So Sad

[Hans Braul]

The other day I watched a show called "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe, and in this episode he joined a crew that hauled logs from the bottom of a lake bed. The logs were hundreds of years old, some several feet of perfect wood from virgin forest. The wood they got was absolutely spectacular. Then they showed how the wood was used. In this case they made veneer - OK I kinda get that. Then they put the veneer on particleboard and made the most underwhelming of office furniture. Worst of all, they slathered on a stain that was so dark and dense you may as well have used MDF for all the grain that remained. I almost cried. This is a precious, limited resource, only to be used in IKEA style furniture!

Just thought I'd share a few tears....


Hans

[Greg Cole]

Hans,
I've seen that one too. Once they harvested the sunken logs I was excited to see them either saw the logs up or cut the veneer..... kinda like running rough cut lumber through a planer... I'm always finding myself wondering whats beneath the scruff.
I'm with you on "kinda" getting it when a log like one of those is cut into veneer. I'm just not a big veneer guy I guess.
I was very diasppointed to see office furniture made from that nice material as well.

Greg

[BOB OLINGER]

If my memory is correct, Norm did similar sourcing on one of the New Yankee Workshop programs. They fished sunked cyprus logs (somewhere in Florida ?). I think he made adriondrack (sp?) chairs, no stain.

[Pat Germain]

I've seen that same description here, but from another show.

I have also seen episodes of This Old House feature companies who harvest old growth timber and put it to good use as flooring in custom homes. When they applied a finish, the wood was so beautiful it actually glowed.

Harvested old growth lumber is extremely valuable. I don't understand why someone would glop dark stain on it. Maybe that's what wanna-be executives like.

[Ryan Hovis]

Hans, what kind of logs where they? I agree it is depressing, but it all goes back to the almighty dollar. There was more money in slicing the logs up and selling them to mass production furniture makers than to you or I.

Veneering has its place in the right hands, namely conserving rare and expensive wood. However I can't understand why anyone would veneer oak or maple to MDF. I saw my first fake dovetail on a veneered table top at a furniture store recently :rolleyes: pretty obvious when the dovetail is cut into the top layer of veneer nowhere near any sort of joint.

[Greg Cole]

Ryan,
I saw that episode awhile ago, but IIRC they found birch maybe? Slept a few nights since, so don't hopld me to it. The stain they put on it was dark as dark gets and 100% negated the beauty of the material.
Much of the old growth lumber that's pulled form the depths has some amazing coloration etc from the minerals in the water, peat bog or where ever the logs are pulled from. I've see some stuff from Germany where they used ultrasound to find logs in peat bogs, and pulled up logs carbon dated to 4500 years ago. Just amazing what that stuff sold for..... and that is material worthy of slicing into as many sheets of veneer as the log will allow.

Greg

[Raymond Fries]

The wood would have made awesome solid furniture. To bad it had to meet its final resting place as veneer. :(

[Pat Germain]

I really don't see a problem with using old growth timber for veneer. Although, I certainly would rather it was used in much thicker stock. The big problem I have is glopping very dark stain on top of it. Who does that these days? It's so 1970's. It might as well be simulated walnut plastic laminate.

[Gene O. Carpenter]

The cost per bf for the products from those reclaimed logs is astronomically high ! Way more than any lumber cut and milled these day's..
Those Cypress logs down in the Okefenokee Swamp are just laying there as they have been for years and you or I can't just go in there lasso one and haul it out!
The sawmill somehow bought the rights to every downed log in the waterway and the same situation exists up on the Great Lakes and the logging rivers emptying into them.The sawmill owns every sunken long on the lake beds and from what it said in an article in "Wood" a few years ago there are thousands of these sunken gold mines..
They showed some Quarter sawn planks that were probably 24" wide and 30' long and the grain was absolutely beautiful but then they revealed the cost per bf and I said "well that's out of my reach"!
But I can dream about working it, they can't charge me for that!:):):)

[Lee Koepke]

That said ... I would figure that veneers would give the greatest yeild with the best grain...... but ..... to cover that with stain ... OUCH.

I have seen the shows where Norm uses the reclaimed Cypress, and some reclaimed pine, but I dont recall him covering it with dark stain.

Thats like building something out of birdseye maple then painting it ....

[Pat Germain]

I know at one point, probably over ten years ago, reclaimed old growth lumber was literally worth its weight in gold. Of course, this was before gold was $1,000 per ounce. But still...