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| Home Painting Skills and Basics Paperhanging Home Decorating Interior Decorating Wood Identification |
WillowOne hundred or more species in many parts of the world produce willow, but the wood is similar in character  whatever its origin. As timber, it is nowhere of great commercial importance; more often it is the young shoots which are used. These are produced by pollarding - cutting off the tree's crown - or by coppicing, usually once a year to produce many very thin shoots, or osiers.Willow wood is very like that of poplar and often the two timbers are not easily distinguished except under a microscope. Willow is a pale, very fine-textured, mainly featureless wood; it is about the same weight as poplar, but when vigorously grown is somewhat lighter. Willow dries quickly and well; once dry, it is stable in use. Though not particularly strong, it can absorb energy without splintering and it is this property that makes its best wood suitable for cricket bats. It works easily and finishes well, but is perishable in conditions favouring decay. Willow is a traditional wood for artificial limbs as it combines light weight and toughness; like poplar, it is used for fruit baskets and clogs, and, because it does not readily ignite by friction, for the brake blocks in colliery winding gear. It is used for flooring where resistance to splintering is required. Cricket bats are made from a special type of willow cultivated to give fast and uniform growth. Osiers are used for wickerwork and basketwork and thicker, pollarded shoots for stakes and wattle hurdles. Extract from 'The International book of WOOD' curtesy Michael Beazley Publishers Limited 1979. |
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