RE recent KD Black Walnut delivery at Harbor Freight on 8/25/07

[scsmith42]

RE recent KD Black Walnut delivery at Harbor Freight on 8/25/07

Folks, as most know Jeff Mills and I recently partnered on the milling and drying of some 4/4 0ak and 8/4 black walnut, which was picked up from Jeff at Harbor Freight on 8/25.

I have spoken with a couple of the purchasers of the black walnut, and their moisture meters are indicating that some case hardening may have occurred during the drying process.

Unfortunately, in our rush to get the load out of the kiln and delivered to Harbor Freight, I did not perform a quality check on the walnut when it came out of the kiln. The bulk of the load was 4/4 oak, which was quality checked w/o any problems.

I sincerely regret that there have been some quality problems, and do not wish to see anybody get hurt financially as a result. Accordingly I would like to offer to either refund your purchase price on the walnut, or to replace it with something that would be suitable for your needs and within a similar price range. My only request is that I receive the walnut back that you purchased so that I can analyze what went wrong and redry the wood for later resale (fortunately, case hardening can usually be corrected).

Kyle has some kiln dried exotics for sale that I would be willing to purchase to replace your walnut. I will be making a run to his yard later this week (on September 6 or 7). Please let me know by Wednesday night if you’d like to swap out and what wood you’d be interested in taking in trade. I am willing to deliver the replacement wood to your doorstep next week so that you don’t have to incur any expenses or additional inconvenience.

Please accept my sincere apologies regarding any problems that you’ve experienced. I’ll do everything that I can to make it right.

Regards,

Scott

[NCPete]

Scott, that's good business! I had noticed Mike Davis's comment about his walnut, but didn't make the connection with this lumber run.

[JackLeg]

My compliments, Scott.

[skysharks]

Scott I too highly compliment you on being a stand up man.
I also was one that ended up with a bit that was a bit on the wet side of the 8/4. planing it was fine, but then again all I did was to just dress it up. It wasn't until later when I actually cut into it, di I notice.

Sir I respect your offer, but I will not take you up on it, as I have plenty of time and am no big hurry.

Thanks so much for your offer, and standing up behind your work.

Scott, Your doing the right thing here. I've always been happy with the final product you've produced. There are a few things I would like to say in public.

It's hard to find a person who cares about their work, is man enough to admitt and take responsiblitly for their mistakes. Seems now-a-days blame is the game most people like to play. Ethics and pride in work are hard things to find, when I do happen to stummble across someone with with both. I know I forund a winner.

A note about making it right. A lot of people wouldn't go the extra mile to make it right like your doing, I applaud you for having a strong enough conscience to do all within your power to make it right. Seems most folks now-a-days are only interested in the green backs and simply would not care enough let alone stand behind their product like your doing.

Lets be real here, I've told a few folks the reason why I take my lumber 70 miles one way to be kiln dried by you. It's your attention to detail and drive to do what it takes to produce a quaility product. As we have discussed, I've been approched by several who low balled pricing for kiln drying. After talking to them a few things didn't set right with me. One was lack of quality control, Solar kilns have their place but something just doesn't seem right to me about stoking a solar kiln and hoping for the best. Kiln drying lumber is not an easy task, you need to be able to control all aspects of the kiln in order to reduce degrade and produce a quality product.

I really apprciate you Scott, your a good man

Thanks

[Ray Martin]

I don't think there is any such thing as perfect; at least not in dealing with wood. Things can and do go wrong, regardless of our intentions. The only measure of quality is what you do when things go wrong.

Jeff noted that everyone wants to just blame someone or something

Originally Posted by jeff...

... Seems now-a-days blame is the game most people like to play. ...

and I agree... too many find it easier (and cheaper) to fix the blame than fix the problem. I applaud Scott for being a quality business man.

Ray

[cskipper]

Thank you, Scott for that refreshing demonstration of personal responsibility and pride in their work. I

[skysharks]

i second that and Third it. No worrys here Scott.

[DaveO]

Scott, first I applaud you for your gesture . You're a stand up guy I have a question for you. I got one slab of that Walnut (~20BF), and it's one of the prettiest I've ever seen. My intentions were to cut it up and use it for legs for a bed I will soon be making. I am having second thoughts on cutting it up now, not due to the potential for case hardening, but it's just to dang pretty to be ripped up. What ever I do with it, it won't be done for a month or two. I really don't want to cut into it to find out if I have the issues that others have found, because I don't know the design of the bed yet or if I will even use it. Will case hardening correct itself over time, sitting in my climate controlled shop?? Can this wood be saved with time?? How much would I have to cut off an end to get a moisture reading that might tell me if I am going to have a problem with it (using a HF moisture meter)?? Is it possible to get some 8/4 wide Walnut from Kyle, if the answers to my questions are: no, no, a whole lot?

Thanks, Dave

[scsmith42]

All - thanks for the kind words. It is never pleasant to make a mistake, and even worse when one has to acknowledge their mistakes in a public forum.

But even worse than admitting a mistake in public - is to lose someone's trust. I'm just not interested in being the type of person that can't be trusted.

When someone pays me for a product or service, they have a right to expect that they will get what they pay for - and to receive what they pay for. And if I don't deliver what I was paid to deliver, I need to make it right. It's that simple.

John M - if you plane off the case hardened portion of the wood, it should air dry ok over the next few months. Once it gets below 25% MC, I'll be glad to stick it back in the kiln and take it down the rest of the way. My offer still stands to replace it though - it's your call. Let me know if you'd like me to stop by with a high quality moisture meter to see how it reads. Thx. Scott

[scsmith42]

Dave, first the bad news... Kyle doesn't have any KD black walnut right now, so unfortunately that avenue is out.

Case Hardening (also known as residual tension set) can be corrected, the typical process is to add moisture back to the lumber quickly and at a high temperature (in a kiln). Often times, severe case hardened lumber will not correct itself in a shop setting, as the shell of the lumber loses it's ability to wick moisture away from the core wood.

To correct it outside of a kiln, you would need to joint/plane the faces of the boards down to remove the case hardening, and then the board should dry in a shop setting. One thing that is critical, it's not the ends of the boards that you want to remove (especially since Jeff and I applied end sealer to them), it's important for the moisture to leave via the face of the board.

Based on some of the moisture meter readings, not all of the boards were case hardened. Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell w/o either a high quality meter or slicing up the wood to do a manual test.

If your HF meter is a pin type and you have 3/4" pins, then you should get an accurate reading. If it's the RF type, typically the lesser expensive ones are not adequate to penetrate to the core of an 8/4 board, so the readings can be misleading.

I'm going to be in Dunn tomorrow afternoon, give me a call before 11am if you want me to stop by your place on my way home with a meter to check your wood. My cell number is 919-291-0095.

Thx. Scott

[TV]

Just wanted to thank Scott for what he is doing with the BW. It was a real pleasure chatting with Scott on Wednesday evening. Being a youngster in this adventure called woodworking, the advice he gave (from tips concerning the project I am working on to the arrangement of my garage to create more space) is very much appreciated.

tv

[scsmith42]

Todd, I enjoyed meeting you and your lovely wife! You've got the start of a great woodworking shop, and I for one am looking forward to seeing the photo's of your current and future projects.

Good luck winning your "wager" with your wife re September's projects!

Scott