Wood too Nice to Cut up.

[Andrew Joiner]

I have a friend who has 2 garages FULL of large wide clear boards. He's had them over 15 years and moved them once. He says someday he'll use them, but for now they're too good to cut up!

I'm afraid I have a little of the same condition. Is it love of wood, patience, or a rare disease?

I can and do cut up precious planks now and then, but at my sickest I've done this:
1-Saved special boards too nice to cut for years(left over from big jobs). Closed my shop and moved. Sold all my special boards from the other side of the country for cheap!
2- Ripped some 3"thick x 12" wide walnut planks into 3" wide pieces for a job in my house to dry and acclimate. It was beautiful stuff given to me by a friend. A month later I changed the design. Now everytime I see the 3" x3" walnut in the rack it bugs me. Even though I got it for free, It's like I have the ghost of George Nakashima over me shaking his finger.

Anyone else as sick as me and my friend?

[harry strasil]

I know the feeling, I was fortunate to be given the shelving from a closing family clothing store that was in the finished basement. Each shelf in one of the display shelves was a 1 by 12 and a 1 by 10 16 feet long. the other one was 15 feet long.
Each board had 2 nails at each end, 2 in the center and 2 between the center and each end. There was no electric in the building when we removed them and out under the street light putting them in my trailer the first layer nails down and then the second layer nails up I happened to notice they were clear old growth pine, put in the store about 1900 or before. I have I think 450 or 540 bd ft of it and have only used part of one 12 inch board to make a special carvers tool box for one of my daughters father in law. Not a nail or screw in the box.
The rest has been acclimating in my basement for about 12 years or more waiting to be used for something special and they clean up well with the planer to 3/4 as one side has been I think shellaced or varnished and they are almost 7/8 thick as is.

[Mike Cutler]

We all save "special boards". Some of us are even so sick as to buy "special boards" that we have no intended purpose for.;)

Hi, My name is Mike and I have a 10'x 15" plank of movique that is absolutely incredible, and 5 matched curly peruvian walnut boards that I'm afraid to use.:eek:
It's a sickness.:p,;)

[Andrew Joiner]

Thanks for sharing, nice to know I'm not alone.

[Rod Sheridan]

WHA...............Wood Hoarders Anonymous.

It's not a sickness, it's an appreciation for the inate beauty of wood.:D

OK, it's a sickness..................Hi, my name is Rod and I'm a wood hoarder:(

regards, Rod.

[John Ricci]

We all save "special boards".

You betcha'! Back in the early 60s my dad built himself an Old English style pub bar in the basement which was disassembled in the late 80s to make room for his workshop. When he passed away a few years ago, one of my brothers and I each grabbed some of the wood for our own stashes and I have used a bit of it for special projects. The wood is only pine but it is "special" to us. I allowed myself to use a bit for this amp cabinet a couple of years ago.

J.R.

[Brad Shipton]

I have this problem too. When I was making my flooring there were two pieces that I wanted to put away for a future project but managed to cut em up. I can point them out to this day. I just got a small delivery of Tigerwood and one of the boards is 16"x13'-0" and I dont know how I am going to convince myself to cut it up for the project. I feel guilty when I do.

Brad

[William OConnell]

We all save "special boards". Some of us are even so sick as to buy "special boards" that we have no intended purpose for.;)

Hi, My name is Mike and I have a 10'x 15" plank of movique that is absolutely incredible, and 5 matched curly peruvian walnut boards that I'm afraid to use.:eek:
It's a sickness.:p,;)

I have the same problem, heres some boards I bought simply because they were so heavily figured they astounded me. I was taking a picture of the strap for the DC for another forum and noticed these boards were still on the top shelf ( Not a good picture ). The youngest is 6 years old and the oldest is 13. Not a good picture but you get the point, your not alone
http://woodworkers.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1643&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=b1d61effcb6f8f22596283811ff3d166

[Brad Shipton]

The next question is how many of us can go into a wood supply store and only come out with the wood we need for the current project??

