January/February 1971
By the Mother Earth News editors
For that matter, almost any quick movement in a really hot sauna will make your skin tingle because the temperature of the air can easily be higher than the boiling point (2120 F) of water.
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Mentioning extreme temperatures brings me to a last point: The winter sauna is the same as the summer sauna with one addition . . . cold. It's very important to build the sauna fire big enough and hot enough in the winter. Take your time and soak up lots of heat. Then pour a little water on the rocks to increase the effects of that heat.
When you've reached the extreme limits of the heat-plus-humidity that you can stand, tough it out as long as possible . . . then run out and dive into a snow bank.
You'll never forget it.
HUNDRED FLOWERS/P.O. Box 7152/
Powderhorn Station/Minn./Minn. 55407.
The following wisdom has been extracted from SAUNA, THE FINNISH BATH, a very small (86 pages), relatively expensive ($3.95) and quite authorative book on the subject by H.J. Viherjuuri. The volume is printed in this country by Stephen Greene Press and is available from MOTHER.
• The whole purpose of the sauna is to induce perspiration and the body perspires much more efficiently in dry air than in damp. It is the heat-and not the humidity-that is most important in the sauna.
• Saunas should be built from wellseasoned, rough, raw wood to allow the necessary circulation of air and water through the walls. The inside of the bathhouse should not be oiled nor painted.
• The simplest sauna is a one room log but with a large, open stove upon which stones are piled. The stones can be heated red hot, causing temperatures as high as 280° F, although a maximum of 190-200 degrees is ideal. Naked bathers sit or lie on a raised, slatted platform near the roof along one side of the room. Prone position is best because the body is more evenly heated that way. During the bath, small quantities of water are thrown on the stones to make steam but the air remains fairly dry because the moisture is instantly absorbed by the wooden walls.
• Sharp edges and nail heads become intolerably hot in a sauna. Build your platform with rounded edges and wooden pegs or countersunk nails.
• Traditional sauna walls are built somewhat loose at the bottom to allow some circulation of air . . . but very tight at the top to hold the heat.
• The stones for the stove should not expand under heat, nor crumble, and their heat retention should be as great as possible. Rocks slightly- bigger than a clenched fist are the best size. The traditional Finnish sauna stones are basaltic. Igneous stones, such as quartzite (found along streambeds), are often used in the U.S.
• The heat in a sauna is non-radiant. The stones absorb the heat from the fire and it then circulates on convection currents throughout the bathhouse. This indirect heat is gentle and confistant.
