Wood Too Precious to Use? Nonsense!

A few years ago, I took my newly made joinery bench to Woodworking in America as the anchor fixture of my Hand Tool School booth in the marketplace.  At the time it was still a relatively new idea so it got a lot of looks.  A few of the comments that stuck in my head and bothered me the most we those that commented about what a waste it was to build the trestle piece out of 12/4 Genuine Mahogany.  After all, it was “only a workbench”.  I’m not one to build wonderfully ornate shop furniture and wipe them with a diaper but I also am hesitant to go out and buy a piece of lumber when I already have a piece that will work just fine.  Yes I could have hung on to that Mahogany and sometime it might have been made into a ball and claw foot or I could have actually used it instead of it gathering dust on my lumber rack.  Maybe it is because I work at a lumber yard and have easy access to nice lumber, but lately I have been trying very hard to reduce the amount of lumber I have laying about my shop.  If a piece isn’t specifically earmarked for a current or future project then it is fair game for a demonstration or even a shop project.

Personally I like the look of the Mahogany stretcher and tusk tenon on my Joinery bench, but I guess that was just way too offensive for the wood hoarders out there.

So if you are one of them you had better stop reading.  Over the past few years I have been acquiring lumber for my treadle lathe.  I have been looking for heavy wood in 12/4 and up thicknesses to match my massive design.  Fortunately we have a large stock of “retired” material in the graveyard at the back of the lumber yard that for one reason or another will not be sold.  Some of it is truly trash as it is checked and warped beyond recognition.  Some if weathered gray by UV light and can’t be sold even though we all know that a light pass through the planer would clear it up.  I have been picking through that and buying material suited to my design at a fraction of the cost.  Usually the moisture content is pretty high but it is all kiln dried material so it sheds that excess moisture pretty rapidly when I bring it into my shop.  For the past 12-18 months the material has been stickered at the back of my shop.  You probably have seen it in photos and videos.  Guess what, it is mostly Sapele and Utile.

After spending much of the weekend milling it and cleaning it up I’m discovering that almost all of it is highly figured Pommele Sapele and/or quartersawn ribbon striped material.  Does this mean I can’t use it for a shop project?  Hell no!  In fact the lathe is often an ornamental fixture much like an heirloom tool cabinet.  Actually I used some of this same wood to resaw out door panels on my tool cabinet and make the chop for the front vise on my Joinery bench.

I admit that the figure in these boards is so much greater than I ever thought it would be but that is definitely not going to sway me from using it for a shop project.  I just don’t understand the desire to hang on to wood in the hopes that it can be “properly” used in some unknown, future project.  I am blessed to have such incredible wood and I think it should be used.  This treadle lathe will be the product of a lot of research, design, and many miles of traveling to try out other lathe designs.  It is the flagship project of Semester 5 of The Hand Tool School and something I have been wanting to build for more than 4 years.  I think it is only fitting that I build it using truly stunning figured wood.

I have a few customers who buy a lot of very nice and expensive wood with no project in mind.  As a lumber dealer I love these guys, but as  a woodworker I can’t help but be sad at the thought of basements and garages full of lumber that will never get put to use.  I get phone calls from people who are trying to sell the collection of a recently passed father or grandfather who had amassed a room full of truly unique lumber.  Most of the time that material doesn’t get sold and it disappears somehow.  When my time comes I want my offspring to have a room full of fine tools to use or sell but not many stacks of unrealized potential projects in lumber form.

So if you think using figured or unique lumber is a waste on shop projects, you have a right to that opinion.  Me?  My lathe is going to be sexy and she’ll know it!

What Do You Think?

Have you ever used figured lumber for shop projects?  Do you think it should be saved for the perfect project instead?  I’d love to hear your opinion, please share it below.