Brad

[Doug Shepard]

I've got a stack of "special boards" around 3' wide and 2.5' tall of various lengths. All bought just because the figure struck me and I haven't managed to find the right project for them yet. The pile just keeps growing. I call it my No-Kill Wood Shelter. One of these days I'll get them spayed/neutered so they stop multiplying.:D

[Alfred Clem]

Around 1910, when my late mother-in-law left home, her father made a big wooden box for her clothing. He painted it a medium green. And the box went wherever she went for the next 80 years.

He was a farrier -- a man who shoes horses -- for the city of Philadelphia's fire department. A blacksmith makes the shoes; a farrier trims the horse's hooves and put on the shoes. It's hard work and probably dangerous, too.

When my mother-in-law passed away, the "old, green box" was used to ship stuff from the East Coast to our home in Arizona. My wife thought I would chop it up for firewood. But I was curious and started to remove the layers of green paint.

Imagine my surprise when the box gave off a strong smell of turpentine when I got down to bare wood. Sure enough, the box was pine and each board was about 20 inches wide. And there was evidence that iron bars had once filled that box, shipped up from Alabama to blacksmiths in Philadelphia to be made into horseshoes. I finished that beautiful, old pine and it occupies a place of honor in our home, a keepsake of memories.

My point: keep those precious pieces of wood and turn them into memories for succeeding generations. Don't let it just sit there!

[Jim Becker]

I have a few almost 14" wide 5/4 cherry boards that are waiting around for the "right" project. That may actually be a sideboard for the dining area of our great room, but it's still undetermined. I bought them in...2000. :) The nice thing about "board hoards" is that they represent a reasonably good investment. In most cases, one can get at least what they paid for them and usually more if they are forced to sell them in the future. For that reason, if I see something snazzy and I have the money, I'll buy it with no worry about "what" it might become someday.

[Duane McGuire]

Oh my yes. I can hold on to nice wood for a long time. It was true for my Dad, too. Must be genetic. Certainly it's a common woodworker disease.

I acquired some 12-quarter walnut from a friend about 16 years ago. That walnut has made 2 different moves with me. This summer while building my new shop I decided that it was going to be the door to the shop! Finally ... the right project.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3174/2981564652_5d4ef4287b.jpg?v=1225203039

Here's the rest of the story:

http://blog.duanemcguire.com/2008/10/11/a-door-for-the-new-shop/

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Yes, I have a sapple plank that has been following me around for years, and 700 bf of clear but weathered pine salvaged from an old barn, and a particular massive hunk of maple, and then there's those figured walnut boards, oh and that one curly oak board... Glad to know there is a support group.:o

[David DeCristoforo]

I had a client who had collected wood for almost twenty years. He had Brazilian rosewood. Cuban mahogany. Fantastic figured cherry planks. He had a slab of that "famous" quilted mahogany log that was rescued from a canyon in Honduras years ago and was later written up in FWW. He paid five grand for that one plank alone. We got all of the wood to make stuff for the house he finally had built. Worked on it for over a year. Two weeks before he moved in, the house burned to the foundation in the Point Reys/Tomales Bay fire. It was subsequently rebuilt but, of course, the precious hoard of irreplaceable wood was gone forever. Maybe a moral in there somewhere....

[Chip Lindley]

We must decide if we are greedy to hoard our cache of nice hardwood...OR...is there some *fear of failure* to use very nice planks for something mundane or otherwise not befitting of such quality?

Hmmm.... What to do with my four 8/4 x 16" x 14' long black walnut planks??? Fifteen years ago I only paid $90 at a farm auction for the lot. One is missing a chunk out of one end....about 6" x 48". A gunstock perhaps long ago? I have to wonder!

[Frank Drew]

I've got a stack of "special boards" around 3' wide and 2.5' tall of various lengths.

Doug, at first I read this as your having a stack of 3 foot wide boards! (You did mean that the stack is 3' wide, right?)

It wasn't all that long ago that you could still find Mahogany in that width, or very near it (30"+).

