New April wood list

 Birdseye maple logs sets

 Some over 12' long

Flame birch log sets, Nice even color and figure and wide...

Spalted flame birch log set.  5 or 6 pieces. Really nice unusual stuff. Great color. 90$ for 20 ft. If you want the whole log set, contact me. It is something I have only seen this one time.

 Book matched set of 15" wide birdseye maple 1" thick boards. Great figure, lots of heartwood , some cracks at the ends, but stunning. 20 bd ft between the pair. 150$ plus shipping

 Plain spalted hard maple. I have a pile of a few hundred feet. All 4/4[ 1"] Runs 6" wide or so. Nice small box material. 4$ bd ft.  or 75$ for 20 bd ft. Lots of color and bug holes. Nice solid material.

 Bird peck, bark pocket hard maple. Has some curl and some have birdseye in it. Nice material. 75$ for 20 bd ft. Makes great box material

 12/4 birdseye. [3" thick] Great figure and have stock up to 12 or 13" wide. Turning or bed posts, your choice. Starts at 15$ board foot for narrow stock. 22$ bd ft for the wide stock. Never have seen this anyplace before. I have been air drying and kiln drying this for 18 months. All 8' long.

 16/4 [4"+] thick butternut. 8' long and widths over 12+". Some very nice material. Some pieces are all clear, a few have a couple of small knots and checks. I will deduct for any defects.  Narrow stock starts at 6$ board foot. Wider will be 8$ board foot. This is becoming very hard to find with many defects. The blight is killing it all. Would make a beautiful bed or mantle or table. I have always loved butternut. Very soft and often called white walnut due to the grain being a dead ringer for walnut. I have about 400 bd ft and once this is gone, I may never  get any more this thickness or size. I am hoping to get some 4/4 or 5/4 wide stock  sometime this spring. But that would not be dry until later in fall. Turns and carves very well.

 Some more shots of the 12/4 birdseye. They look weather beaten and dark, but that all gets planed off. Plus they are all cut heavy. Usually a 1/4" or more over thickness.

 8/4 birdseye and curly.  Great for legs or turnings. Usually has very good to heavy eye.  8/4 birdseye is 9$ bd ft this month only. All maple is going up fast

 16/4 butternut after planing.

 with a little water on it, hardly shows much difference.

 All sorts of weird figure hard maple. Great for small boxes. Bark pocket, bird peck ,burl figure, some I have no idea what to call it. If you want to make some nice boxes , this is some great stuff. Its all rough in the pictures, but you can see the figure in them.

 More pictures of the spalted flame birch

 Spalted birdseye. I only have a piece or two left. Really unique. 5$ bd ft.

Log sets of flame birch. Contact me for pricing. Most of the sets contain anywhere from 50 to 100 bd ft.  Boards run 4' to 15" wide. If you want a really nice piece, use a log set.  I also have these in birdseye maple as well.

 Always glad to help answer any questions you have on wood you buy from me. Finishing, building, whatever you have for questions, I am here to help. Its what sets me apart from buying from other places. I use this stuff every day and can help with the issues that it has. Figured wood is funny stuff. Not something from the big box place that you can finish any old way. Feel free to look at my web site,
www.bobkloes.com
My email and phone number are there.

Log sets and a couple of small slabs, organic wood

I have had some questions about log sets. So I thought the best way is to blog about it and take some pictures.

Log sets are what I get when I can sort out the lumber and get all the boards from 1 tree in a group. Its easier said then done. I can't ask the mill to sort it, they are way too busy. Besides, sorting 10 boards from several thousand is not their business. But it is mine. Years ago, I never paid much mind to sorting boards except for some bookmatches. I was using plain cherry, walnut and ash, oak, etc. Doing a kitchen, it never made much to do about grain matching or color matching.

As I grew into more and better furniture building, it made sense to look for , say , cherry that was all the same color. Made it much easier to color and finish. When I started to get into building figured wood, I was so excited to find it, I didn't care if it was from 1 tree or ten thousand. I took what I could find. Got some great stuff and some not so great. As I get smarter{I hope} I look for the best and what makes it that way. Its how I meet Charles Neil years ago. I had bought trees before meeting him and knew about matching lumber. What I didn't know was how much better any piece is because of log sets. Especially in figured woods. Now I still buy lots of wood and I don't get a lot of matched sets. But I do try and pull what I can when I do find them.

Yesterday, I was bringing lumber into the shop and needed a set of hard tiger maple for an upcoming piece. I pulled out a set I had put aside this fall.

Notice how is it all nice bright white? I have trimmed the ends, so I can't show you that. But the ends are the best way to pull a log set for me. I look for the same cut on one end, then look for any knots, bark ect. that all comes in the same spot. Its pretty neat when you get all the boards pulled and you can see how they all show the same quality and figure and color.

When you see figure this nice in rough lumber, you know it is going to be great. The boards run from 4" wide up to 11" wide. All are eight feet long. Stock like this is not inexpensive. The going rate I sell it for starts at 10$ per board foot and goes up. This is hard curly maple , which is much more scarce the soft curly maple. I can buy 500 feet of soft curly, or more for every foot of hard curly I find. And  most hard curly does not have this intense figure. I have never found any hardwood grading rules for figure, except from the musical instrument industry. They give A ratings . I am not sure how that works, but after looking at many sites and wood pictures this is as good as I have ever seen. Tight consistant and goes all across the width of the boards. This will make a spectacular piece.

The last piece I did with a matched set was this step back cupboard.

Yes the lid lifts and it is a secret space. But the grain showed up from 50 feet away. This was soft curly maple. The customer really liked it.

Here is a shot of the end of a board that I cut off the log set above. It's how I ask loggers to look for figure in the log.

See the ripples? That is how the curl looks under the bark.

Now about the slabs. I did a few benches/ tables out of some black ash and hard maple. I get these small slabs and they make nice small benches and coffee tables/end tables.

This is a slab of red oak with a nice limb section in it. The bark comes off real nice. I also brought down a couple hard maple ones that are a book match.

These will be cut in half so they are about 48" long. The bark will be taken off and then the edges and ends treated like this.
http://www.cn-woodworking.com/creating-a-live-edge/
It makes  for a better sell to the customer.

I think that is all for now. Email me. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, bob