Several years ago, my brother and I stopped at a lumber yard on our way back from a job we were doing. It was no ordinary building materials store but a specialty wood retailer that catered to furniture builders. We spent almost two hours wandering around a large barn-like structure (so barn-like, it had previously been only a barn) that had thousands of pieces of all kinds of different rough cut woods. I have to say, we were a bit like kids in a candy store and, also like those kids, we had difficulty narrowing down what we wanted to buy.

In the end, we walked out with a massive slab of maple, some sapele, and 8 feet of 8/4 by 10 walnut. Needless to say, the walnut was the prize of the day, and we paid accordingly.
Later, we divided the wood and each took our share. It was somewhat painful to see the walnut cut in half.
The fact is, you always believe you have great projects to undertake. You also always believe that you would do them if you had just the right piece of wood. You know the feeling, I’m sure. You don’t want to pour your hard work and creativity into something that would be wonderful if it wasn’t made out of SPF lumber. I’m not putting down things made from rough framing lumber, of course. Frankly, some of my favourite things have been made from nicely dried spruce 2x8s. And some good houses are put together using 2×6’s.

Anyway, the point is I, at least, always tend to think I would make a nice this or that if only I had a sufficient amount of material that deserved to be made into something great.
And I must admit I’m lying to myself when I think that.
The fact is, once I get a piece of wood that I consider valuable or beautiful or very nice, I’m afraid to ruin it by making something crappy out of it.
So, the precious wood we divided up that day had a sealed fate. The sapele was interesting but the sample was small. I almost immediately planned and built a mirror using that. The wood had sand in it, it’s hard on saw blades, but it glistens nicely in sunlight when it’s oiled. The mirror has been on the wall since I made it. The wood has a great natural colour. I should oil it again, soon.

The maple, we discovered, was water-stained. We could not see the condition of the wood until after it was planed down a bit. That would be one of the drawbacks of buying rough lumber: it can be impossible to see through the rough surface. That reminds me of a fellow we met in a different lumber yard once. We found a large pile of weathered miscellaneous hardwood and wanted to know what it was. It all looked exactly the same from a distance, since it all had that silvery colour the sun and rain give all natural wood. Up close, we could still only guess. When we asked someone, he called a coworker who came over and picked up several pieces and told us with absolute certainty what they were. As in, he correctly identified one piece as white oak and another piece as red oak and another piece as ash when all three pieces looked like they may have fractured off Noah’s ark and washed around in the ocean ever since.
Anyway, that aside, the maple I decided would be good to use as structural elements for furniture, since the water damage made it unsuitable for natural finishes.

And the walnut has stayed very pristine on my shelf since I got it. I have made many things since I got it and have gone out and purchased other wood. I have looked at the walnut a million times and always consider it when I want to make something that needs only that much wood. I often sit and wonder what kind of project I should plan for my special wood, but I always abandon any ideas I have. I don’t want to waste it by turning any of it into sawdust. That severely limits what you can do with a piece of wood.
I imagine I’ll end up leaving it to someone as a special inheritance.

And the walnut has stayed very pristine on my shelf since I got it. I have made many things since I got it and have gone out and purchased other wood. I have looked at the walnut a million times and always consider it when I want to make something that needs only that much wood. I often sit and wonder what kind of project I should plan for my special wood, but I always abandon any ideas I have. I don’t want to waste it by turning any of it into sawdust. That severely limits what you can do with a piece of wood.
I imagine I’ll end up leaving it to someone as a special inheritance.