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Cooper · 13-01-04, 17:05

Sauna and trees.

Dear friends,

I am most ashamed to find out that many of you also use the bunches of different trees branches in the sauna.

I honestly thought it were our Russian invention (let us call it know-how) and all my friends coming here from abroad call us "sadists" when we begin whipping one another with birch (often silver fir or even heather) branches.

Comment, please.

June Pelo · 13-01-04, 17:19

Saunas in US

Here is a sauna my cousin Roger Johnson built on his property in Ely, MN. They use it all the time. I have another picture somewhere of the sauna my father's cousin built in Detroit, MI many years ago.

June

Attached Files

johnson sauna.jpg (36.2 KB, 92 views)

Cooper · 13-01-04, 17:53

Saunas worldwide.

Dear June,

Your cousin's sauna looks very cute though I must confess that it is not how the sauna looks that matters.
The sauna experts could tell you hundreds of things about what the most important point in the sauna is.

By the way, do you go bathing in the lake after the steam-room?

People here make special openings in the ice on rivers and lakes in winter to soak (refrigerate) there after the steam-room.

I will find a picture to send to you soon.

June Pelo · 13-01-04, 20:18

Saunas

No, I don't go into a steam-room nor do I go into a lake for bathing. There are people in the northern states who do this sort of thing. And it's traditional that on New Year's Day some Polar Bear club members break the ice and plunge into the icy waters. Polar Bear is the name of the club - the members are humans. Brrrr.

June

Karen Norwillo · 13-01-04, 20:55

sauna

My grandparents had a sauna on their farm in Crystal Falls, MI that I remember quite well. It was a tradition to go there every week for sauna. I am told that in the "old days" the sauna was the birthing place of many of my grandparent's children. It was considered the cleanest place available. Karen

sune · 13-01-04, 21:06

Many years ago I had an idea for a book about the Finnish sauna for foreigners. Nothing came from it but I made some preliminary research.

There are basicly two types of steambaths. (And the Finnish sauna is the third).

In the ancient roman bath the room was heated by the means of steam through ducts. The steam did not enter the room but heated it. Thus the air was very hot and dry.

Then there is the Russian type of sauna where the steam is conducted into the room through a pipe or generated by throwing water on the stove. That makes a hot and moist sauna. I've read that many Indian tribes both in South and North America had this type of sauna in tents or huts.

Now, the Finnish sauna is a mixture of both these types. It is moist and dry. When you throw water on the hot stove you get hot steam. But it is absolutely essential that you have very good ventilation. The steam is ventilated out of the sauna when it has made a round and burned everybody in it. The heat remains an the air is dry and you throw some more water on the stove after a while.

It is crucial how you plan the steam room, where you take in fresh air, so it does not cool the air, and where and how fast you allow the stem to flow out.

I know by experience that you can tolerate much higher temperatures in a dry sauna than in a moist one. Much of the moisture you see on your skin in a Finnish sauna after throwing water on the stove is in fact condensed water from the steam.

I you have a heart condition you should be careful in the sauna. It is not wrong to go out once in a while from the steam room to cool of on the porch, in the shower or the lake. Competitions about who can stand more heat are really stupid and you should not let yourself be conned into one.

Happy bathing
Sune

sune · 13-01-04, 21:08

Re: sauna

Originally posted by Karen Norwillo
I am told that in the "old days" the sauna was the birthing place of many of my grandparent's children

Thera are still living lot of Finns that were born in a sauna.

Sune

Jaska Sarell · 13-01-04, 23:27

Another link for sauna enthusiastics

Some interesting reading about sauna by a foreigner living in Finland:
http://cankar.org/sauna/

Jaska

kpaavola · 14-01-04, 04:43

Great link!

Jaska,
That is a great link! I've bookmarked it and will visit it and drool often.

Cooper · 14-01-04, 05:57

Saunas and baths.

Yes, really, the site is intersting and the link is very useful!

We do have lots of things to talk about and experiences to share about sauna. Still, there are many more types of baths in other countries. Not so popular, probably, but still...

When visiting the aquaparks all over the world we never find a Russian steam-room there, for example, but always a turkish steam-room and, of course, a sauna!.

Cooper · 14-01-04, 06:02

Expertise.

"Many years ago I had an idea for a book about the Finnish sauna for foreigners. Nothing came from it but I made some preliminary research." (Sune)

Dear Sune, you made a very thorough and important research.

Thanks!

It is a pity you did not write this book as yet. It would be a bestseller!

Cooper · 14-01-04, 06:04

Re: Saunas

Originally posted by June Pelo
No, I don't go into a steam-room nor do I go into a lake for bathing. There are people in the northern states who do this sort of thing. And it's traditional that on New Year's Day some Polar Bear club members break the ice and plunge into the icy waters. Polar Bear is the name of the club - the members are humans. Brrrr.

June

Dear June, thanks!

In our country this winter bathing is also rather popular only these people call themselves walruses.

Jaska Sarell · 14-01-04, 20:43

Re: Great link!

Originally posted by kpaavola
That is a great link! I've bookmarked it and will visit it and drool often.

Yes, it's fine that Mihael Cankar writes also about sauna and health. For us Finns the healthiness of sauna is something we take for granted.
The old Finnish saying tells: "If sauna, boose or tar doesn't help, the disease is lethal".

Jaska

Cooper · 17-01-04, 18:06

The remedies.

Dear Jaska,

Most sorry to seem illiterate but will you please explain what the word "tar" in the saying stands for.
If it is what we know it is then how it was used to cure a disease?

In our Sauna club we also have a saying that could be translated like:
If your work prevents you from visiting sauna, you have to give up the work.

Jaska Sarell · 18-01-04, 14:33

Tar

Hi Cooper,

I guess you understood the meaning of tar correctly, i.e. the black liquid distilled from pine trees. It was an important export product from Finland in the times of wooden ships. Nowadays used only for traditional wooden boats and old church roofs and such to make wood weather proof.

I tried to find some examples of its old medical uses.
E.g. tar mixed with water was used (internally) against pox and other infectious diseases. Externally tar was used as a mixture with butter for inflamed wounds; as a plaster (bandaid) a mix of tar and oats was used.

And today some EU bureaucrats have decided to ban tar usage altogether as it's considered unhealthy :-( But they know only the tar distilled from coal, which is something else.

BTW. I don't know if tar pastilles like Sisu or Leijona really contain any tar.

Jaska