Recovered from Nature

Riverwood - Amazing Rimu from the Rivers of yesteryear.

Riverwood is an amazing timber story of logs long forgotten but now recovered and transformed into beautiful furniture.

Fifty to a hundred years ago, timber mills used waterways to float felled logs downstream to the sawmills. In the Northern regions this was mostly Kauri and some Rimu. As the Kauri is much more bouyant it floated well where as many Rimu logs sank.

In other areas such as Lake Brunner, timber was floated across the lake from the forests on the Western shore to the sawmills on the Eastern side. Due to unpredictable weather many logs slipped from their mooring and sunk, resting on the lake bed until being recovered many, many years later.

Recovering the timber - First to find it.

This lost timber is now being recovered from its resting place. With the aid of sophisticated sonar and underwater equipment, divers are locating these logs in the murky depths of lakes or half buried in the banks of rivers.

Recovering the timber - Divers and Winches

Once located divers need to secure the log with chains, a difficult job which often requires freeing the log from the lake bed or the mud of the river bank. Having secured the log it is winched to the surface and the light of day, secured to the barge and towed to the shore. Here it is cleaned and milled into useable sizes and lengths, before being carefully air dried and kiln dried in temperature controled low temperature kilns.

Beautiful grain and character.

 This timber is exquisite. Shades of grey and sepia blend with the unique figured grain of Rimu to display a truly wonderfull patina of colours and patterns. Traditionally, Rimu displaes a great variety of grains and textures. Riverwood takes this further with the effects of many, many years under the water adding a further dimension of beauty to this New Zealand native timber.

Riverwood from Sorenmobler