{{Short description|Type of wood}} {{Other uses|Birchwood (disambiguation){{!}}Birchwood}} thumb|Ray section of birch wood '''Birch wood''' is a type of wood of the birch. Birch wood is pale yellow-brown wood having a close, straight grain and uniform texture that finishes to a smooth surface. Sometimes it is dyed to imitate mahogany. This type of wood is used for among others firewood, turnery, furniture, cabinetry, tool handles, hoops, plywood, flooring and shoe heels.<ref>[https://www.archinform.net/stich/2311.htm Laubholz birch], archINFORM</ref><ref>[https://www.getty.edu/vow/AATFullDisplay?find=&logic=AND¬e=&subjectid=300011973 birch (wood) ], Getty Foundation</ref><ref>[https://www.houtinfo.nl/node/306 Houtsoort: Berken] houtinfo.nl</ref>
==Uses== thumb|Birch plywood [[File:Vihtoja.jpg|thumb|Finnish bath broom called ''vihta/vasta'', braided from birch twigs]]
Because of the hardness of birch, it is easier to shape it with power tools; it is quite difficult to work it with hand tools.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/lumber/wood-species-1/birch/|title=Birch|publisher=Wood Magazine|access-date=December 1, 2013|archive-date=February 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221030744/http://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/lumber/wood-species-1/birch/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Birch wood is fine-grained and pale in colour, often with an attractive satin-like sheen. Ripple figuring may occur, increasing the value of the timber for veneer and furniture-making. The highly decorative Masur (or Karelian) birch, from ''Betula verrucosa'' var. ''carelica'', has ripple textures combined with attractive dark streaks and lines.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} * Birch plywood is made from laminations of birch veneer. It is light but strong, and has many other good properties. It is among the strongest and dimensionally most stable plywoods, although it is unsuitable for exterior use. Birch plywood is used to make longboards (skateboard), giving it a strong yet flexible ride. It is also used (often in very thin grades with many laminations) for making model aircraft.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} * Birch wood is often used in the manufacture of popsicle sticks due to its durability, smoothness and neutral flavour.<ref>{{Cite web |last=tmswebsiteadmin |date=2021-09-21 |title=What Kind of Wood Are Popsicle Sticks Made of? {{!}} Blog {{!}} EW Hannas |url=https://www.ewhannas.com/what-kind-of-wood-are-popsicle-sticks-made-of/ |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=E.W. Hannas Inc. |language=en}}</ref> * Extracts of birch are used for flavoring and leather oil, and in cosmetics such as soap and shampoo. In the past, commercial oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate) was made from the sweet birch (''Betula lenta'').{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}<ref name="Angier-1974">{{Cite book|last=Angier|first=Bradford|url=https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetoedib00angi/page/34/mode/2up|title=Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants|publisher=Stackpole Books|year=1974|isbn=0-8117-0616-8|location=Harrisburg, PA|page=34|oclc=799792|author-link=Bradford Angier}}</ref> * Birch-tar or Russian oil extracted from birch bark is thermoplastic and waterproof; it was used as a glue on, for example, arrows, and also for medicinal purposes.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.bushcraftuk.com/index.php/DIY/Birch-Tar-How-to-collect-it.html |title=Birch Tar – How to collect it|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227090148/http://www.bushcraftuk.com/index.php/DIY/Birch-Tar-How-to-collect-it.html|archive-date=February 27, 2008}}</ref> * Fragrant twigs of wintergreen group birches are used in saunas.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} * Birch is also associated with the feast of Pentecost in Central and Eastern Europe and Siberia, where its branches are used as decoration for churches and homes on this day.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} * Ground birch bark, fermented in sea water, is used for seasoning the woolen, hemp or linen sails and hemp rope of traditional Norwegian boats.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} * Birch twigs bound in a bundle, also called birch, were used for birching, a form of corporal punishment.