I absolutely HATE the idea of a wide special board getting ripped up into narrows for whatever minor application; that's what they make 1x4s for!

[Daren K Nelson]

I have it bad. I run a sawmill and "stash" special pieces...it's almost obscene. I have 24" wide curly maple slabs I will never sell, most likely never use. I did make a desk from one (picture attached) 24" wide walnut..etc.

I milled a log for a customer (from his yard) that was 200 bft of the prettiest curly walnut I have ever seen :eek:. 12" wide boards. I was sooo in love with that wood, I wished it was mine...of course it would have went in my stash and never came out though :rolleyes:. He dropped the log off and I milled /kiln dried it while he went down south for a long vacation. I looked at that wood every day for a month until he came and picked it up. He did not even know what he had, I had to explain just how special it was, he is not a woodworker. It is still in his basement, I couldn't talk him out of even a piece. He had $140 invested in $2000 (very conservatively) worth of lumber.

[Sonny Edmonds]

Wood too nice to create with and display may as well have been left in the tree! :mad:
Some tree gave its life for that piece of wood you hoard and hide away.
Selfish person!
I have some of the most beautiful woods, but I make them into things to share the incredible beauty found inside of them.
And once in a while I run across someone who I can see appreciates the beauty I found there.
But to hoard it away? :eek: :confused:

[Daren K Nelson]

Wood too nice to create with and display may as well have been left in the tree! :mad:
Some tree gave its life for that piece of wood you hoard and hide away.
Selfish person!


I know that was not directed at me (maybe :confused:), but I still feel it is important to make a point here. I am an "urban logger"...every single piece of wood I have ever owned was headed for a BURN PILE or TUB GRINDER or firewood processor. Linking your site seems to be a no-no here, but it's in my profile. I am a tree hugger with a sawmill if you will. I have never "killed" a tree, on the contrary I have given new life to 100,000's of bft of lumber through treecycling that others (tree services,municipalities, homeowners...) looked at as trash and wanted it disposed of. Gladly :D...it's better hoarded than BURNED !

[Daren K Nelson]

Not to belabor the point...but. That picture of the curly maple in the desk that I said I had stashed some back for example, and in my avatar is me working on it. That was a yard tree the city had to cut down to clear a vacant lot. They had tried to give it to some guys to split for firewood so they would not have to move it (weighed close to 3 tons). No one wanted it because it was too big, 40"x14' if I remember right, they could not split it-just the limbs. So after laying for awhile it was headed to the country where they burn (used to until I got in the picture) trees that have to be removed. I caught them just before they lit it ablaze. It yielded 1000+ bft of that figured maple...good thing I decided to stash some, there would have been nothing but ashes if I was not around.
The walnut live edge slabs pictured in the same previous post was a storm felled tree. I am not going to derail this thread any more. Just wanted to say "selfish" does not fit some people who posted on this topic, I took offense sorry.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Wood too nice to create with and display may as well have been left in the tree! :mad:
Some tree gave its life for that piece of wood you hoard and hide away.
Selfish person!
I have some of the most beautiful woods, but I make them into things to share the incredible beauty found inside of them.
And once in a while I run across someone who I can see appreciates the beauty I found there.
But to hoard it away? :eek: :confused:

Sonny, I don't think it is hoarding for hoardings sake, rather recognizing a spectacular piece of wood, and having the good sense to save it for the right project. I'll be danged if I'm going to use some of my stash for this playroom cabinet project I'm slogging through now. Also, wood dosen't go "bad" for pete's sake. My stash could sit for hundreds of years waiting for the right project, but if it is squandered, it is gone for ever. You're right, a tree died, lets not waste it for the sake of "building something". Don't mean that to come off as rude, so please don't take it as such.

[Andrew Joiner]

I knew I wasn't alone. I love reading your stories. It is helping my recovery.
I will still fondle my special boards,but maybe I won't sleep with them anymore.
Just so you know I'am not hopeless,my desk that I'm at right now is Quilted Maple.

