April 2016 new load of flame birch , birdseye maple, bark pocket and curly maple

Got a nice load from the mill this past week. It was perfect timing. Snow and cold and rain in the early week and then 60's and 70's at the end. Thankfully the mill stickers the wood for me to help start the air drying. Once it gets here, its all restacked and stickered for the best air drying. I use a lot of stickers between layers. I use all kiln dried cedar stickers . They work perfect and don't leave sticker stain. Any boards that are stained comes that way from the mills. Once the weather warms, white woods like maple and birch stain quickly. You have to get them on sticks as soon as possible.
I thank the Lord for keeping me able to handle and move all this lumber. Being 60, its always a good workout to do this. Keeps you moving. I handle each of these boards several times over the course of business. Its like knowing each and every board. By the time I sell the board, I wouldn't doubt I handle each one 6 to 10 times. I am probably not the perfect business model by a long shot. But I know what I have and sell is great stuff.

In this whole load, there were less then 20 boards that are not what I wanted. I work with the mills to find the best figure I can. That is more important then color to me. I know a lot of instrument makers only want pure white or sap. I try  and find it for them, but I would much rather have great figure. I can't sell birdseye with 5 eyes in a board and say its birdseye. I pull all the light figure boards and sell them as plain stock.

Had a great interesting talk with a veneer log seller. Very interesting man. One of the stories he related is how hard it is getting to get white birdseye. Needless to say, I hope some more folks will start trying to use the colored birdseye in their work. It is some wonderful material.