What wood do you use and why?
In the early days of woodworking furniture was built of what was available locally. For example, the “Dutch” communities in Pennsylvania worked with walnut and cherry for furniture, hickory for wagon wheels and hoops. In Europe, prior to the import of Mahoganies,etc, a great majority of furniture was built of the most common woods nearby – oaks, pine, walnut etc. Similarly locally indigenous woods are used around the world. Now, fine woods are almost always available, for a price, at a reasonably close supplier.
Do you, whether or not it’s a studio piece or building of known style, use a wood that is local or in the case of types of furniture tend to go with what is mostly used? (i.e. A &C with QS white oak)
For example, I use a lot more claro -because it’s nearby, a lot more alder — same reason (and also that getting great cherry this side of the Allegheny is problematic) big leaf, and some better hardwoods out of British Columbia. I won’t necessarily make a A&C piece out of QS.
So again, what do you use and why?
(Lataxe – we know where you get your wood — would that we could all be so blessed!)
Talk amongst yourselves 🙂
Boiler
Replies
boiler,
the area surrounding me has been, since the 1890's, an urban forest of exotic trees. east coast, australian, south african as well as central and south american species abound. fortunate, huh? my good buddy owns one of those chainsaw, do-it-at-your-own-risk, portable mills. i have carved local avocado, turned mesquite and black acacia made things out of mulberry, carob, chinese elm, persimmon and pomegranate. we have many beautiful species of willow and oak which i have also worked with. the california live oaks were, to my knowledge, never commercially exploited. we and the oaks reside in an area of frequent and sustained drought. it seems that the oak trees absorb a great deal of tool dulling minerals, rendering the wood "useless".
eef
I live in Eastern Ontario. Cherry, hard maple, red oak, ash, poplar and pine are all plentiful and relatively cheap. My principal source is
http://www.kjpselecthardwoods.com/ although I will occasionally go outside of town to one of the many local sawyers.
I picked up about 50 bf of poplar yesterday for less than $2 per bf. Maple was available for slightly more. Strangely, good pine is about the same price as maple or red oak. While I was there I also saw cherry (#1 and #2 common) for $2. Granted the price goes up for Select & Better or Clear but I'm always able to pick through the stack and find enough good material to make whatever project I have in mind. I seldom use the exotics for anything.
Regards,
Ron
Bubinga and walnut. I use oak (red or white) for frames for are work. We have a collection of things by the same Japanese artist. Occasionally maple.
Bubinga because it is absolutely positively beautiful. Walnut because that's what she wanted. The kitchen have all been maple veneer ply as well as all the beds because I prefer lighter woods.
And I used Ipe for the Lataxe garden bench because it will hold up outdoors.
ASK
In the past I worked a fair amount of bubinga but have given it up because it is endangered. I began using it because it was, according to the spec books, the strongest stuff I could afford. I made some tools out of it. Once I put some finish on it I fell in love.
Beautiful ruby red veins. Takes my secret finish to bring them out. That is a whole other story.
Then for nearly the same reason I worked purple heart. I began with it because I wanted a super strong wood that was even more affordable than the bubinga because I needed some thick stuff to make my work bench out of. Again I was surprised by the fine appearance; iridescent figure that came up. In this case no finish at all just polished plane blades ! Some of it is plane and uninteresting in the extreme. Some of it is the most beautiful thing. Right up there with the throat of a humming bird when it looks like it is lit up with batteries and lights from the inside ! ! !
Walnut. Good practical choice that. I used it for tool boxes. Dark wood best around dirty hands. Friendlier for cutting joints, dove tails etc., than the harder woods.
Camphor wood. For the drawer sides to help keep the rust off the tools in the tool boxes.
Maple. I have always had a fascination for maple. When I read James Krenov started out with maple, tried all the exotics and finally returned to maple because he loved it so much I felt like perhaps I wasn't crazy after all.
Cherry. I have not worked cherry but look forward to making lamp tables from it soon. The blotching I been reading about scares me but the color change over time intrigues me. I look forward to learning how to work and finish it.
