Wood addiction..

[Patrick Walsh]

The "Tool Addiction" thread got me to thinking how addicted i am to everything woodworking.

Next to or equal to my tool addiction is wood addiction. I hoard the stuff. Sad for me i tend to like very expensive species so even small amounts often add up to hundreds upon hundreds of dollars in purchases. When it coms time to us the stuff i can bareley bring myself to cut up the beautiful boards. Then when i do i feel a compulsion to go purchase more wood just as special.

I spend almost a equal amount of time trolling a few online wood retailers as i do tool retailers. I can spend hours upon hours ruthlessly picking through rack after rack of lumber at even a lumber yard i frequent. I have to try amd stay away from my local exotic lumber retailer to be honest.

Recently i came across a beautiful batch of Quilted Maple at my local lumber yard that had just been put out. It was clear it had not been picked through. I sorted through every darn board and walked away with only the two best boards one costing nearly $400. The next day i woke thinking about another 3-5 boards in that same bundle that where worth buying but i had left behind due to cost. I was back the next day buying them. While back on this second trip i stumbled upon some very nice QSWO. I left with that also and empty pockets.

I also compulsively find exuses to walk down to my shop even when i know i dont have the time to work in it or am to tired to do the precision type work i like to do in my free time. I am a carpenter by day also so often i am spent come days end. Saturday and sunday sre shop time.

[Jebediah Eckert]

Patrick-

i am enjoying your "tips on tails" and "I must have been a good boy" threads.....but a careful examination of the backgrounds of your pictures, and this thread, you have a very serious problem :eek:

I am with you. I have racks and racks of boards in my shop. Most of which I had had milled and others off CL....It's a sickness for sure.

I have taken the family a few times to Beantown, I'm intrigued by having enough space for a shop. Outside the hotel we stay in (outside Quincy Market) we can see the big money apartments. It seems fitting a 60" TV in them is a challenge!

[Patrick Walsh]

That TV in the background is or was rather a mediator to my internal conflict of limited shop time due to a full time plus job, two dogs and a pretty hard core gardening habit and football!

Football season comes and i have a major confict of interest most Sundays. I love football but i am also relieved when it is over as it means more shop time. My intention with that TV was that i could have the game on in the background and hence more shop time. The reality is i never turn it on as i really enjoy the time alome with my own thoughts when in the shop.

I also figured i might use it for instructional woodworking videos. The reality is that has yet to happen either. The TV will probably go at some point as i could store a nice bit of lumber in that spot. Plus it would save me justa around $20 a month on the cable box rental.



Patrick-

i am enjoying your "tips on tails" and "I must have been a good boy" threads.....but a careful examination of the backgrounds of your pictures, and this thread, you have a very serious problem :eek:

I am with you. I have racks and racks of boards in my shop. Most of which I had had milled and others off CL....It's a sickness for sure.

I have taken the family a few times to Beantown, I'm intrigued by having enough space for a shop. Outside the hotel we stay in (outside Quincy Market) we can see the big money apartments. It seems fitting a 60" TV in them is a challenge!

[Tony Shea]

I completely understand the Wood addiction. I am more addicted to wood than I am tools, although tools are a close second. Unfortunately "addiction" is a character flaw I possess and deal with every day. I am an addict, specifically used to be an opiate addict, and have dealt with this for years. I am completely past those days but certainly have replaced those addictive behaviors with woodworking. Moral of the short story is that it could be a whole lot worse, although by the sounds of it you are spending close to what I used to spend back in my drug days.

I do love special wood though. I have a stupid collection of it and feel like I don't ever have enough. And cutting into a piece for a project can sometimes be difficult, especially if it is the last piece of that special something. I also enjoy the search. I am constantly searching through the classifieds for that guy who is selling off some lumber that he has had sitting around for decades. My last score led me to a guy that had a basement completely stocked full of all these special species that he had collected over his entire life of traveling the country.

[george wilson]

Patrick,my problem with wood addiction is I can't bring myself to cut up some of my finest wood. I have quite a good stock of curly or otherwise figured mahogany that is over 100 years old. It has turned the color of a Hershey bar,it is so old.

