General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJust saw something infuriating on, of all things, "Modern Marvels."
It was a show about wood and lumberyards.They got to talking about lumberyards specializing in rare and exotic woods. One lumberyard staffer showed off a beautiful piece from a species of tree indigenous to Africa. He said it was worth about $2,000, and was likely destined to become a conference table placed in some elite corporate boardroom. I can only guess what that table will be worth once it is finished.
So the fat cat 1% need a conference table worth many thousands of dollars to sit around while they talk about yet another way to screw the rest of us?
thelordofhell
(4,569 posts)It will be in the boardroom full of corporate assholes that will decide to lay off the entire Lumberyard Division........
Wait Wut
(8,492 posts)That's what it sounds like, at least. Sort of a quiet dig at the 1%.
You should hear the conversations I get into with the husband about toilet paper.
We're also talking about buying the house we're renting and putting in wood floors. I'm insisting on sustainable, recycled or some other type of 'green' alternative. He frowns a lot. Not out of disagreement, but confusion.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)plant that propagates quickly. Lumber companies, who are almost as evil as oil companies have destroyed too many of our forests around the world and are now trying to harvest old growth forests. Deforestation causes erosion as well. I have bee replacing as many items usually made of wood like chopping blocks and find it very satisfactory.
Wait Wut
(8,492 posts)I just need to learn about how well they take staining. I want dark floors. There is also a manufactured hardwood that comes from recycled floors and has a hardwood veneer. I'd still prefer the bamboo, though.
It'll take lots more research. We're a ways off from making an offer on the house, anyway. Landlords are being super patient.
SeattleVet
(5,468 posts)It's beautiful, about 2x the hardness of red oak, and we got a light, natural color ('wheat') and a darker, brown color ('Java') that work well together (we change colors in mid-room to separate the living and kitchen areas). The also have a 'Chestnut' and 'Brindle'
The darker one is 'toasted' at a higher temperature when they press the bamboo, so the sugars in the grass caramelize more. They come pre-coated with 17 coats of polyurethane, and are made using heat, compression, and a binding resin, so staining is not an option.
Beautiful and durable, as long as you can live with the colors they make.
MindPilot
(12,693 posts)It is generally sourced from old barns, various other wood structures, and it is strikingly beautiful. Also pretty expensive, but you get real old-growth wood without hurting a tree. Plus it has the patina and character that only comes with age. Personally I wouldn't want to stain any reclaimed wood, the natural colors are the best.
A lot of reclaimed wood is also coming from logs that sank during the years when rivers were the primary method of transporting timber.
http://www.vintagetimber.com/
When George Lucas built Skywalker Ranch, he also bought an old railroad trestle bridge, and most of the interior woodwork is from that reclaimed lumber. I have been told, but I can't find a verification, at the peak of construction, there were as many as 25 finish carpenters living on the job site.
Erose999
(5,624 posts)mills date to the industrial revolution and the wood used for the flooring is old growth. Pine from that era is a lot denser, and more stable, really nothing like the plantation grown pine on the market nowadays. Maple too for that matter... you can get a reclaimed Maple floor for much less than new, and have a better product to boot.
Ian David
(69,059 posts)It's about a hundred yards wide, and it races through the bamboo forests violating giant pandas.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)zbr6
(12 posts)Some of these pieces of wood have been hidden in the ground for thousands of years from trees long since extinct. That has some value to it.
And really $2000 isn't a lot for furniture. Our conference table cost just under $4000 and its processed particle board haha.
Sentath
(2,243 posts)They weren't saying the table would cost 2K. They were saying one of the elements of the table, the slab for the top, would cost 2K wholesale to the person or company that would create the table.
geckosfeet
(9,644 posts)They couldn't be bothered with us...
reusrename
(1,716 posts)We either stop before they become extinct, or after, but we will stop.
Link Speed
(650 posts)We sell tables in the $6-8K range for (mostly) outdoor dining. Fallen redwood, acacia and walnut that we pull out of the forest with draft horses under permit from the State. Some of the redwood has been on the ground for 200+ years. So we provide beauty and fire prevention, all at the same time.
Erose999
(5,624 posts)think that to practice the craft at its highest level (and make money to pay the rent doing it) you have to deal with some real pricks sometimes. I'm trying to produce guitars that working class musicians can afford. But given that I'm competing against 3rd world sweatshop labor, and $$$ saturation marketing, I can't compete with the corporations for the working class musician's dollar. I can't make a nice guitar for $99.95. Neither can Fender Musical Instruments Corp. But their factories in China and Indonesia can make a mediocre one for that price. For me to make money at what I do, I also have to seek customers who have disposable income.
I've been fortunate that most of my customers are real salt-of-the-Earth people. And also, while I work with lumber that is "rare" and "exotic", a lot of the stuff I use is considered "waste" by other woodworkers. I'll buy wood that has a warp and straighten it, or something thats cracked and work around the crack. I'll also use wood thats reclaimed or repurposed.
These are American Chestnut beams reclaimed from a barn in North Carolina. Chestnut is pretty much extinct in the Southeast and has been since the 1930's because of the blight. These beams are at least 100 years old.
I made this from those barn beams.
This was made with some nice boards I found in the scrap pile at Home Depot.
I have a friend in the lumber business where I buy a lot of my stuff. He's the one who sold me those barn beams. While he does cut down a lot of trees, most of what he's working with are unwanted or dangerous trees from people's yards, trees that fall over in storms, etc. He saves a lot of beautiful and unique wood from going to the paper mill or becoming firewood.
Those are simply fantastic, Erose!
You are a great craftsman.
CatWoman
(79,283 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)Thanks for showing us.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)MindPilot
(12,693 posts)I'm channeling my old high school shop teacher, Mr Sala. He says "A+"
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)I do hope you find customers who are "real salt of the Earth types" and appreciate your craftsmanship!
tridim
(45,358 posts)But... I have a $99 Squire Bullet (with mods) that I consider my favorite guitar. I'll never sell it.
Are those necks 100% scratch built?
Erose999
(5,624 posts)seems. One luthier put it to me this way: "a neck is just a body with frets and a truss rod in it".
Here are some pics of the jigs I built and some of the important tools I use.
tridim
(45,358 posts)I would love to do this some day. Thanks for the pics.
NBachers
(17,000 posts)SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)still around (in natural growing form). I commented to the taxi driver how glad I was to see that it was not being logged to death. He was proud to tell us that they valued their forests...and then a few miles up the road, there they were..chopping some of those ancient beauties down.. He assured us that it was not common anymore, and someone must be building a house there.. But only time will tell..
Erose999
(5,624 posts)Fiji as its one of the few places in the world managing their forests in a sustainable manner. But a lot of the Mahogany on Fiji is not native. A lot of it is Swietania Macrophylla (aka Honduras Mahogany) which is native to Central America. It was planted by the British after WWII and the Fijians have been selective in their harvesting and replanting.
Dreamer Tatum
(10,926 posts)I fail to see the issue in even the slightest of terms.
oneshooter
(8,614 posts)from a house I was rebuilding. Going to build a couple of Hope Chests for my granddaughters with it.
Your granddaughters will love that! They'll be bragging to all their friends that they have the best granddad ever.
oneshooter
(8,614 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)They probably wouldn't know the difference between a $90,000 table and a particle board table with a veneer on it.