Extracting the Wood: The Second Step in the Journey of Oud

After finding the bearing tree comes the second step in the journey of oud: extracting the resin-bearing wood. For oud does not fill the whole tree, but concentrates in dark veins around the sites of injury, and reaching them requires opening the wood with skill and separating the resin-bearing part from the sound white part. In this article we address this step as the link that turns the tree into a raw piece from which the long chain of processing begins.

From finding to extraction

When the harvester judges that a tree bears oud, the finding stage ends and the finer work begins: reaching the wood saturated with resin inside the tree. And here the estimative judgment turns into a concrete act, for the presence of oud and its amount are not confirmed until the wood is actually opened and the dark veins appear.

And oud concentrates around the sites of injury in the trunk or the branches, not in the whole tree, as we showed in the parts of the tree that may contain oud. So extraction requires a knowledge of where resin is expected and a skill in reaching it without damaging what is around it.

How is the wood opened and the resin-bearing part extracted?

The essence of extraction is tracing the dark veins and separating the resin-bearing wood from the sound white wood surrounding it. The harvester opens the wood at the site of injury, and follows the extent of the dark color carefully, taking what has borne resin and leaving what there is no need to take. We have devoted a detailed article to this step in how is the wood opened to extract the oud?.

And the skill here is not in strength, but in the control of the hand: for every mistake may wound a resin-bearing vein or waste part of the piece. And so extraction remains an estimative work that rests on the experience of the eye and the hand, not on a single mechanical rule. And in this guide we are reserved about giving any practical explanation of the methods of opening, contenting ourselves with describing the scene in general terms.

Does extraction require felling the tree?

A pivotal question accompanies extraction: must the whole tree be brought down? Not necessarily. For in many cases the resin-bearing parts can be extracted without felling the whole tree, especially when the injury is localized. And this choice between selective extraction and full felling is not a technical detail alone, but at the very core of the sustainability of the source, and we have detailed it in must the whole tree be felled?.

And in our sourcing we encourage the selective extraction that takes what has borne resin and keeps what can be kept, because it is gentler on the forest and preserves the source of livelihood. And this choice is an extension of our commitment to responsible gathering that runs through the journey of oud from its beginning.

The raw piece: the beginning of the processing chain

What comes out of the tree after extraction is not finished oud, but a raw piece carrying the dark veins surrounded by white wood still clinging to it. This raw piece is the starting point of a long chain of processing: cleaning, then removal of white wood, then drying, then sorting and grading. And each of these steps will add worth to the piece and bring it closer to its final form.

And thus extraction has accomplished its task: turning a tree in the forest into a raw piece in the hand. And in the following axis of this journey we move to the third step: the initial cleaning of the raw piece.