Popular Woodworking 2000-02 № 113, страница 64

Logs lurking in the lake. Salvagers now see sunken timber as sunken treasure.

Wood Types

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ple how to do it. The only thing we ask in return is the first opportunity to buy the logs they do bring up."

One of the salvagers TRI works with is Clay Bingley, a 43-year-old resident of Pembroke, Ontario. He runs C.J. Marine Services, a company that has recovered logs for 15 years.

Sveinsson helps locate the logs with sonar, and Bingley sells the hardwood he finds to TRI. "It's no worse than greenwood (to use)," Bingley says. "In some instances it's quite a bit better."

TRI's not the only game in town. Superior Water-Logged Lumber, a competing company founded in 1992, recovers the logs it locates, cuts, dries and sells the wood. Caz Neitzke, the president of company, declined to be interviewed for this story other than to say, "We are the clear-cut leaders in the industry."

Why Waterlogged-Logs?

For woodworkers, the fact that the log was underwater is good. The wood doesn't have

the gum content, so it's easier to work with.

Joseph Nagyvary, a professor of biochemistry at Texas A & M in College Station, builds violins, violas and cellos using reclaimed timber. He says that legendary

instrument maker Stradivarius often soaked the wood he used for making violins — sometimes for as long as 20 years. Nagyvary says that when wood is sub-

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