Our ancestors have extracted ancient bog oak since the dawn of time. They made barrels, furniture, etc. and the remnants were used to heat homes. In the 1960s, this was no longer necessary. Our grandfathers were around when this ancient tradition came to an end photo. And so, we have resumed and even improved it. We are saving even the smallest pieces of the most valuable wood on our planet. We have extracted a lot of ancient bog oaks. If we had not lifted them off the river bottom, they would have eventually turned into coal Wikipedia. We are happy to the max that the bog oaks that we have extracted will delight a lot of people throughout different continents with their beauty and extraordinary antique energy.
When Volodymyr Baranenko was a child, his grandfather showed him this antique bog oak and told him about its magical, healing properties. And Volodymyr took a shine to it.
In 2002, we extracted the first bog oaks, unfortunately, we did not take any pictures. It was a pilot year, and we did a lot as our grandfathers taught us. We dived while holding our breath (called free diving), pulled the logs with the help of improvised hand winches, etc. Almost everything was done using old technology the way our ancestors did 100 years ago. We are planning to shoot a film about it. I bet it will be very interesting. This experience was no doubt very informative and exciting, but many processes were very dangerous and extremely time-consuming. We have extracted only 6 m3 of bog oak.
Having studied and analysed all the necessary information, starting from 2003, we began using state-of-the-art equipment, namely scuba gear, lifting truck crane, special automotive equipment, etc.
We were young and extremely obsessed with our idea. Thanks to our energy and positive attitude, we extracted bog oak several times more than we have planned, i.e. about 60 m3.
However, since we did not have proper equipment for sawing logs into boards and drying wood, we decided to place all the material into the lake, which belongs to Volodymyr’s father.
In 2004 and 2005, we were looking for the customers. It was necessary to sell at least some of the material in order to cover the costs and develop our business. But none of the customers knew how to properly dry bog oak. For three years, we have not sold a single log, so we made our mind to start sawing bog oak into boards and dry it.
In spring 2006, we bought an old sawmill and put it at the farm of Volodymyr’s father. We sawed 20 m3 of material and started air drying, as our grandfathers did.
On 15 May 2007, Volodymyr Baranenko received a phone call from the customer and on 16th May they met. When the customer saw the bog oak, he bought all the sawn material (20 m3) at once and ordered even more. From that moment on, our business boosted and was a success. For the earned money we bought the means of production, i.e. a military truck ZIL-131B, scuba diving equipment, Husqvarna chainsaw and many other quality equipment.
From that time onward, Volodymyr Baranenko began scuba diving himself.
Volodymyr Baranenko personally delivers huge logs of ancient oaks to the warehouse by old military truck ZIL-131B produced in 1982. It was made in the past century for the Armed Forces of the USSR. It has been idle for 25 years in anticipation of war, but now it is perfectly doing its work in peacetime. Our crew appreciate this machinery, because we have never met anything that would outdo it in performing such complicated tasks.
If you look at these photos, you will see only a part of the bog oaks we have extracted and our fascinating journey since 2002.
We do not know any other company in the world that has been continuously doing this business for as long as we have and has extracted the same amount or more of antique bog oaks. Our path was extremely tough, but incredibly engaging. We started from the scratch, and the bog oak captivated us a lot ...
From 2002 to 2006, we have extracted about 100 m3 of bog oaks, and from 2007 until now we have mined, sawed and dried several times more. We are the largest producers of bog oak in the world, and at the same time we try to find the most rational and optimal use for this most valuable material, making sure that not even a small piece is lost. We are grateful for the opportunity to extract this gift of nature from its depths absolutely in time and the bog oak we extract will never turn into coal Wikipedia Nevertheless, for some reason, most of the bog oaks are still inaccessible to us and perhaps they will be extracted by our descendants in hundreds and thousands of years, and those logs that they still cannot extract will eventually turn into coal.
2014 was a watershed year for our company, as we entered the world market, and in 2015, we started supplying our products to all the continents. We started selling blanks for making pens, knife handles, smoking pipes, jewellery, keychains, and much more.
Craftsmen from all over the world can make the works of art from our material. And it is incredible, isn’t it?
In 2018, we kicked off our own manufacture of unique bog oak products. This work gives us quite a thrill! We are happy to make the things that bring people joy.
