Just a note before Christmas

Hello folks.

Its been busy here at the shop. Had several furniture pieces to get done and I am almost finished with had to be done before Christmas. That is a good feeling.

The lumber has been coming in and slowly been getting dried. Just can not hurry the process. I have gotten a few loads of 4/4, 5/4 and 6/4 material in this past year. My storage area is getting pretty full. Some beautiful white birdseye and some wide, heavy figure flame birch and curly maple. Got a few log sets of some stuff. I have not pulled as many log sets this time. I will be getting a big load of thick stock in the next week or two out of the kiln. Lots of 8/4, 12/4 and some 16/4 in most of the figured stuff. Flame birch, curly maple and birdseye. Some great turning stock or bed post material. I am having some more 12/4 flame birch cut. I only got enough for 1 bed and have several guys who want it. The problem is , it can take a few years to get the material dry. Thick stock is a bugger.

I also have talked with one of the mills I buy from about cutting some high quality birdseye veneer stock for guitar makers. The only size I know of is 5/4 material. If you are an instrument maker and want something cut, let me know. I can't promise anything, but will see what I can do. Veneer logs are a whole special thing. I would have 1000's of dollars just in the logs. I want to make sure folks will buy what they say. I do get a lot of 8/4 material that would work for bodies. The 5/4 is for necks. The specs are very tight and huge eyes with all white material.

I am still selling 20 ft packs, single planks with natural or live edges , turning stock ,etc. I can ship via Fastenal where possible on pallet loads or fed ex freight. Spee dee is a service I use for the upper midwest. If you need something special, let me know. If you can pass my info on to someone, I would greatly appreciate it.

I wish each and every one of the folks I deal with a very merry Christmas and a great new year ahead.

Birdseye heaven

Just got back from a trip to the mill to get a trailer load of green stock. I had asked for some 12/4 birdseye and flame birch for bed post material. I know this is super scarce. Drying takes forever and finding big logs is never easy. Plus you are going against the veneer companies to purchase those. Well, I hit the motherload. My son in law picked me up and we stated out about 6:30 am. It was a wonderful drive. Sunny and pleasant. We made good time and even stopped for breakfast. When I got to the mill, it was real quite. They work 4 10 hour days and Friday was an off day. The loader guy was working thankfully. I was told I didn't have much to pickup. I was told wrong....

The loader guy was picking up bundles and bringing them to the truck. He came with 3 bundles and told us there were more. Not on this load...The wood was all frozen together. Took some pounding with sledge hammers to get it apart. I was speechless. There were planks, 3" and 17" wide. Beautiful white birdseye. The whole trailer got filled quick. We had to hand load some to get the most on without being overloaded. We had almost 6000# on the trailer. The roads were a bit lumpy to say the least, so we strapped it down and headed out.

Unloading was no fun. Had to beat it more with sledges. Stacking and stickering was a chore. Heavy wet and icy. Some of the big planks weighed several hundred pounds. Made for some exciting stacking to say the least. No smashed fingers thankfully. Wet cold hands, but those are fixable. Hope you enjoy the pics. It was a great day to say the least. Hope to be going back in the next month for some flame birch. I hope to have this dried and ready to sell by the end of this year. Thick stock is always a slow process. This will make some great turning stock, bedposts or tables. I have never in my life seen this thick and wide of birdseye. All great figure too.