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Pictures:In the main image above Eero Välikangas and Santa Claus inaugurate in Lapland the biggest savusauna of the world.
On the left:
- the sauna logo of the club,
- the savusauna of Santa Claus?,
- a very good savusauna kiuas named Ikiturso.
- at the bottom the smoke sauna expert, the Norwegian savusauna owner Tor Aune and ambassador Ole Norrback relax in the original Finnish way.
THE ORIGINAL FINNISH SAUNA
-THE SAVUSAUNA
How to build it, how to heat it, how to bathe in it?These instructions have been written by the founder and former President of The International Smoke Sauna Club, Eero Välikangas. The drawings (available from the writer) have been made by architect Heikki Hietula. The technical solutions have been inspected by chief engineer Aimo Reinikainen. The foreign point of view has been offered by Dr. George Campbell.
Savusauna is something special, something that cannot be truly understood without visiting it personally. It is an experience that is from an- other world. Löyly, the warm steam raising from kiuas, the stove in the corner of the savusauna, feels like honey on the skin but also helps the soul. Löyly has several meanings in Finnic languages: ´spirit; life; steam; breath; soul; person; vitality´.
The instructions here are based on old Finnish traditions since the Kalevalan age. Some modernizing has happened to reduce the consumption of firewood and to shorten the heating time. Modern building materials can be used.
Jokamiehen savusauna (Varmans rökbastu, Jedermanns Rauchsauna, Everyone´s Savusauna/Smoke Sauna) is the book where the details of these pages concerning the Finnish savusauna culture are more thoroughly cleared up. The book can be ordered from the address above.
The model drawings, included in this book, can be submitted to the authorities when a building licence is needed. The sauna can also be bought from a producer in Finland.
How to build the Savusauna
SITE:
The savusauna has to suit its environment close to water. The building licence specifies the site further.
DIMENSIONS:
At least 2.5 x 3 m, wall heights about 2.5 m. Veranda, rooms for washing and dressing can also be included.
IF YOU DECIDE TO BUILD YOUR OWN SAVUSAUNA:
Dig half a meter deep pits in the corners of the to-be-sauna, fill them with sand and place 30-50 cm high stones or big bricks in them.
Fill the pit for the stove with rocks and sand and cast a 20 cm thick and 120 x 120 cm broad concerts panel with iron braces.
Corner the stove walls with bricks. Do the masonry work in fireproof bricks and mortar for the kiuas/stove (exterior measures about 70 x 80 cm, free interior height 70 cm). If the opening of the kiuas is accessible through the brick wall, kiuas can be heated from the dressing room.
Löylywater can be heated outside in a pot, in a pot hanging above or standing on the kiuas. Tepid water can also be warmed in buckets on the sauna platform during the heating.
About 70 cm above the ground pile the kiuas stones - a 40 cm´s layer - on 4 pairs of fireproof prop brick.
The kiuas stones must be pure, with a cross-section 10-15 cm; and they must bear changes in temperature. Peridotit, gabro and olivin are good.
Fasten, without any aircracks, an asbestosfree fireproof board (120 x 120 cm) in the ceiling above the kiuas (distance at least 120 cm from stones).
The floor can simply be made of planks with small cracks. The fresh air comes in through these cracks and - if you want to wash yourself in the saunaroom - the water goes out. To preserve the savusauna´s unic smell, washing inside the saunaroom is not to be recommended however.
Alternatively, leave aircracks in the lower bottoms of the ceilings if a waterproof floor (with a chute) is demanded. Both types of cracks give the sauna air.
Timber is a good material for building a savusauna. Boards and planks can also be used. 4 x 10 cm´s brace planks stand in the three corners, exterior boards in upright position, interior boards - under which isolating material, e.g. aluminium paper will be hanged - lay horizontally. In the fourth corner there is kiuas and brickwalls to quarantee that sauna will not burn down. The ceiling boards are isolated too with isolating paper and a 10 cm´s layer of mineral wool or flax. If any wooden benches or the platform to sit on in the sauna are closer than one meter from the kiuas they are to be isolated because of the heat. It is easier to sweep in the sauna if the door-way has no treshold.