[Frank Drew]

Absolutely stunning piece of maple, Darren; thanks for posting the picture.

Wow! Just breathtaking.

[Rob Diz]

It's funny, but I ran out of room BEFORE I purchased a lot of about 500 bf of walnut. I only needed about 150 bf for a project for the wife. Turns out that there was a TON of wide thick boards in the lot. I ended up selling most that I couldn't use as a lot - included in that lot were some 8/4 slabs about 18 inches wide and 6 feet tall. I almost cried when the left the house. They were not perfect slabs, but they were pretty. Of course, I kept more than enough for my needs for the next ten years or so.

My BIL is a Forest Fire Fighter in Texas. He was taking a look at the stash over thanksgiving - and saw a piece 8/4 clean and straight no knots or checks about 24 wide and 28 high. I gave it to him on the spot, not because he had a need for it (his ww tools have been in storage for a few years), but because I knew he would simply appreciate having a nice thick slab of walnut in his stash for use some day. So I guess you could say I was simply cultivating the disease.

yes, it is a disease.

I have never actually finished a significant project with less wood on hand than I started with.

I have a trip next week that will take me near one of my lumber suppliers. I know he has some beautiful 8/4 curly maple, about 10 inches wide. I'm thinking of stopping for one of those boards, just 'cuz. I have no need for it, and nowhere to store it. But you all know that I need it.

[Todd Crawford]

I have a stack of 6/4 mahogony boards that I saved from the scrap pile of a job I was on a few years ago. They were used for spacers in some boiler tubes that had been shipped in from overseas. All of them were about 5 ft long, and about 8" wide. I saw them on the front of a fork lift on the way to the dump and honestly you couldn't even tell what kind of wood it was. I stopped the guy and asked him to pull over to my truck where I proceeded to load them up. When I got home I put a plane on one of them to try to figure out what I had. That is when I realized I had hit the motherload! My wife got home about that same time and asked what all that was in the back of my truck. She had never seen wood in it's rough cut, weathered beginning so when I told her that was her new stair treads, she replied "Not mine." After about two weeks of jointing, planing, sanding, finishing, she changed her mind. This is what we ended up with and I still have a pile that I will get around to using one day.

[Gary Herrmann]

My wife bought me a luthier grade quilted maple billet for my 40th birthday for some reason (I guess she does like me afterall). Someday I'll get into it, but I haven't come across the right project yet. My wife calls it George - after the Bugs Bunny Abominable Snowman cartooon.

"I will pat it and pet and and love it and call it George..."

I've gotten lucky a few times - mostly with found turning wood. Curly maple, curly pear, even a chunk of quilted cuban mahogany (ahh, friends that work for the city in S FL). I've gotten into all of it but the cuban mahogany so far. First bowl out of that will be for the person that sent it to me.

I also bought (maybe stole) a basketball sized cherry burl from my friend Tom Sontag as well. I'm waiting till I get a coring system before I touch that one...

I do appreciate beautiful wood and it is fun to pull out a board or stick and look at it, but I don't buy them just to have them - but that's just me. I marked up a stick of amazing fiddleback claro walnut just last night for bottlestoppers.

[Rob Diz]

Thanks for mentioning fiddleback.

You reminded me that I have a slab of fiddleback Koa I picked up at Aloha Woods in the extra five minutes I had to return the rental car at the nearby airport.

Now that board will need a special project . . . .

'cuz I spent more for that 6/4 slab than I have spent on entire lots of local cherry. Good thing I paid cash and LOML didn't ask how much that "thing" cost. Someday I'll make her something nice out of it. I just need to have a project that will justify actually cutting into that board. Lots of bookmatched veneer awaits.

[Gary Herrmann]

I have it bad. I run a sawmill and "stash" special pieces...it's almost obscene. I have 24" wide curly maple slabs I will never sell, most likely never use. I did make a desk from one (picture attached) 24" wide walnut..etc.


Ok Daren, based on your post and those pics, you need to post some pics of the stash. We'll be jealous, but I think we can take it.

