How Curly Birch Is Harvested in Finland
Every board we sell started as a tree on someone's land. We do not own forest. We buy curly birch from Finnish forest owners, a few trees or a few dozen at a time, and that is where the supply chain begins.
Finding the trees
Curly birch is a variant of silver birch, and only a small share of silver birch carries it, roughly 1–2% in the areas where it grows best. Forest owners usually know if they have it, because the bark gives it away: lumps, hollows and low ridges where ordinary birch is smooth.
Most trades begin with photographs. A forest owner sends pictures of the trunk at the butt end, a full view of the tree and something for scale. From those we can usually tell whether it is curly birch and whether it is worth going further. We visit when it makes sense, usually once the trees are felled and ready to collect.
Who fells the trees
Most of our trades are delivery sales: the forest owner fells and cross-cuts the trees and brings the logs to the roadside, and we collect and pay after measuring. For larger lots we sometimes buy standing timber and arrange the felling ourselves.
The forest owner doing the felling is not a cost-saving trick. Many Finnish forest owners have the equipment and the skill, and a small lot of curly birch does not justify bringing in a harvester. What matters is that they know where to cut before they start, and we tell them.
Why most felling happens in winter
Most felling happens between November and March. There are three reasons.
- Frozen ground carries machinery without rutting the forest floor or damaging the roots of the trees that stay.
- Winter wood holds less free water, so it dries more cleanly and is less exposed to blue stain and mould.
- The wood is paler, and the dark figure stands out more against it.
Felling and sawing do continue through the rest of the year in smaller volumes, because standing sales and orders do not all arrive in winter. Summer-felled wood just needs to be dealt with faster.
Where the log is cut
On curly birch, the most expensive mistake happens with a chainsaw before anyone has seen the inside of the tree. The figure is not spread evenly through the trunk. A cut in the wrong place can halve the useful length of the best log. So the cross-cutting point is chosen by the figure, not by a standard log length.
Roadside to yard
Cut logs wait at the roadside, off the ground on bearers, covered and out of direct sun. Then they come to the yard, where they are sawn, stickered and dried. Drying is mostly in the open air, finished in a kiln in autumn, and takes one to three months depending on method. Every board is then graded by hand into Premium, Standard or Economy and photographed on both faces plus an angled shot. Grading is done off the sawn surface; we do not plane first.
From a standing tree to a board ready to ship is typically eight to twelve months.
Why tell you this
Because it explains what we can and cannot do. A size the trees do not grow will not appear because you ordered it. A large matched run from one log may have to wait for the next winter batch. And when you ask where a board came from, there is an answer.
For the formats and sizes this produces, see products. For how the grades work, see grades.
Working on something in curly birch?
One line is enough to start. If you already know the sizes and quantity, add them below and we can quote with photos of the actual boards.
Prefer email? Write to hello@nordicmasur.com.