WOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY CONTRIBUTION TO THE CELLULAR ANATOMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THUYA BURL WOOD AND OPTIMIZATION OF ITS SAWING METHOD

Abstract

This work aims to develop a sector of artistic crafts linked to thuja wood in Morocco. In recent years, the exploitation of dead stumps, which provide thuja burl, has intensified to meet a very strong demand from artisanal products, a practice that endangers the survival of the producing species, whose regeneration is difficult and growth is slow. However, the traditional and irrational use of this type of wood in marquetry makes its supply more and more difficult, and confronts the sector with serious problems linked to the quality and artistic finish of artisanal products, as well as 'to the rarity of this raw material. To remedy this problem, knowledge of the structure and anisotropy of the burl and the variability of the cellular characteristics of this wood, as well as its explanatory factors, is a prerequisite, essential to any attempt at rational use of this resource in marquetry and cabinetmaking. In order to achieve this objective, and whose aim is to help craftsmen to use this wood in a rational and economical way, we have carried out the anatomical identification of its main axes of anisotropy, which condition the cutting method. The results of the comparative analysis of the anatomical sections of the standardized specimens, made according to the main axes of the reference frames (transverse, tangential and radial) showed that this wood presents a slight transverse anisotropy.