Wood material
Felled Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) tree decayed by brown-rot
fungi was obtained fromplateau of Kafkasor, 8 kmaway fromArtvin
province on the Black Sea coast in the north-eastern corner of
Turkey. For comparison with the decayed tree, sound Scots pine
tree was harvested in the same location. The breast diameters of
the decayed and sound trees were about 40 cm. The discs (10 cm
thick) were taken from 40 cm and 2.40 cm heights of the decayed
and sound logs based on the ground level.
The wood particles were obtained from the discs using a laboratory type drum chipper with three knives. The wood particles
of sound wood and decayed wood were separately proceeded. The
wood particles were then processed by using a laboratory grinder.
A vibratory sieve shaker (Fritsch Analysette) was used to obtain 60
mesh size wood flour for the WPC production and 40–100 mesh
size wood flour for the chemical analysis. Before the WPC production, the wood flour was dried in a laboratory oven at 102
◦
C for
24 h to a moisture content of 0–1% based on the oven-dry weight
of wood