[Keith Starosta]

I know that was not directed at me (maybe :confused:), but I still feel it is important to make a point here. I am an "urban logger"...every single piece of wood I have ever owned was headed for a BURN PILE or TUB GRINDER or firewood processor. Linking your site seems to be a no-no here, but it's in my profile. I am a tree hugger with a sawmill if you will. I have never "killed" a tree, on the contrary I have given new life to 100,000's of bft of lumber through treecycling that others (tree services,municipalities, homeowners...) looked at as trash and wanted it disposed of. Gladly :D...it's better hoarded than BURNED!

Abso-freaking-lutely!!!

[Daren K Nelson]

Ok Daren, based on your post and those pics, you need to post some pics of the stash.

We'll be jealous,

Maybe some day...

And yes you probably would be ;)

Here are 2 slabs exactly like I made the desk from. 24" wide x 6 feet long in a book match.

[Tom Sontag]

...I also bought (maybe stole) a basketball sized cherry burl from my friend Tom Sontag as well....

Confirmed.:mad::rolleyes:

We should stop feeling so guilty about building stashes, at least those of us who have EVER reached in and used a special piece. I know I have. So quite rationally my stash has grown exponentially. None of it is ever too nice to use, but simply needs the talent and inspiration to be used to its best.

Here's a few things that used Stash Wood:

The wheel is made from some crotch walnut from a 5x4 chunk I bought from a toothless guy over 5 years earlier:

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/SirDoofus/Healey/IMG_7768.jpg

Sweetgum root flare from a large nondescript board:

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/SirDoofus/finishedfrontsm.jpg

I still have some from my first maple log:

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/SirDoofus/beamboxbottom.jpg

[Don Bullock]

A wood stash, me?:rolleyes:

You bet ya I do. About ten years ago my wife and I were sightseeing along the Oregon Coast. One of the Myrtle wood stores had some rough sawn wood for sale. At the time I didn't own a jointer or planer and was not doing any wood working. That board stayed in my shop until last year when I bought a jointer and planer. It's now being made into a table top for our new house.

Even SWMBO understands my "collection." This summer I needed some maple molding for a renovation project in our master bathroom. After discovering that I couldn't find the "right" molding I decided I needed to make my own. My wife was with me when i stopped by the lumber yard for the wood. There, on top of the stack, was a beautiful board of hard maple. It was way too nice to use for the molding so I purchased that board and another, rather plain board, and left with a big smile on my face. All she did was pay the bill because she knew it meant something to me to have a nice piece of wood for a "future" project. No, I haven't done anything yet but admire it.

Oh, and I'm "saving up" some walnut for a future project and I also have quite a few boards of curly maple on my wood pile and ...:o

[Jim Knishka]

my wife and I are sitting side by side at the computers in our office. she has had many tart comments as I scrolled through this post. I have nothing to say.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

my wife and I are sitting side by side at the computers in our office. she has had many tart comments as I scrolled through this post. I have nothing to say.


Right beside you? Jim, if you are at a loss for words, I'm sure we all can help a little...:D

[Doug Shepard]

Doug, at first I read this as your having a stack of 3 foot wide boards! (You did mean that the stack is 3' wide, right?)
...


Yeah - all varying widths from 4" up to 12".

[Jeff Mohr]

We must decide if we are greedy to hoard our cache of nice hardwood...OR...is there some *fear of failure* to use very nice planks for something mundane or otherwise not befitting of such quality?

Fear of failure...no doubt!

I'm not that accomplished yet but I have a 4/4, 4 ft, 8 inch wide plank that has a lot of history. My grandfather cut it from a log 45 years or so ago and my father took it when my grandfather passed away. My father has been holding onto it for years as he remembered cutting it with his father but finally gave it to me because he isn't a woodworker--plus, when he finally measured it for the project he had in mind it was too short! So...now I have this board with all this history and a fear of botching whatever I make from it. It is not a very pretty board....plane walnut but the history.....

Someday I'll be brave and find the perfect project.