Wednesday 1st of June
Visit to Fredrik Gustafsson forest farm
On the third day of the Swedish workshop the TreProX group met up with Dan Johansson and Fredrik Gustafsson at Fredrik‘s farm. Fredrik told the group about the farm, which is abou 1000 hectares, whereof the forest covers about 800 hectares. He sells about 2000 cubic meters of timber each year from his forest. Then the participants were split into five smaller groups and Dan explained that each group had to grade three different logs of pine that had been felled previously. The aim of the grading was to maximise the value of the timber and all the groups had information about Swedish quality evaluation and prizes of different quality categories. In addition all the groups had to evaluate the same pine log, as a part of a competition. The participants were very interested and engaged in the excercise and after they had finished the evaluation there were discussions between the groups about the logic behind their log evaluations. After a delicious lunch of local pizzas Dan explained that the group that had the highest valu in the single log evaluation competition would win a prize. The results were that two groups were very close in their estimation and to make sure that there was a single winner Dan flipped a cap. At the end of the visit to this part of Fredrik showed the group treefelling with his machine.
Jonaz Nilsson – Tools and their maintenance
After transport to the village of Lenhovda Jonaz Nilsson gave a lecture on the maintenance of tools used in treefelling and sawing. Sawing blades are made from different types of metal and typically the harder the blade the better it will keep it‘s sharpness but it is also much more expensive. He discussed the necessity of keeping tools sharp, with regards to maintaining the quality of the timber. Companies have different strategies when it comes to maintenance of saws, some choose to sharpen their sawing blades themselves while bigger companies hire contractors that come twice a day, take away dull blades and replace them with sharpened ones. He also talked about and showed visually the effect of different thickness of blades when sawing.
Visit to Kulturfönster window makers
In Lenhovde the group visited Kulturfönster window makers who still make windows by and old method of joining the posts together. The company mainly uses local wood in their production and their windows are mainly sold in southern Sweden. The company is owned by a couple and they employ about 15 young people.
Visit to Fredrik Gustafsson‘s sawmill
After the visit to Kulturfönster the participants went to Fredriks Gustafsson sawmill where he showed his saw and sawed a few logs to demonstrate how his sawmill works.
Dinner at Kosta Safaripark
After a long and fruitful day the group went to Kosta Safaripark and drove through the park to look at the wildlife. Luckily the animals cooperated and the group saw wild boar, mouflon sheep, some deer and a crown hart. After the drive through the park the group went to Kosta Wildmarkscamp for dinner. This camp is in the middle of the forest. There are three big tents and in one of them a whole wild boar was roasting over coals. The evening was a great success, delicious food in remarkable surroundings.
