Help with new source of wood

[Alan in Little Washington]

Not sure if this is the right place, but I have two issues dealing with wood that I would like to put to you all:

First.

Sawyer- for anyone east of I-95, within 40 mi. of little Washington (possibly a little farther if the job is big).

He has a nice Wood-Mizer LT 40HD with hydraulics and knows how to use it! He has a day job (Engineer at PCS Phosphate) so does most cutting in the evenings and on weekends. He has some on-hand stock (I have not seen it but intend to check it out and possibly buy some) that has been air drying, some 4 to 5 years. It includes Cherry, Walnut, Cedar (red), 4/4, 4" - 12" wide by 2' - 12' long. Contact Kevin at Kevin's Custom Sawing & Furniture 252-923-0345. I have no financial/or other interest in this sawyer. I suggested to him that he contact Wood-Mizer and join their referral network.

Second.
Possible new E. Carolina wood source

Next up, is a local (Washington/Beaufort Co) Tree Service guy who needs some help. He gets lots of good hardwood during conduct of his business removing trees from property. Up until now he just cut it up for fire wood, burned it as scrap (Yikes! what a waste ), or cut some (mainly pine) into construction lumber for friends' barns and sheds. He just had the above sawyer cut some of his trees- in addition to pine for barns, he cut some oak into 2"X12" by 12' long near clear planks for his truck bed! In the truck were some 23" wide slabs of near perfect 4/4 Red Oak. He gave me 200 bdft of 4/4 red and white oak (I really wanted QSWO)- a barter deal. Bottom line, I told him he could likely make more $ with less work selling cabinet grade hardwood lumber instead of firewood. He doesn't have a clue as wood stacking, stickering, drying, dryness requirements (for cabinet lumber), cutting ("quartersawn, what's that?"), grading, etc. If he decides to do this I will try to help him with info from the web on those topics. He typically gets decent sized trees of Red & White Oak, Cypress, Poplar, Cedar (red), Walnut (he will be cutting 5 Walnut trees next week), Birch, Maple, Sycamore, and lesser amounts of Chestnut and Cherry, and occassionally strange stuff like Mulberry, Crepe Myrtle, etc.

I doubt he will ever have the volume needed to supply cabinet shops and he still needs to find a kiln (wonder if a Tobacco drier would work?). He has sufficient covered storage for air drying (but that would mean 1-2 year delay in startup).

I would greatly appreciate it if you guys and gals could give me your top 5-8 domestic hard woods ranked by how often/how much you use so I can help him focus a little. Other comments and suggestions also accepted. Thanks much.

[Ray Martin]

Alan,

Thinking about myself and in recalling the contents of posts here, I'd guess that the most popular of the woods used are:

• walnut
• maple
• white oak
• red oak
• cherry
• mahogany

I also see posts about exotics but they are not called for as often.

Ray

[Ray Martin]

Alan,

If your east Carolina wood source does get into the business of supplying, be sure to add his name to our website's list of wood suppliers. If you have any trouble adding a name to the list, just post it and one of the admin or moderator types will get it added for you.

Ray

[Travis Porter]

Ray, last I remember, Mahogany isn't domestic.

As for me, my order of preference:

Cherry
QSWO
Walnut
Poplar (some may say it isn't a hardwood) - use for components and stuff
Maple
Red Oak
White Oak

Personally, I have started using some of the above in what would be called #1 common for internal components (drawer sides, runners, frame members,etc).

My only issue with buying from a sawyer is having to let it air dry for 1 year per inch. If they do a solar kiln and can dry it, would probably help sales some.

[Kyle]

"My only issue with buying from a sawyer is having to let it air dry for 1 year per inch. If they do a solar kiln and can dry it, would probably help sales some."

Thats a common fallacy that continues to perpetuate through the woodworking community.

Wood can be air dried thoroughly in as little as 30 days in the warmer months and can take up to 6 months in colder climes. Dr Wengert will tell you that the air temperature and wood species are the two most important factors when determining when wood will be finished drying. Walnut Cherry can be throughly air dried in 35-40 days when temperatures are above 70 degrees. Air Dried means between 10-19% Moisture content. The LOWEST moisture content you will reach here is 10% to go lower it will have to be kiln dried or brought indoors.

thick material can take a year or longer depending upon the storage. The thicker the longer it has to be dried.The toughest woods to dry are White Oak , Holly, Live Oak, Hickory/Pecan

[jeff...]

Did you catch that? Kyle, is sharing a little of his wisdom. I'm sure, it's based on his personal experiences. I think it would be wise to listen to what Kyle has to say, Kyle knows what he's talking about. Go back and re-read what Kyle wrote.

My personal experience tells me, I can take a perfectly good saw log and make a bunch of fire wood. Believe it or not there is a method to making furniture grade lumber. It starts with felling the tree correctly all the way to proper drying and dimensioning. One mistake in any part of the process, can take a stack of what would have been high quality lumber and produce a pile of fire wood.

I think we call can appreciate the potential in a tree and desire to see it made into something useful, like a piece of fine furniture. But the truth of the matter is from tree to table top is a long journey and each step of the journey there's opportunity for failure. I've said before that success is at the crossroads of vision and hard work. I believe that to be true. Producing lumber is hard work, lots of hard work. Some people see the vision, but don't want to do the hard work to be successful. Try the process once yourself and I'm sure you'll quickly gain appreciation for an experienced sawyer like Kyle.

Thanks Kyle.

[Travis Porter]

Then I have definitely learned something. I guess the moisture meter I just ordered is appropriate to have.

[Kyle]

Jeff,
Thanks for the kind words.

Travis,
I wasn't trying to be preachy so if I come across as such please don't take it the wrong way. I would highly recommend a moisture meter. If you have the time and patience and space, learning to dry your own wood saves a TON of money and you get exactly what you want. It also helps in making furniture as well.

[NZAPP1]

Thanks Kyle and Jeff we learn something new every day. Thanks for passing on your wisdom

[gator]

Just within the last month one of the woodworking magazines had an article on building a simple solar klin (could be built by anyone anywhere).

I have a link at home to an online wood sellers/sawyers site. I'll try to remember to look it up and post it when I get home this evening.

George

[Travis Porter]

Kyle, I didn't take it that way at all. I took it that something that I had thought was true, turns out not to be quite true. I happened to order a moisture meter this past weekend as Amazon had them on sale.

No sweat whatsoever from my perspective. Instead, I think I learned something.

[Travis Porter]

Also, the moisture content of the wood is going to go up if it is kiln dried to whereever the wood is stored isn't it?

[gator]

Originally Posted by Travis Porter

Also, the moisture content of the wood is going to go up if it is kiln dried to whereever the wood is stored isn't it?

If I remember correctly, there is something called EMC (equiliberium moisture content) that says just that. Moisture content will come to eqiliberium with the surrounding humidity. This is supposedly why you bring your stock into the shop for a week or two before starting a project.

George

[ChiYiu]

i have done busines with kyle he is a good business man. I have an article from woodworks that show how to build a dehumidifyinhg kiln for under $500 kind of small but i figure it will workin a bigger scale.

[gator]

Here is the web site I mentioned above. It has everything from cabinets to finishing to sawyering to drying etc etc.

Woodworking Information at WOODWEB

George