Thursday, November 30, 2017

Happenings in the log yard

Well folks, its has been an interesting fall so far.
I had my knee replaced about 5 weeks ago. It was kind of planned, but being a stubborn cuss, I fought it . Finally had to bite the bullet and get it done. Thank you to the doctor who did it. It has gone well. I had big plans of being back to work sooner then later. The knee tells you what you can do. I think the little man inside has fun with me...

Anyway, I have brought in some extraordinary material. Some I got before surgery. One load of big thick curly cherry came in after. I have several thousand feet of figured maple air drying and ready to go in the kiln. I asked my kiln guy to wait as I was not sure how soon I would be back. My storage area is full. My other buildings are full, I need to get moving some stuff. Let me also say, I cannot thank the young man who has been helping me enough. Aaron Lindgren. I am hoping this continues, as he is a great honest person. I am not getting younger. I need to find someone to take this over sometime. Aaron has the right stuff. If you have not met him, over the next several months, I hope to introduce him to you all.

Now on to the good stuff. The first thing I want to bring up is the river recovered material I have gotten. I have a story all typed about the history of this wood. The logs are 250 to well over 300 years old. They have sat at the bottom of a river for over 150 years. The water has colored much of the lumber that was sawed out of these trees. I have about 1000' on hand right now with some more coming. I had it sawed into mostly 6/4 and 8/4 material.  I have it in logs sets. Most of what I have is flame birch, hard maple and birdseye maple. The logs were not huge wide logs. many were 24"  and less in width. But the figure and tightness of the grain is incredible. I have been posting lots of pictures on my facebook business page.
https://www.facebook.com/KloesCustomWoodwork
I post a lot of stuff on there. Please take a look . Its faster for me to post pictures there. Even some videos.
This old lumber that comes from these trees is a bit different then using newer material. The grain is incredibly tight. Its a bit more dusty. The colors are all over the place. I have some that is grey all the way through. Email me at bob@bobkloes.com and I can send you the story about the wood. It is very rare and  doubt I will ever get lumber like this again. You have all heard about the timber that came out of lake Superior. I have seen that and worked it. I believe this material is as nice or better. I will post some pictures down below. All of this material is sawn live edge.

The next material that has come in is some of the nicest 8/4 curly cherry I ever saw. I connected with a veneer sawmill in Pennsylvania. he saws only veneer logs. I bought 700' of green curly cherry last winter. Its now dry and I have it for sale. I never saw curly cherry like this. Up to 18" wide, a sap edge about an inch wide on a short strip of a 12 foot long plank. Once dried , I got it home a few weeks back along with some incredible curly white oak. The oak is sold. The curly cherry is also going fast. If you are interested in any planks of this material, let me know. Shipping is available, but it would go by truck I would think. This load also contains some beautiful quarter sawn curly cherry. I have not gone through the whole pile yet, but I do know there is a log set or two in this material. I am hoping to bring more of this in next year along with some curly walnut. It is not inexpensive, but some great stuff.
I have also had some great heavy eye birdseye maple and flame birch come in. The curly maple live edge planks are in stock. 4/4 through 16/4 material is available. I even have some 16/4 flame birch dry after 4 years.
I can ship via trucking for long pallets. Fed ex offers "flat rate " pallets which is a 48" by 40" box that I can put about 250 board feet in. It is about the least expensive way to ship to the west coast if you can use short lengths. But you must pick it up at a fed ex truck terminal. Fastenal is getting harder to shiop at times. Sometimes I can and sometimes I can't ship long skids. Again you have to pick up at the fastenal it goes to. LTL loads also go to a truck terminal. Shipping to your home gets real expensive real fast. I wish I could do more, but I am not a huge company.
Another special wood I brought in was 8/4 spalted hard maple. I also got a bit of 4/4 and 6/4 was well. This was all cut from dead standing trees. I have it in lengths up to 12 feet long. 8 footers are the longest I usually ship. But if you want to come pick it up, let me know.
I guess I have talked enough. I will stop for now. Contact me through my web site or the email listed above, I am always glad to help pick the best material for your project and offer help with finishing the material you get from me.
 river log of birdseye maple
 one of the ends of the logs from the river
Part of the pile of river logs. They were all mostly axe cut.
 8/4 curly cherry
8/4 curly cherry
flame birch live edge plank from the river with some acetone on it to show the color.