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} * Many Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada prize the birch for its bark, which because of its light weight, flexibility, and the ease with which it can be stripped from fallen trees, is often used for the construction of strong, waterproof but lightweight canoes, bowls, and wigwams.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Inside the Birchbark Canoe |url=https://craftcouncil.org/articles/inside-the-birchbark-canoe/ |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=American Craft Council |language=en-US}}</ref> * The Hughes H-4 Hercules was made mostly of birch wood, despite its better-known moniker, "The Spruce Goose". * Birch plywood was specified by the BBC as the only wood that can be used in making the cabinets of the long-lived LS3/5A loudspeaker.<ref name="Prakel-1979">Prakel, David (August 1979). [http://www.g4dcv.co.uk/ls35a/pics/BBC%27s_home_service.pdf "BBC's Home Service"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206010412/http://www.g4dcv.co.uk/ls35a/pics/BBC%27s_home_service.pdf |date=2013-12-06 }}, ''Hi-Fi Answers'', pp67–9 (Courtesy link)</ref> * Birch is used as firewood because of its high calorific value per unit weight and unit volume. It burns well, without popping, even when frozen, or freshly hewn. The bark will burn very well even when wet because of the oils it contains. With care, it can be split into very thin sheets that will ignite from even the smallest of sparks. Birch wood can be used to smoke foods.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} * Birch seeds are used as leaf litter in miniature terrain models.<ref name="Joyce2010">{{cite web|first=Daniel|last=Joyce|title=Birch Seed Leaves|url=http://www.reapermini.com/TheCraft/24|publisher=reapermini.com|access-date=2010-04-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231121652/http://www.reapermini.com/TheCraft/24|archive-date=2010-12-31}}</ref> * Birch oil is used in the manufacture of Russia leather, a water-resistant leather.
===As food=== The inner bark is considered edible as an emergency food, even when raw.<ref name="Angier-1974" /> It can be dried and ground into flour, as was done by Native Americans and early settlers. It can also be cut into strips and cooked like noodles.<ref name="Angier-1974" />
The sap can be drunk or used to make syrup<ref name="Angier-1974" /> and birch beer. Tea can be made from the red inner bark of black birches.<ref name="Angier-1974" />
===Cultivation=== White-barked birches in particular are cultivated as ornamental trees, largely for their appearance in winter. The Himalayan birch, ''Betula utilis'', especially the variety or subspecies ''jacquemontii'', is among the most widely planted for this purpose. It has been cultivated since the 1870s, and many cultivars are available, including 'Doorenbos', 'Grayswood Ghost' and 'Silver Shadow'; 'Knightshayes' has a slightly weeping habit. Other species with ornamental white bark include ''Betula ermanii'', ''Betula papyrifera'', ''Betula pendula'' and ''Betula raddeana''.<ref name="Bartlett-2015">{{Cite journal |last1=Bartlett |first1=Paul |date=2015 |title=White-barked birches |journal=The Plantsman |series=New Series |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=146–151 }}</ref>
===Medical=== ====Approved topical medicine==== In the European Union, a prescription gel containing birch bark extract (commercial name ''Episalvan'', betulae cortex dry extract (5–10 : 1); extraction solvent: ''n''-heptane 95% (w/w)) was approved in 2016 for the topical treatment of minor skin wounds in adults.<ref name="EuropeanMedicinesAgency-2016">{{cite web | title=''Episalvan''| publisher=European Medicines Agency | url=https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/episalvan|date=5 February 2016 | access-date=29 October 2020}}</ref> Although its mechanism of action in helping to heal injured skin is not fully understood, birch bark extract appears to stimulate the growth of keratinocytes which then fill the wound.<ref name="EuropeanMedicinesAgency-2016"/><ref name="Ebeling-2014">{{cite journal |last1=Ebeling |first1=Sandra |last2=Naumann |first2=Katrin |last3=Pollok |first3=Simone |last4=Wardecki |first4=Tina |last5=Vidal-y-Sy |first5=Sabine |last6=Nascimento |first6=Juliana M. |last7=Boerries |first7=Melanie |last8=Schmidt |first8=Gudula |last9=Brandner |first9=Johanna M. |last10=Merfort |first10=Irmgard |title=From a Traditional Medicinal Plant to a Rational Drug: Understanding the Clinically Proven Wound Healing Efficacy of Birch Bark Extract |journal=PLOS ONE |date=22 January 2014 |volume=9 |issue=1 |article-number=e86147 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0086147 |pmid=24465925 |pmc=3899119 |bibcode=2014PLoSO...986147E |doi-access=free }}</ref>
