Maybe you international readers dont really give a lot respect for this kind of stuff, but for us Finns its really a part of the culture and history. There has always been a lot of forests in Finland, and back in the day ( way back ) Finland was the Europes top Tar producer. In the times of famine, people even made bread out of wood, so basicly wood was used for anything you could think of.
But times change and they dont even really make things like these anymore, or if they do, its mostly made in russia or some shit :S
This is definitely one of those items that many other people dont know/care/understand to use.
