The highlight of the Russian bath, creating a useful atmosphere in the steam room, is brooms. You need to know how to properly collect raw materials, prepare crochets so that in winter frosty days you can truly enjoy steam and gentle hot whipping in the steam room. If you like steam rooms, then you should know how to make a broom for a bath from a birch.
Harvesting of birch branches for the further production of bundles begins on the feast of the Holy Trinity, it is necessary to be in time before the tree blooms with catkins - with them the branches are not suitable for raw materials.
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What branches of birch to choose?
The best time for cutting branches is the first half of the day, so that there is always dew in the morning, and at night there would be an unexpected summer rain. And the month of June is also chosen due to the fact that this is a period of violent flowering of herbs, and all plants have the most powerful healing power.
For harvesting, you need to choose special types of birch - white-trunked, hanging, weeping. They differ in longer and more flexible stems, which is important for the safety of the bundles during steaming. After all, branches of at least half a meter are cut, and you don’t want to harm the tree - many brooms are harvested for the winter, and white-stemmed beauties should delight the eyes with their unusualness, and for more than a year give young shoots for lovers of bath procedures to harvest raw materials.
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How to prepare birch branches?
Cutting off the branches should be carried out according to the count, based on how many bundles need to be prepared for the winter.
The calculation is based on the fact that one birch bark requires about 30 stems, with any manufacturing method - circular or planar. The stems are laid according to the principle: in the middle are stronger and thicker, closer to the edge - the thinnest and most tender.
Knitters know how to make a broom for a bath from birch so that it withstands the process of drying, storage and repeated use in a steam room.
For a birch broom, the planar principle of folding the stems that lie in the hand of the knitter, like a fan, and the foliage face up is most often used.
Important! Leaves of birch during the drying process may stick together and darken. The stems bind hemp very tightly, at the same time there is a gap between the leaves for the passage of air. Leaves need air during storage, so that they do not dry out and begin to crumble.
The handle should be at least 3 parts of the entire length of the product, and it is recommended to tie the handle with hemp rope, always in several places along the length of the stems.
How many cm in length the product will be knitted, the master decides on the basis of the collected raw materials and the dimensions of the alleged sweaters. Naturally, large-sized men require larger and stronger knits, and a slender female body needs small and tender brooms. The average length of the branches is 40-55-80 cm. The diameter of the handle is 4.5-5 cm so that it is comfortable to hold in your hands.
Trimming birch branches is important from young trees, on which the leaves are smooth and soft to the touch. In adult or diseased trees, the leaves will be rough to the touch - they are absolutely not suitable for bath "bouquets".
At the same time, one should think about not harming the tree, so that the birch will continue to give strong young shoots suitable for bathing pleasure. Knowing how to make a broom for a bath from a birch, you can pick up raw materials and save trees.
Before cutting, the branches should be checked for flexibility, thin stems with a mass of young leaves are the best suited for harvesting raw materials. It is recommended to collect birch in the forest, along the banks of the rivers, further from the roads, so that there are perfectly clean ecological blanks.
Broom assembly: basic rules
It is necessary to collect a bundle of birch branches, observing some rules. When harvesting them, you need to take branches only with fully blossomed leaves. Well, if the branch will have several lateral branches.
The peculiarity of such brooms is that the branches bind into a “fan” immediately after harvesting, and immediately hang in pairs, according to the basic principle, in a room with good air circulation.
Advice! The ideal option is a combined knitting, when the branches of different trees and plants join together: linden, birch, oak, currant, nettle.
Oak branches fit into the base of the “fan”, they give strength, and a person is given a combination of the youthful effect of birch with oak tannins.
To prevent stagnation of blood in the veins, nettle stems are added to the base of the product. So they act not directly, as in the whole nettle “bouquet”, but carefully, along with the touch of delicate birch leaves.
You can knit birch stems in a circular way, laying dense branches inside, and thin and delicate ones outside. This is a matter of taste, who prefers which bundles more in the steam room.
With any method of knitting, the branches must be selected of the same length; along the entire length, the stems are checked for knots and burrs. They must be cut off so that during the boiling in the steam room not to injure the steamed skin of a person.
The handle can be tightly wrapped with a hemp rope or cloth tape to protect the hands of the sweater from possible corns.
Masters knit birch "fans", laying the stems in layers on top of each other. The upper branches, although they are chosen finer and more tender, are excellent protection for the central, thicker branches. Given the rules for the proper manufacture of a broom for a bath of birch, you can correctly lay the stems.
Some mass harvesting experts believe that birch dries better and preserves the color and density of leaves in a dark room.
In the conditions of a city apartment, when blanks are made on the balcony, it is possible to cover the hanged-out bundles for drying with a canvas such as sackcloth, with cells and dark protection from light. At the same time, the blanks for the bath should be protected from drafts, otherwise they will not dry properly.
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