gotta strike when its hot

allen levine

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new york city burbs
just got a line on a few hundred board feet of white oak, been looking for awhile.I dont need quartersawn, but I do want it 2.00 a bf and close by.
Im going to try to pry some walnut or mahogany out of him also, dont think I can, but Ill try some crying.
 
day kept going south

I glued up the guts of the jewerly chest Im making. I was so careful, took so much time planing and edging the spanish cedar, every piece was perfect. Cut out the dados, glued it up. OOoppps, I forgot to rabbet out the back, didnt want to start over. Ok, off to work to learn new paperwork, then over to pick up the wood.
I didnt understand any of the paperwork,I got frustrated so I left to get the wood.
It turns out he didnt have as much white oak as he thought.
There was ash and red oak mixed in. then he had a pile of mystery wood, one of his workers said oak, but he said he thinks he bought it a while back, some exotic stuff, doesnt know, if its oak, its oak, it was dark in the back of the warehouse. He had to run, he seemed ultra busy, things being built all over the place, everyone busy working building, finishing or painting.
He looked at the two piles and said, you can have this white oak pile, whatever else is here for 200, take it all, the other pile, take it all for 300.
So I did.
And then I bust my backup light lense on my new truck, hit it with the second to last piece of wood I put into the truck.
My back started to kill me, I had to sit in traffic, I didnt have my medication for my Myasthenia, my eyes were toturing me, but I got home, and went right into the garage to look at the glue up, and realized I glued it up crooked.
All that time I took to get it right, I rushed the glue up, so I took a mallet tried to tap out the sides, sure enough it cracked, so I flung it against the wood pile, Id had enough today. Maybe Ill remake it out of something else and start tomorrow.
I went over to my son, asked if hed help me unload the wood, sort it out into neat piles, but hes leaving, he has VIP seats tonight for Blink 182 at Jones beach.
So I came upstairs and IM going to go to bed, figured no more damage if I go to sleep for a nap, the wood isnt going anywhere.
Some days dont go anything like I plan them, but
 
my daughter came out when I went outside and unloaded the truck with me.
She's as strong as an ox, lifting up 1x10x10 white oak boards and carrying into the garage for me.
I did a very rough count, leaving out assorted pieces, like a 2x8x6, that had some cleats and stopped dados in it, obviously not used for something.
I didnt include anything on the table in the picture, it came to 315 bf.
With what I left out and the table, Id guess around 350 or a few more board feet. There were 2 8 footers that had a crack down the middle, and one or two more boards that had some nails and staples in them, still rough, but all in all it all came in under 90 cents a bf, so Im very pleased.
The first two pics, does anyone know what it is? I have alot of it, and it all has that grain running down the boards like that. The guy that worked for him said its oak, but it doesnt look like red or white oak to me.(I even thought some type of maple, but its tannish to brown colored. I skip planed a piece, first time I used my electric handheld plane, wanted it done fast)

He had a ton of walnut he wouldnt part with, but offered me chestnut. Never worked with chestnut, dont know anything about it, so I declined his offer. I didnt ask him what I would be paying for it.I asked him for cherry, as I always do, he said didnt have any.
His place fascinates me. He has these large commercial carts, old, old, metal wheeled carts, 4 feet wide, 8 feet long, just filled and spilling over with every species of lumber. He doesnt have a clue whats on all the carts, he just stores it all for a time when he might need it. I do believe if his landlord ever gets started again on the building conversion to condos, hell probably offer me enough wood to keep me and 50 other woodworkers busy for 20 years, since hed probably just rather sell it all then have to move it.
He has machinery laying around, not 3, 4, 5 machines, dozens of commercial sized monsters. Ill try to post some of the pictures I took with my cell phone, Im not sure if hed let me bring a camera into his shop, but he has an amazing collection of machines. He has 12 foot high entrance ways made out of 100 year old mahogany and other woods, just sitting around, things he and his business has salvaged or bought. He has little row boats, dingys?(in desperate need of restoration) hanging in his storeroom warehouse. I guess he intends to get to them one day.

I just remember what he said when he was leaving, he said he thinks the mystery wood was some type of rosewood he once ordered for a job. He just couldnt remember and was in a rush, I just paid him and the worker assisted me. Does it look like any type of rosewood?What is rosewood, can I build furniture with it?
 

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I was standing next to two bandsaws, this green monster was around 8-9 feet tall, and a couple of the dingys hanging out.
 

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NICE haul, Allen.:thumb: You sure don't find any of those Deals down here in W. Tx.:(

You sure might want to keep that Chestnut in mind though as it has been pretty scarce since some bug/blight or something killed most of the trees a few years ago. IIRC, "Norm" made a Squarish type Coffee table on one of his shows out of Chestnut and it really looked nice with a beautiful grain. I don't know if there is a video of that project available on his website or not, but maybe it will come around again.

How soft/hard is that dunno wood you show? Can you get a closeup pic of the grain? That might help to identify it.

Sorry about your bad day, but as long as they don't come like
Grapes, ........... "In Bunches"........ :D
 
Nice score Allen.

The mystery wood looks like the gumwood my Dad used to make fine boxes with years ago.

Gumwood.341200539_std.JPG


Chestnut is a nicely figured wood that is softer than poplar, darn near approaching pine. It is a light weight species. I have had a few boards crack open on me as I was re-sawing on a band saw due to the tension in them. It is fairly easy to carve. I have used it for some small display cabinets from lumber harvested from my wife's family farm in western New York. I don't particularly care for it, just doesn't feel like a hardwood.

Cheers,
 
heres pics of the 3 woods I purchased, Id say 150 bf of white oak, 125bf mystery, 50 bf red oak, and a couple of pieces of spalted maple, birch,
I believe the mystery wood is spalted maple, but what do i know.If it is spalted maple, gonna make some funky looking table tops.
 

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Nice hual. I have seen apple wood lok like that and some maple to. Wood take a pic but the wood is buried in the back of my freinds barn along with everything else.
 
the 10 foot boards are no where as heavy as the 10 foot white oak boards.
I found a 10in by 10 foot board of spalted maple, it has all the little pin holes in it, and alot of spalting, so I thought maybe these boards, but no pin holes. All the boards have the same streaking of color running through them.
Interesting.
 
I found some pictures of brazilian rosewood that has strikingly similar characteristics of the wood I purchased.
Maybe Im reaching, would like to think so if it finishes nicely and looks good as tops.
 
I found one board that was ambrosia, I called it spalted.....but it had the pin holes all along the colors.
These boards all have that one long line of color, but no pin holes.
Whatever it is, Im going to use it.
 
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