The savusauna has no chimney. Instead there is a hole (30 x 50 cm) high up in the platform wall (30 cm under the ceiling) for the smoke to go out during heating. The hole can be gradually shut during the bathing with a gliding piece of a board.
If the window is under the kiuas level it will remain more clean, placed higher up it will give the sauna a pleasant twilight. The sauna can be lit with a candle on the floor (in a metal plate) or through a lamp outside the window.
Use felt or galvanized iron on the roof. Rainwater can be led from the roof in to a tub.
The sauna platform opposite to the kiuas is located just above the kiuas level and must be supported in both ends, as the lower bench and the (loose) pole in front of the platform. This pole is there to rest the legs and to relax in the mead-sweet löyly of a savusauna.
For more information about building or ordering a savusauna contact, please 050 557 2214
How to heat it and bathe in itTO HEAT IT:
Check that the hole for the smoke to go out is open, that the vessels are on their places and there is water in them. Heat three ovens (half-full) with normal dry wood; the last time with very small pieces, dry twigs etc. When the lowest stones in kiuas are red the heat is sufficient. A pleasant temperature is 70-80 grades (Celsius).
Next carry coals from kiuas in to a cask outside with a metal spade, lift the hotwater vessel away from the kiuasstones and throw about five times water on the stones with a ladle to get them clean from ashes (= häkälöylyt). Sweep the platform where saunabathers sit and the ceiling behind it so that no loose soot remains.
If you wish to use a bath-whisk (vihta/vasta) during your bathing, collect fresh birch twigs with leaves, tie them and soak the whisk in a bucket with hot water, so that the leaves soften. Air the sauna for half an hour. -You can also freeze whisks for the winter.
TO BATHE IN IT:
Now you can go into the savusauna: undress yourself, shut the door behind you, lift the whisk on the kiuas and throw water on it so you can feel its smell in the löyly. Take it with you up to the platform. Lift the loose pole up on its handles and let your legs rest on it when sitting. Throw water on the kiuas now and then, shut the smoke opening (räppänä) in the ceiling little by little until it is entirely closed. Touch your skin with the whisk where you feel it is pleasant.
Cool yourself outside, take some refreshment (spring water is best) and go back to the sauna. Repeat this so many times as it pleases you. No food or mobile phones are allowed to the vicinity of a savusauna.
Savusauna is the purest sauna alternative because it is desinfected by the smoke during the heating. Originally the savusauna was a place to give a birth as well as a drug-store and even a church for the Finns. Its löyly is soft - honey-sweet - and after visiting it one is endowed with incredibly pleasant existence for many days.
IF YOUR SAVUSAUNA BURNS DOWN YOU HAVE:
- built a too little hole (räppänä) for the smoke to go out
- piled up too thin layer of stones in your kiuas
- not isolated sauna´s wooden parts from the kiuas carefully enough
- left cracks in the ceiling or higher up in the walls and the wind has allured flames out through them
- heated your savusauna too hot
- left a burning candle on the window ledge
- not looked after the heating
- allowed your savusauna to become all too sooty
IF YOU HAVE SOOTED YOURSELF IN A SAVUSAUNA:
- you have proceeded unskilfully, touched unswept places in the walls or sides of hotwater vessels,
- you have swept the sauna platform or the platform wall carelessly
IF YOU HAVE HEADACHE NEXT MORNING, BECAUSE OF YOUR SAVUSAUNA YOU HAVE:
- heated the sauna poorly - with e.g. wet, unseasoned, slowly burning, often too thick firewood
- in vain saved water when throwing the häkälöylyt
- not carried coals from kiuas to a cask
- not aired your savusauna properly
- shut the räppänä too early
- caught cold afterwards
Contacts: see above.
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