In 2021, we got down to making keychain pendant phone holders and we were surprised to find out that each new keychain was not like any of the previous ones, they were all individual. Nature has made the structure of wood unique; it does not repeat itself in any single inch. In addition, many manipulations in the manufacture of keychains are manual. This is quite a rational and optimal use of this valuable material.
In 2023, we carried out radiocarbon dating of a black antique bog oak in the DirectAMS Laboratory, USA.
The radiocarbon dating method detected 6639 +/-35 radiocarbon years, which is equal to around 7,500 calendar years (c. 5500 BC). This is the most ancient bog oak that has been analysed ever. Amazing, isn’t it?!
What was happening on the Earth back in 5500 BC?
This period is called Prehistory, when people could not record the course of history as there was simply no writing, it was just emerging. This was the Stone Age or, to be more precise, its latest period, the Neolithic. There were hardly any metals on our planet, and the Bronze Age started 2,000 years later.
In the Prehistoric Europe, Old European script, or Vinča symbols, have appeared at that time. We can see them on clay, Tărtăria tablets (c. 5300 BC), and wooden, Dispilio Tablet (c. 5200 BC), artifacts. Our giant oak tree was growing back then. It was around 200-300 years old.
In 2023, our company has excavated the most ancient tree on the Earth. This is unbelievable! We can hold the tree that was growing 7500 years ago, just when the writing was about to emerge. Based on these facts, a bright idea has leaped in our minds. The oldest wood on the Earth should bare a logo created in the olden days by an ancient designer. You may see letter D on a clay Tărtăria tablet. The most ancient designer has created a logo for the most ancient wood on our planet.
Since 2023, this logo has been applied to all products by Antique Bog Oak.
In 2024, we launched products related to our company mission, i.e. to give the third lease of life to antique bog oak and, in its turn, it will give us the energy of soil and water accumulated during thousands of years, inspire, and give us joy. What is this product? In 2023, there were two significant events. We have discovered the most ancient tree on our planet, upcycled it and gave the eldest logo on this planet ever. This logo was created by the most ancient designer working at the origins of literacy in 5300 BC. We could not resist making the bookmarks.
Antique wood survived centuries and witnessed the birth of books. Each bookmark is a kind of a bridge to the past linking the modern reader with the days of emerging of the written word. A combination of unique origin, ancient aesthetics, historic value, and exclusiveness makes these bookmarks a real treasure for the connoisseurs of spavined books and collectors, bridging the past and the present days, various cultures and epochs, giving a delightful feeling of touching the history. Bookmarks made of a black antique bog oak growing in 5500 BC certificate connect the reader with just emerging proto-writing epoch.
Bookmarks made of light-coloured (light gray and brown) antique bog oak – 220 AD certificate – plunge the reader into the epoch of paper invention and the beginning of book printing Woodblock printing.
These bookmarks are not just a mere functional book accessory. They are a unique vitrage fleshing up each page of history that they have touched. Wood texture and veins aged thousands of years create a unique and exquisite design for our bookmarks. Each detail dwells its story. Due to natural scarcity, each bookmark becomes an unmatched artifact whose value adds up with time.
We are blissfully happy that we are one step closer to our dream. Now, every connoisseur of antiquity has the opportunity to touch this miracle, the ancient bog oak, which is the oldest wood in the world at the early petrification stage.
We made the world’s first film about bog oak, which systematically explains all the stages and processes that bog oak came through.
Every year, we are looking forward to the season when we take to searching ancient bog oaks. Searching means diving. Volodymyr Baranenko swims hundreds of kilometres along the bottom of the rivers, he finds the logs of bog oak, pieces of dishware of ancient human settlements, bones of prehistoric animals, he observes big and small fish, and admires the extraordinary underwater life photo. You can subscribe to Volodymyr Baranenko YouTube channel and watch new exciting videos about his underwater adventures.
We are entrusted with a huge historical mission to give the bog oak a third life. Its first life lasted while it was growing several thousand years ago in an ancient wild forest. Its second life passed in dense layers of the ground, below the water level, for many years. Thanks to the river, that washed it out of the ground, it saw the sunlight again and thus its third life began. The third life of the bog oak is in delighting you as a fine handiwork, transfusing all the energy of earth and water accumulated for millennia.