====Research and traditional medicine==== Preliminary research indicates that the phytochemicals, betulin and possibly other triterpenes, are active in ''Episalvan'' gel and wound healing properties of birch bark.<ref name="Ebeling-2014"/>
Over centuries, birch bark was used in traditional medicine practices by North American indigenous people for treating superficial wounds by applying bark directly to the skin.<ref name="Ebeling-2014"/> Splints made with birch bark were used as casts for broken limbs in the 16th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=William Arthur |title=History of fracture treatment up to the sixteenth century |journal=The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery |volume=19 |issue=1 |date=January 1937 |pages=47–63 |url=https://journals.lww.com/jbjsjournal/abstract/1937/19010/history_of_fracture_treatment_up_to_the_sixteenth.4.aspx |quote=Another method cited was that of splints made of birch bark soaked in water until quite soft. They were then carefully fitted to the limb and tied with bark thongs. On drying, they became stiff and firm. There is no record of the use of extension, but, nevertheless, very few crippled and deformed Indians were to be seen. }}</ref>
===Paper=== {{See also|Birch bark document}} [[File:Birch bark document 210.jpg|thumb|right|A birch bark inscription excavated from Novgorod, {{Circa}} 1240–1260]]
Wood pulp made from birch gives relatively long and slender fibres for a hardwood. The thin walls cause the fibre to collapse upon drying, giving a paper with low bulk and low opacity. The birch fibres are, however, easily fibrillated and give about 75% of the tensile strength of softwood.{{clarify|How is this relevant? Birch is a hardwood|date=November 2013}}<ref>{{cite book |title=The World of Market Pulp|last=Nanko|first=Hiroki|author2=Button, Alan |author3=Hillman, Dave |year= 2005|publisher=WOMP, LLC |location=US|isbn=0-615-13013-5|pages=192–195}}</ref> The low opacity makes it suitable for making glassine.
In India, the birch (Sanskrit: भुर्ज, ''bhurja'') holds great historical significance in the culture of North India, where the thin bark coming off in winter was extensively used as writing paper. Birch paper (Sanskrit: भुर्ज पत्र, ''bhurja patra'') is exceptionally durable and was the material used for many ancient Indian texts.<ref name="Sanjukta Gupta-1972">Sanjukta Gupta, "Lakṣmī Tantra: A Pāñcarātra Text", Brill Archive, 1972, {{ISBN|90-04-03419-6}}. Snippet:''... the text recommends that the bark of the Himalayan birch tree (bhurja-patra) should be used for scribbling mantras ...''</ref><ref name="Ghosh-1990">Amalananda Ghosh, "An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology", BRILL, 1990, {{ISBN|90-04-09264-1}}. Snippet:''... Bhurja-patra, the inner bark on the birch tree grown in the Himalayan region, was a very common writing material ...''</ref> The Roman period Vindolanda tablets also use birch as a material on which to write and birch bark was used widely in ancient Russia as notepaper (''beresta'') and for decorative purposes and even making footwear (''lapti'') and baskets.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}
===Use in musical instruments=== Birch wood is sometimes used as a tonewood for semiacoustic and acoustic guitar bodies, and occasionally for solid-body guitar bodies. It is also a common material used in mallets for keyboard percussion.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} Drum manufacturers, such as Gretsch and Yamaha, have been known to use birch wood in the construction of drum shells, owing to its strength and colour which takes stain in an appealing way, and which can also amber over very well, while also giving the drums an appealing tone which changes depending on the type of birch used.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cerra |first=Steve La |date=2022-01-21 |title=A Brief Guide to Drum Tonewoods |url=https://hub.yamaha.com/drums/stage/a-brief-guide-to-drum-tonewoods/ |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=Yamaha Music – Blog |language=en-US}}</ref> thumb|Birch trees in spring in a park in Warsaw, Poland (1939) thumb|Birch tree forest at Ishkoman, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
==References== {{commons}} {{reflist}}
Category:Types of wood