My best piece is not so old,but has a completely unique figure in it that looks like what we refer to as "Peacock tail" figure in it,that some patterns of hand made French marbled paper has. I also have a large slab of walnut burl about 2 feet square and 5" thick(a little tapered) Also,a large maple burl slab. Can't recall the dimensions of that,but nearly the size of the walnut burl if I recall correctly. I have a large pile of curly maple in the basement about 5/4 thick,rough sawn. I am seriously thinking of selling it as I am 75,and might just croak with some of this wood which my wife would not know what to do with. Lots of other wood to boot. I even have some that I bought back in 1963 when I was in college.

Tony,I suggest you rub some opiates on your wood. That way you could achieve complete fulfillment!!!:)

[Jebediah Eckert]

I didn't even notice the TV in your pictures. I meant they look hard to fit in the apartments we see from our hotel. Go Patriots!

[Patrick Walsh]

George,

You are a funny SOB...

The wood you describe sound like the kinda wood a am not a good enough craftsman to justify using. much like you i would probably hold onto it for many years till i thought myself worthy of working with it.

When you want to sell that stuff remember me..

Not now as i gotta come up with $4400 for a lot of french oak..


Patrick,my problem with wood addiction is I can't bring myself to cut up some of my finest wood. I have quite a good stock of curly or otherwise figured mahogany that is over 100 years old. It has turned the color of a Hershey bar,it is so old.

My best piece is not so old,but has a completely unique figure in it that looks like what we refer to as "Peacock tail" figure in it,that some patterns of hand made French marbled paper has. I also have a large slab of walnut burl about 2 feet square and 5" thick(a little tapered) Also,a large maple burl slab. Can't recall the dimensions of that,but nearly the size of the walnut burl if I recall correctly. I have a large pile of curly maple in the basement about 5/4 thick,rough sawn. I am seriously thinking of selling it as I am 75,and might just croak with some of this wood which my wife would not know what to do with. Lots of other wood to boot. I even have some that I bought back in 1963 when I was in college.

Tony,I suggest you rub some opiates on your wood. That way you could achieve complete fulfillment!!!:)

[Brian Holcombe]

I don't have wood like George describes, but the same issue. I bought a bunch of 12/4 Walnut, 8' slabs that are about 12" wide and straight grained through and through. I ear marked them for legs, but can't bring myself to cut them up so everytime I need them I just go out and buy more material.

[Patrick Walsh]

I have a bunch of perfectly straight grained 8/4 babinga just the same. I also have a bunch of 8/4 figured babinga. I am forever purchasing more wood because i cant bring myself to cut a board i have become attached to. Then i go purchase more lumber to work with. I often end up with a few pieces i can bring myself to cut into and another pile i get attached to.

Lately i have been trolling two online reatailers. I have yet to step over the edge of this slippery slope. Much of what i see online looks to be much nicer than that i can find local to me. My fear is online wood purchasing could become compulsive and if it goes well all but nullify the joy of hunting for that peferect board through racks and racks of lumber.




I don't have wood like George describes, but the same issue. I bought a bunch of 12/4 Walnut, 8' slabs that are about 12" wide and straight grained through and through. I ear marked them for legs, but can't bring myself to cut them up so everytime I need them I just go out and buy more material.

[Jeffrey Martel]

I've got a piece of very figured claro walnut that's 16" wide and about 8 ft long. Can't bring myself to cut it up yet because I am trying to think of a project that would use the entire 16" width without laminating more boards to it. Got it for $1/bdft, but would easily go for at least $15-20/bdft normally here. I have a couple other boards of claro walnut, but none like this in terms of width or figure. And then of course I have a ton of super figured veneer.

331073

[Christopher Charles]

I don't have a wood problem. I simply have a storage problem. End of story :)

C

[Jim Koepke]

I can spend hours upon hours ruthlessly picking through rack after rack of lumber at even a lumber yard i frequent.

My wife and I went to Crosscut Hardwoods in Portland to day. They call themselves the woodworkers candy store.

We spent the better part of an hour going through the red cedar to find one piece, 4BF 1X6 to build a small box as a keep sake box for some of her father's possessions.

jtk

[Patrick Walsh]

This is already becoming a problem for me. I can see the need for a rental storage container in my future. Or maybe a kind relative with more room than god might be nice enough to lend me some room.

Or maybe i just need to move north as I have been dreaming now for many years so i can have more spacemand space ;)




I don't have a wood problem. I simply have a storage problem. End of story :)

C

[Patrick Walsh]

Got ya,

Those places are huge money!

talking big TV's i have a co-worker with a 80" flat screen. Whenever he told me this i thought how big will the average TV be in another ten years. Made me want to throw mine away.


