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"STUDENT SUPPLIED
LUMBER DISCLAIMER"
The Often Times Harsh Reality of Using Highly Figured Hardwoods
I don't want to scare you away from this, but I do want to point out in very blunt terms the pitfalls that can await you if you wish to supply your own highly figured lumber for your project. Here is the issue the non-professional generally does not realize. At the shop here, we work through thousands of board feet of lumber each year, much of it figured. As you already know, I incorporate some extraordinarily figured material in some of my work, and it's often the remarkable figure that gives the piece its extra appeal.
What you don't see though, is how much waste material that can come from trying to create even a small piece of furniture using highly figured wood. For an item comprised of regular FAS, flat-sawn wood, I might need to add thirty percent or so to my cut list so that I can take advantage of the best grain. For example, if I need twelve board feet of wood for the finished piece, I will allow for say, sixteen board feet or more in the cut list. However, if I'm planning on using a highly figured maple, let's say blistered curly maple or birdseye, that thirty percent can and often does skyrocket up to two hundred percent or perhaps more in extra material required. Why? It's quite simple - the likelihood of experiencing extreme tear out in the milling process with highly figured wood is quite simply astronomical, and increases dramatically the more highly figured is the wood. For the most part most of the extremely figured maples can be next to impossible to prepare without tear out; crotched, flamed or curly figure only slightly less so, and certainly, you can't simply bang it through the planer and expect it to be trouble-free. There are special techniques that we have to employ to deal with this, most often using hand work exclusively, involving toothed scrubbing planes and scrapers. It can be incredibly time consuming, and we just don't have the time to do this for you in the quantities required, nor will you within the lab time allowance in the course itself. Trust me when I tell you that every minute will count.
You'd laugh if you saw how we keep ourselves warm in the winter, burning this waste, torn out figured material that often cost us in excess of twenty-five dollars per board foot. It's the closest you'll ever get to burning dollar bills, and is much more efficient than a roulette table.
Take a look at the pictures below that will give you some idea
of what to expect if you choose to supply your own more radically figured wood.
While sometimes we do get lucky, tear out can and often does go as deep as 3/16
or 1/4 inch, and you only need one little piece of tear out to ruin an entire
board's thickness. Our disclaimer here is that we
simply cannot and will not guarantee that we can dimension wood that you supply
without mishap. All can trust that whatever wood you supply will be
handled with great care to make the best possible surface through our standard
rough milling procedures but we will not be responsible for unpredictable and/or
unavoidable grain tear out on radically figured material such as certain curly
figures, blistered and fiddleback, and crotch grain student supplied
material. If you chose to supply your own lumber for
the top, lower shelf, bread board ends, and drawer front, you do so at your
own risk of being forced to work with the lumber as it comes from our
professionally tuned surface planer. We will do our best but you cannot expect
or demand anything more. For those of you that do assume this
risk and are unfortunate to end up with unworkable torn-out component blanks
that we must prepare for you in advance, we can offer you a back up alternative
FAS 5/4 black cherry at our standard $70 fee upon your arrival. Trust we
are not trying to make money here, you will quickly learn you will not be able
to supply 5/4 red two face black cherry in the quantity required for $70.
We sell our material to you at our cost. The
cherry we supply our students with is consistently nice quality cherry that
shouldn't give you any such problems and will impress anyone that sees the
finished product. It's good enough for my
clients.
Click on photos to enlarge to reveal
possible grain
tear out conditions on radically figured hardwood.
A final point is the sheer cost of highly figured wood. You may
need to spend in excess of two or three hundred dollars, depending on the
figure/species, to obtain a sufficient quantity of wood for your project, and
that's only for the top, shelf and drawer front. You still need the walnut for
the frame. Please think very carefully if you decide to supply your own wood,
and go into this with your eyes wide open. There are no guarantees. Click
her to return to the Student Lumber Option #2 page that got you here if you are
confident to proceed with supplying your own lumber
Teaching Staff at Lohr Woodworking.
Jeffry Lohr, Eoin O'Neill, and Rob Spiece.
Advanced Joinery Home Adv.
Joinery Syllabus Adv. Joinery
Materials Options Required Tool List