I'm making a really high end woodworkers workbench, and want to use sugar, aka northern hard, maple for the bench top. The plans, which I want to follow, call for the top to be 4" thick and made by gluing 4" wide boards together on their faces, i.e., the edges will be the bench top.
I want to get 8/4 x 10"W x 8'L boards which I can mill to glue-ready surface finish and then rip two 4" wide boards from the original 10" width. I also want one 12/4 board to make jaw faces for the vises.
I have exhausted every source I know of from Hickory to Knoxville; nobody has or can get boards wide enough from which to rip two usable boards. The popular explanation is that no one up north wants to wait another 10-20 years for the trees to grow large enough to yield wide enough boards.
The only boards I can source are 6-8" wide. At $8+/bf, cutting a single 4" board from an 8" board leaves entirely too much unusable cutoff material, for which I have no immediate use. Does any one know of a source, local or up north, that might have the sugar maple lumber I'm seeking? Thanks.
I want to get 8/4 x 10"W x 8'L boards which I can mill to glue-ready surface finish and then rip two 4" wide boards from the original 10" width. I also want one 12/4 board to make jaw faces for the vises.
I have exhausted every source I know of from Hickory to Knoxville; nobody has or can get boards wide enough from which to rip two usable boards. The popular explanation is that no one up north wants to wait another 10-20 years for the trees to grow large enough to yield wide enough boards.
The only boards I can source are 6-8" wide. At $8+/bf, cutting a single 4" board from an 8" board leaves entirely too much unusable cutoff material, for which I have no immediate use. Does any one know of a source, local or up north, that might have the sugar maple lumber I'm seeking? Thanks.