Cembra Pine

Botanic name:    Pinus Cembra

German:             Zirbe

Over hundreds of years the dark cembra pine was cut down to gain meadows for the cattle in the Alps. The translucent larchs were left behind. As the cembra pine grows very slowly they were hardly cultivated forestly. Although the Wood offers a number of positive effects. For example in the high mountain region it is very durable even at the outside. In most cases the wood remains costrained in urban forms. In recent times it has been tried to release the cembra pine from this prison and to design furniture for modern People.

The cembra pine is a tree of the high mountain regions and we find it most of all in heights between 1500 and 2000 metres. It bears the variations of the temperatures excellently and it even overcomes the hard time of the late mountain-spring with longterm frozen grounds. As the tree is growing extremly slowly it reaches an age of 1000 years and even more.

One of the special characteristics of the cembra pine wood is the smooth change from spring-wood to autumn-wood which predestinates this timber for carving. In most cases the autumn-wood is very thin and hardly pronounced. The numerous knots which are easy to been seen are hardly shrinking and they are easy to work. The cembra pine is one of the few domestic types of wood with a significant aromatic fragrance which remains for a long time.

The cembra pine is light-weight and soft (kiln density 400 kg/m³, Brinell hardness15N/mm²) and very easy to work and offers a moderate resistance. The timber is hardly shrinking. It is easy to cleave and to carve. It is also easy to dry. The surface treatment requires a consideration of the resin part. Latest investigations have found out about the positive effects of the cembra pnie timber to circulation, sleep and vegetative regulation. In relatively fresh condition the timber preserves from cockroaches and moths. Carving boards made of cembra pine show the best

anti-bacterial effects of all our domestic timbers. 

The cembra pine is frequently used for carving because it is really easy to work. In Addition to that it is used for country-style rooms and carved decorations. Moreover it is used for furniture, wainscottings, panels in “austrian style” and veneers.

Quelle: www.proholz.at