As far as local wood. There is alot of elm here. don't know if it is worth trying to work it. When I was a kid my dad cut down several mature elms from the property around the house, cut them up and hauled them to the dump. When I think of all that wood wasted it makes me crazy. Funny smelling stuff when freshly cut. I am not drawn to it but just hate the thought of all that waste.
roc
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. Abraham Lincoln ( 54° shaves )
I use plywood and particle board since they grow locally and very conveniently store flat. Occasionally I will use melamine which does not grow locally but is available in several lovely colors.
Sometimes it's ok go local :)
On a semi-serious note: once in awhile Tanoak is available, it doesn't have the problems with checking and warpage that Oregon White Oak does; the grain is straighter and the color warmer and more uniform.
Black Walnut, Oregon Ash, Madrone, Oregon Myrtle (too weird for an entire piece), Oregon Maple (known to the uninformed as Big Leaf Maple) are all available nearby.
Appleply grows in Eugene. ;)
Polarseal,Appleply -- I heard there was an orchard over there!Have to try Madrone.
I'm lucky on the Myrtle. One huge board (for Myrtle) 7/4 x 23" x 6'. It's been drying for over twenty years and has great figure. I'm still studying on it. Enough to make a small table or a spice cabinet. Some of those good boards -- you just have to look at for while. Might have to go to a middle pitch angle on it. Have a large slab of claro that gives me the evil eye every time I walk by.
Where are you located?BB
Corvallis, not too far from the Myrtlewood Mystique Gallery. :)
I think that myrtle is dry by now. I have several large chestnut planks. They were cut buy a friends great grand father. I love working with walnut and cherry, but much of my work is in red oak, I know the feeling with the walnut, I have some walnut burl that needs to be kept covered because it looks at you with such a mean expression. I'm fortunate that job leaves the shop this week.I work in many different veneers.Ron in Peabody
A+C - QSWO as you noted - period correct - most of my A+C is repros, and the Stickley antiques the repros live with are QSWO, of course.
Others - I just decide what I would like to use, and get that. Sometimes this ain't cheap, but that's an aesthetic decision (like, 250 BF absolutely georgeous QS sycamore shipped from Talarico in PA down to Atlanta). Sometimes my choice's cost is "par" like hard maple or cherry from the local supplier.
Where do you live in Hotlanta?BB
Well, as a point of honor I like to say I do NOT live in Buckhead, but my local-born neighbor, in his same house for 30 years says "You ARE in Buckhead - deal with it."
2 blocks W of Peachtree 3 -4 blocks S of Lindbergh - area known as "Peachtree Hills".
Use to live in Peachtree Park on East Paces Ferry. Easy walk to lenox. Quiet unless you had to go out to Peachtree St. or Piedmont Ave. You and Sarge should get together for some coffee over in the highlands after a round at Highland hardware. This time of year the colors must be changing and Morningside has that crisp feeling with the oak leaves falling. Best time of year in Atlanta.BB
Peachtree Hills is not nor will ever be Buckhead... it P'tree Hills. Close in proximity but the geographic center of Buckhead is the intersection of Roswell Rd where it starts and Peachtree St. There used to be a place called the Red Dog Saloon in that corner where the small park is that had a door that led to Roswell Rd. on one side and P'tree St. on the other. The building was triangular. Across the street on P'tree was Al's Pizza Corral which had the best pizza in Atlanta in the late 60's and 70's.
All gone with the wind and Buckhead is what it is now which is different scenery and a totally different core of people that go there.
Regards...Sarge..
Woodworkers' Guild of Georgia
Sarge - Glad to hear from you, glad you know where P'tree Hills is. Very nice neighborhood - built in the late 20's and early 30's - gotta nice A+C bungalow, so the antique Stickley stuff and my meager attemps at repros fit in well. Perfect location to live in - reataurants all around, I-75 + I-85 are both 1 1/2 miles away, Highland Woodworking is 10 - 12 mintues.
That long-time-resident neighbor of mine aboslutely insists that "You are north of Peachtree Creek - you are in Buckhead." You state clearly why I like to say "No, I don't" but, what the heck.
