Springtime in Wisconsin

 The picture above shows some mineral streak in the board on the left. The board on the right has bark inclusion in it. Mineral streak is what the tree gets out of the ground as it grows. Most hard maples have this in them. The figured ones seem worse then plain.

 This plank is birdseye, 4" thick and very heavy.The plank below is 16/4 hard tiger maple. Very tight curl and will probably go for music instruments. The bird poop is free...

Piles of birdseye and hard curly maple

The last 2 months have been busy. Got almost 4000' of birdseye and hard tiger maple stacked and stickered . Thank God for my friends and son in law. They haul and help me stack and sticker. Some of these planks of green maple weigh several hundred pounds each. I move each of these pieces 4 times by hand by myself and with help. You wonder why good wood costs money? Lots of dollars tied up for a long time drying. Gas and truck expenses and dry kiln expenses. Plus handling. Sure makes the price more reasonable when you think about it. It takes lots of care to make sure it dries right, without honey comb or checking. Can't do much about twist and warp, but we try.  This will stay like this for several months. Then slowly it gets kiln dried. The 4/4 stock[1"] takes the shortest. The 16/4[yes 4" thick birdseye and tiger maple] can take a year or more. Can't rush it. Its like wine. It has to be done correct or you get firewood. I was so happy to get 12/4 birdseye, now I even have some 16/4. Not much at all but what I have is wonderful. A lot of this came off an island in Upper Michigan. Nice slow growth and wide. Seems to have a lot of 10" and wider stock. Had to be some huge trees.

The paint colors tell me what mills they come from. The end grain gets sealed at the kiln. I know folks say you can use latex paint or oil paint to seal end grain. Talk to any mill or kiln, they only use anchor seal. Its wax based and seals perfect. Best stuff out there. I will not cut corners drying wood. It is like building furniture. Do the best you can with the best material and you have no regrets.

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.

Boxes, lots O' boxes

Doing a run of dovetailed candle boxes. I pull bits of boards aside over time and then just try and use them for small work. This is mostly maple with some flame beech ones also. I had too many and never did get any curly cherry or flame birch ones started. I have 25 going right now with a couple of new sized ones in the works. I get some real different maple at times. It doesn't fit any figure I have seen before. Its all hard maple, but I don't know what to even call the figure. I do have birdseye and curly tiger maple in this bunch, but also some other.

 this is some bark inclusion

 This stuff looks exactly like the bark on a white birch tree. Never saw anything like it.

 Another shot

 spalted hard maple

birdseye maple.

Hope to get these done in the next couple weeks. I am working on a bigger size for a jewelry box with a tray inside. Same sliding lid. Just wider. They will be dovetailed also. None of these have finish on yet. I will do another blog when I get these done. Some will be dyed, some clear finished. They do take a lot of work. I made these with Charles Neil and they are available in a dvd set. I was fatter then. If you see me in that dvd set, I am about 70# less now.
Thanks for reading.

Winter and wood

Thought it best to get a new post up and maybe some pictures. Its early February, the super bowl is done. Got a load out of the kiln last month and have another cooking as I write this.

Furniture sales have picked up and so have inquiries about new work. That is always a good thing. Its been a number of tough years and I enjoy having a backlog again. I applied to a number of fine art shows. Now comes the waiting to see if I am good enough to get in. The art show business is interesting to say the least. I was not juried into one show so far. I looked at who was in it last year and I thought I brought something completely different to the table for this show. But it wasn't meant to be I guess. Lots more to pick from.

I have gotten some great figured maple in the last few loads along with some great flame birch. Some nice log sets and just nice stock.I still laugh when I open the kiln and see twisted curled boards in the stacks. The dry kiln owner is so upset when something like that happens. I always tell him, its not his fault. Had one in the last load that was one of the worst I have ever seen. Cut it into small pieces and gopt enough out of it for some drawers. I try and waste nothing.

I am working on 2 sugar chests/ wine storage cases. I will post some pictures when they are done.

Cold snowy weather this winter. Had rain , thunderstorms and snow and below zero temps all within 3 days last week. Hope that doesn't continue.
Guess I have talked enough for now. I will leave a few pictures. Hope you enjoy. bob

Cutting season has begun.

This is the second load of the fall. About 500 ft. Got a load 2 weeks ago that was about twice this size. Lots of 8/4 birdseye and flame birch. A little 6/4 and lots of 4/4. Some nice wide stuff too. I even saw some spalted in there. My son in law dropped this off last night about 8 pm. It will get stacked and stickered this morning. Lots of frost as you can see. It is 25 as I write this. This is the time they start cutting lots of maple and birch at the mills. No staining when it is cold like this. This will now air dry for at least a month or more. Probably more. I have several thousand feet waiting to go into the kiln.  I did get the quarter sawn curly maple out of the kiln. I will be sending those pictures out in my wood letter to my customers. I have only a little, but it turned out very nice. More is air drying as we speak. If you don't get my wood letter and want one, email me. Hope you are staying warm  and to all my east coast friends, God bless you. Hope you all get through the aftermath of the storm ok. I hear lots of stories about no help from fema and the other government groups. I hope that is not the case.

New Hamilton Gauges

Just got the" beep beep "from the mail lady. Low and behold, she had the package I was waiting for. For a few months , Jeff Hamilton had been working on a matched set of marking gauges, panel gauge and his new type of marking gauge, all made from birdseye maple.

I sell Jeff the tiger maple that he uses on his gauges. We had talked over time about some of the lumber I have. I get some real different stuff in odd sizes once in a while. I had some ok birdseye in 5/4 that I sent along with his last wood order. He said he would make me a set when he had time. Now, if you know of his gauges and how nice they are, he does not have a lot of "extra " time. He is one busy guy with the gauge business and his other work. We have talked on and off over the months and we talked about dying wood and finishing. I asked him to dye these. I like color in my wood and white birdseye is not too appealing to me. Plus this birdseye was not all white to begin with. Below are a few shots. Sorry they are not the best, but I did find a great photographer to take shots of my furniture. But that is a story for another blog.

You can find Jeff's gauges here
http://www.hamiltontools.com/

Tell Jeff I sent you. He makes great tools and he is a really nice, honest guy. Can't ask for more. bob

New things and a new saw

Its been a warm month of June. Have been working on some new things and some art show stuff. Got the chest back from Joan the painter. She did an absolutely wonderful job. I cannot say enough about the work she did on this piece. It is a show stopper and her workmanship and talent is evident on it.
The I have been working on a mirror frame for a client and thought it would make a nice show piece. It is a Stickley style mirror frame done in tiger maple. Nice shadow lines and a good size. My problem is, I never make just a few....I also have done a smaller , more vertical one. I'll get some pictures up at another time.
I do have one show at the end of July, Art at the Park in Appleton. Its a one day show, but last year is was 98 degrees and about 98% humidity. Kind of nasty. Then there is the 3 day show in Milwaukee at the Domes. That is in August. More to come on both of those. Lots of work to get done between now and then.

Got a new saw for the shop. 1800# of goodness. She is a Northfield sliding table, tablesaw. It takes a 14" to 18" blade. She is a beast, but something I have wanted for years. Northfield is an old family company still in business in Minnesota. New saws are still made. They are a great company to do business with. I have some work to get it working right , but it is not much. Hope to have it running soon. You can see my old 1941 unisaw to the left of the Northfield. She is going to a good home.

I didn't say much about lumber this time. I am still drying and selling. Be sure to let me know if you are searching for anything. By the way, the festool domino worked great on the mirrors.