Wood Karma

I have access to a lot of very nice wood working every day at a lumber dealer. Think about the scrap pieces the average woodworker generates in his/her small shop. Now multiply that by several thousand board feet and you will get an idea of the “scrap” we generate in an average week. Most of the time, I will never have use for it as I could never build fast enough nor find space to store it. I really hate to see if go to waste though so I launched Hardwood to Go in an effort to make some of this lumber available to the public. Still I end up with a lot of miscellaneous cuts of wood that just don’t make sense listing on the web site due to the volume of labor involved just to photograph and post them. So my local friends tend to get some great deals. One such local cabinetmaker has gotten some killer deals on Utile (Sipo Wood) and Sapele lately and when he came to pick up the lumber he brought me a gift. So before I go any further I have to say thank you to Dave Diaman for this beautiful Walnut.

What goes around comes around, pay it forward, and many other cliches come to mind here when I examine this 12/4 x 20 x 50″ piece of air dried American Black Walnut wood. It’s 9″ wide brother isn’t something to laugh at either. Air dried Walnut is an absolute joy to work with and it is a shame it is so hard to find in today’s kiln dried and steamed Walnut marketplace. So I brought these 2 pieces home to my shop that is already stuffed to the gills with lumber and now need to find the right project for them. The natural edge is intriguing and the width is such that it would be a crime to rip it down. The thickness is a bit much for a table top yet resawing this would be a daunting task even with my 48″ frame saw. Sculpted pieces in the Maloof style come to mind but I can’t help but think a lot of this stock would be converted to saw dust in the process. The checks at either end are stable so I do envision some butterfly splines and channeling Mr. Nakashima. Still the piece is awfully thick to be used as a table top, and I might add that my wife isn’t a fan of the Nakashima style in our house.

Hmmm, what to build, what to build. Such a fun problem to solve.

Your Turn

What would you build? Please share your thoughts and advice in the comments below.