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Thread: Wood too Nice to Cut up.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Northern Oregon
    Posts
    1,820

    Wood too Nice to Cut up.

    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?
    Last edited by Chris Padilla; 12-03-2008 at 1:35 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    extreme southeast Nebraska
    Posts
    3,113
    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.
    Jr.
    Hand tools are very modern- they are all cordless
    NORMAL is just a setting on the washing machine.
    Be who you are and say what you feel... because those that matter... don't mind...and those that mind...don't matter!
    By Hammer and Hand All Arts Do Stand

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Griswold Connecticut
    Posts
    6,926
    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.
    It's a sickness.,
    "The first thing you need to know, will likely be the last thing you learn." (Unknown)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Northern Oregon
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    Thanks for sharing, nice to know I'm not alone.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Toronto Ontario
    Posts
    11,247
    WHA...............Wood Hoarders Anonymous.

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

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

    regards, Rod.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Canada...oot in the woods
    Posts
    230
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Cutler View Post
    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.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Dawson Creek, BC
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    1,033
    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

  8. #8

    me too also

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Cutler View Post
    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.
    It's a sickness.,
    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
    Last edited by William OConnell; 11-28-2008 at 6:29 PM.
    William
    http://woodworkers.us
    I never lost money on a job I didn't get

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Dawson Creek, BC
    Posts
    1,033
    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

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Waterford, MI
    Posts
    4,673
    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.
    Use the fence Luke

  11. #11

    Smile Keepers

    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!
    Al Clem
    Sedona, AZ

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,685
    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.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  13. #13
    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.


    Here's the rest of the story:

    http://blog.duanemcguire.com/2008/10...-the-new-shop/
    Duane McGuire

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Western Nebraska
    Posts
    4,680
    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.

  15. #15
    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....
    Last edited by David DeCristoforo; 11-29-2008 at 3:31 PM.
    David DeCristoforo

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