Where to find 4x4 Redwood in South East Virginia

[Shane Sura]

Hey all...I have been practicing making Bandsawn Puzzle boxes. In some information I read from Jeff Volmer (Check out his boxes they are awesome!) he mentioned a great practice material is 4x4 Redwood Kiln dried posts. Unfortunately, I cannot find them anywhere near me in the Hampton Roads area. So I turn to you all for any ideas. In the meantime I have been using some 16/4 popular that I got from Yukon Lumber but would like some other alternatives.


Shane

[scott vroom]

Hey all...I have been practicing making Bandsawn Puzzle boxes. In some information I read from Jeff Volmer (Check out his boxes they are awesome!) he mentioned a great practice material is 4x4 Redwood Kiln dried posts. Unfortunately, I cannot find them anywhere near me in the Hampton Roads area. So I turn to you all for any ideas. In the meantime I have been using some 16/4 popular that I got from Yukon Lumber but would like some other alternatives.


Shane

Shane, redwood is a scarce resource....it only grows on the Pacific Coast from Southern Oregon to Central California...it grows nowhere else on the planet. Our ancient redwood forests have been nearly depleted by aggressive harvesting over the last century. There are many including myself that would prefer redwood be declared off-limits to all logging...period. I invite you to come to California and walk among the few remaining groves of 300 foot tall ancient redwoods to understand why it is so important to preserve this prescious resource.

[Keith Outten]

Shane,

Try Earth Resources at:
757-898-0045
409 Railway Rd.
Grafton VA, 23692
.

[Jamie Buxton]

Shane, redwood is a scarce resource....it only grows on the Pacific Coast from Southern Oregon to Central California...it grows nowhere else on the planet. Our ancient redwood forests have been nearly depleted by aggressive harvesting over the last century. There are many including myself that would prefer redwood be declared off-limits to all logging...period. I invite you to come to California and walk among the few remaining groves of 300 foot tall ancient redwoods to understand why it is so important to preserve this prescious resource.

It is useful to distinguish between old-growth redwood and second-growth redwood. Old-growth trees can be a thousand years old, and can be huge -- 300 feet tall and more. As Scott says, they've mostly been cut, and there aren't many left. Cutting one down should be a crime, and is in many cases. However, there is now lots of land where the old-growth redwood forests used to be. Redwood trees still like to grow there. Young trees can quickly grow to a size large enough to have market value. These trees are called second-growth trees. They're all less than a hundred years old. Virtually all redwood on the market today is second-growth lumber. From a woodworker's perspective, second-growth lumber is quite soft. The growth rings are far apart. There is a lot of sap wood. I don't use it for furniture-making because it is so soft. But it still can be useful for construction or practice while you're making boxes.

BTW, almost all the redwood I see is intended for construction, and is sold green. I think you'd be better off using poplar.