Finding crappy oak in Norther Virginia

[Jared Sankovich]

My guy sent some pictures of some wood he just cut so it's still green. I have zero experience evaluating green wood. The holes are nice. I was hoping for some knots and other stuff. But what I need is general character. What do you guys think?

I'm seeing a lot of nice straight grain. He says there's a lot of quartersawn character because of the way he milled it. It's all 1 1/8" rough. I need .960 give or take for the treads. For the landings it needs to be around 1 1/8". I could built this stuff up around the edges with some more oak and I don't think anyone would be the wiser. I will be rounding over the parts that show so my shim would be in that roundover. Shouldn't show if I do it right.

$4/sq foot dried.

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$4 seems high. That would be FAS pricing, and what you have there would be 1 common maybe. $2 would be more in line, but if you need it...

Also if you wanted 1" finished he should have cut it thicker. That should finish at 13/16 or so.

I picked this character grade up in Culpepper for $2.50 bd ft and for what i was using it for cut around the defects.
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[Paul Steiner]

You need to try 2 places: Hardwoods in the Rough in Manassas-they carry a wide variety of locally milled stuff with the standard variety of hardwood lumber. Talk to Don, he may have a source. Next there is a sawmill in Catharpin, they advise on Craigslist, they may have something close to what you need.

[Paul Girouard]

When I was in the USN we stopped in France , some how or another I ended up at a really small basement shop where a couple of guys where building furinture.
The stuff they where building was pretty nice stuff, it also was highlighted with a lot of worm holes. I must have noticed the had a needle gun , like the blue shoes / ships company guys used to chip paint off the ship.

I broken French / English I got out of the two guys they made all of their own worm holes, or at least added to the ones that might have come in the stock.

A needle gun is a pneumatic tool with a bunch of metal 1/8” or smaller pins that are used to chip paint .

If worm holes are what you need the needle gun should be able to make them.