be found of the same color.

Unique color spectrum. It can be pastel blue or rose, dark red or velvet black. However, there are unusual colours: rose, gray, brown, black and yellow, black and green with silver gray veins, from a blue-black to a brownish black, but as a rule dark.

To acquire a black timber, the maturation averages is at 3,500 to 5,000 years, but it can start as early as 1,000 years. Soft pale-yellow colors speak of a fuming age of 300-400 years. Semi-dry bog-wood can be a golden or copper color.

The characteristic black quality of Bog Oak is a result of a chemical reaction occurring between the tannins in the Oak and soluble irons present in the mineral subsoil. The large amounts of iron give the look and feel of steel when polished.

PROPERTIES BEYOND THE PHYSICAL

THERE IS A MISTYQUE TO IT

Formation of the oak deposit requires necessary conditions:

First, oak trees must grow on the bank of an ancient stream.

Second, the stream current should be high, favourable for the process of mineralization, saturation of water with mineral salts.

Third, the river alluvial soil should have special composition. Alluvial soil is a certain sediment of the river flow and silts from weathering and erosion of more ancient rocks and their ingress to river valleys.

The last condition of bog oak to appear is a time factor as a hundred years washing is not sufficient.

Since the probability of all these factors coexisting is slim, bog oak is a truly rare and unique material.

Many historic figures considered black oak to bear power and wisdom.

Moreover, we know that bog oak has high energy and gives vital force. Since the ancient times oak has been considered a magical source of energy. Our ancestors thought that bog oak gave man better protection from negative external energy and helped recover strength. Oak gives its power to man easily by a simple touch and its energy helps balance the whole body.

It became a tradition to present gifts made of "black wood" on solemn occasions which lasted right up to the revolutionary period.

Finishing the apartments with bog oak evidenced not only the well-being of a man but his status in the society since ownership of this exclusive material showed one deserved to possess it. According to Russian Legend, it has miraculous healing powers.