On the upside - If I ever got a metal detector I betcha I could wander my neighborhood and find relics from July 18-20, 1864, when my Yankee antecedents first hung out here on the north bank of Peachtree Creek. 'Course - they weren't here for long, because Gen Hood invited them across the creek.........
Nice bungalows through-out PH's from Piedmont on one side to Peachtree on the other. I disagree with your neighbor about everything on the Buckhead side being Buckhead. There is the Peachtree Battle area where PB meets PT St.. you have to go up P'tree to where the large Presbyterian Church on the right and the large church (forget the name but basically the Church of England or Epista whatever you call it) sits on the small hill on the left before you get to what was the business district of Buckhead.
I miss Oxford Books down in the old shopping center across from P'tree Battle. I loved that place and Borders.. etc. just aren't substitutes. I worked Foreign Cars in 1969 just as they were coming into the U.S. but new for the most part at Baker Motor Co. at the corner of Pharr and P'tree. Those were some fun days.
I think the big thing is being able to say you live in Buckhead so residents extended the boundaries to suit their ego. ha.. ha...
Have a good day and regards regardless of your original place of birth. BTW.. Sherman can kiss my southern *ss! ha.. ha... ha..ha..ha..
Sarge..
Woodworkers' Guild of Georgia
Edited 10/13/2009 4:04 pm ET by SARGEgrinder47
Out here in the praires (Alberta) there isn't much locally grown commercially available hardwood. A few kind souls from out east bring trailers loaded with wood out with them, which is always a good source.
In the end I typically use Walnut or Cherry. All hardwood is expensive here, so I just go by what I like. Most recently I've used some oak.
What wood do you use and why?...
Chicago here so not much local harvested wood except what I can find thrown away in the trash. Such as old furniture that is not particle board. Yes, I have no shame and will stop in a heartbeat and haul off someone else's so called junk. Much of it is useable in some form or another. Been known to use first class black walnut, chestnut as secondary wood!
As to the woods I usually use, I like the exotics my local supplier has available. Many I like I cannot afford no matter how much I like them!
I use, mostly, what I call exotics, because 'I' like how they look, work and finish. I find that using hand tools on them is difficult (for me) because I usually pick out peices with grain that most others leave behind. As they sit there and not sold the price goes down. I can/will wait for the leftovers. I am not rich so price is VERY important to me. That does not mean I will pass up something that stands out for what I like.. IF I can afford it.
I do use hand tools. Really I do! Sometimes ;>)
But most of the wood I pick out is better cut on a table or hand saw and then finished off with a router bit and then scraper blades. I will buy a new scraper blade and grind a profile if necessary. I ran out of old saw blades to grind.
As to a hand plane... On the wood I choose.. For me.. Forget it! If my beval up and beval down block planes do not work, I use my scrapers or electric tools. I am NOT above using sandpaper. Or my WeCheer hand grinder.
I found out over time that many of my choices of 'wood grain look' were reaction wood and I had to use without ripping the stock. So onto a different idea.. I have no problem doing that. I tend to make projects of different woods I have on hand because I usually do not have enought of one type of wood to do the whole thing. And reaction wood seems to stay put when cutting AND after if you just trim the edges straight and do NOT rip it to some size. Find a place to use that stick in a project that is close to a nice size for the profile of the project.
At times I go looking for a particular wood and very often come home with something else. I forget my 'current' project and do something more fitting for the wood (In my mind) that was purchased. I always look around for what I think are 'forgotten' sticks. I do realize that because of my liking of wild grain gets me in trouble. As in my shop bench I made.. As it mostly collects dust and my tools.
My mind tends to wander.. Sorry!
This year I went for Maple and got some 14.5 inch wide Saple for 1/3 of the cost of some common maple I was looking for. Maples all over Chicago after the Elms died off. Maples are NASTY trees to have on your property.. I love em' just the same!
I can provide pictures of my house cement slab that was devestated by a Maple tree!
I cut it down but way to late.. I think the roots under the house kept growing?
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