I didn't even notice the TV in your pictures. I meant they look hard to fit in the apartments we see from our hotel. Go Patriots!

[george wilson]

Oh,I forgot the two very large (about 8" or 10",the other is a bit smaller. Or do I have 3?) diameter boxwood logs. Abt. 3'+ tall. And the aprox 8" diameter x 5' tall black as midnight ebony log I've had sine 1970. Too stingy to cut that,too. I know I'll never have another like it. Or the large boxwood either. Years ago I did post pics of the boxwood logs here.

Re the 80" TV: Yeah,my 65" is getting too small to suit me!!:) My wife,being basically anti TV,is embarrassed that her friends mention my TV sometimes. She only has a 47" in her room!!But,now that she has gotten a little age on her,she is beginning to appreciate large screen TV's. Especially for watching basket ball games.I care nothing for sports .To heck with her semi hippie friends!!! We just switched to ROKU. Got tired of handing the cable co. $200.00 monthly to watch the same movies over and over. Large TV's are getting much cheaper. I saw a VIZIO at Walmart 70" for under $1300.00 the other day. But,I hear those are not too good.. We have Panasonics. We must choose our Chinese made TV's carefully!:)

I have other wood I cannot mention. NO,not THAT wood!!:)

[Brian Holcombe]

I think the ebony slabs count toward this thread as well :D

I have some gaboon and macassar ebony that I bought from a supplier knowing their next batch would include a large price increase. I've yet to touch the stuff.

Same with a series of book matched walnut in 4/4...which is particularly rare around here since most suppliers supply it in random.

[Patrick Chase]

When I lived in the San Diego area (through 2013) my "neighborhood lumberyard" was Tropical Exotic Hardwoods (http://www.tehwoods.com/), about a mile up the road.

Talk about enabling an expensive addiction...

[Cody Cantrell]

My problem is I can never say "no" to a log. I hate to see a Walnut, Cherry, Oak, Osage Orange, etc. log got to waste. I have numerous people ask if I want a tree they have storm fall, dozer pile whatever and I always say yes. Of course my saw miller charges me $.18 a board foot to cut it up, unless it is quarter sawn then it is $.24 a bf.

[Brian Holcombe]

Thats awesome cody!

That certainly beats paying out $15/BF :D

[Patrick Walsh]

Wow!

I would be pretty thrilled is i got all that wood for free.


My problem is I can never say "no" to a log. I hate to see a Walnut, Cherry, Oak, Osage Orange, etc. log got to waste. I have numerous people ask if I want a tree they have storm fall, dozer pile whatever and I always say yes. Of course my saw miller charges me $.18 a board foot to cut it up, unless it is quarter sawn then it is $.24 a bf.

[Cody Cantrell]

I thought it was that way for all wood workers:). Seems like people know I am a woodworker and I get all kinds of offers for free wood. Last November a friends dad was going to get rid of a pile of old oak floor joists, 16 of them 2 1/2"x 11" x 10'. He was going to burn them if I didnt want them, enough to build a Roubo bench and another bench, as well as an entry way bench as a thank you. Also picked up 150 bd ft of Air dried Walnut that I had to drag off the burn pile, took that to school though as it seems I have plenty. Always on the look out.

[Dave Beauchesne]

I am lucky there are no places nearby that I can go an look at wood, but I do have several boards I bought when I was close to a Hardwood retailer. I like figured stuff, and have enough African Blackwood, black as sin Gabon Ebony, Cocobolo billets to do me for a long time, but not excessive ( says me! )

Living in the Pacific Northwest, there are many Soft Maple opportunities, quilted, curly and burls, Madrone is common here, but darned if I can find any Madrone Burl - - - Rare as hen's teeth.

The only softwoods I am interested in are Yew, and clear as can be Yellow Cedar that has over 50 growth rings per inch.

My main problem is storage right now, and as I usually make smaller, intricate projects, my stash doesn't go away quickly.

In one of his lectures, James Krenov said ' You can never have enough good wood ' - words to live by.

Dave B

[Thomas Canfield]

I keep hearing about a 12 step program for "Wood Addiction", but have never found where they meet. Anyone that knows of a meeting, please post for those of us afflicted. My wood collection lately has been more in the raw tree sections for turning, but even free dead wood, the pile keeps growing.