I hate to cut this wood

[Greg_Lewis]

I needed one more piece of wood for my tall-case clock project so I stopped by the hardwood yard and in the stack of quarter-sawn white oak I found a flawless piece of 4/4 stock, 6 1/2 inches wide and 9 feet long. Straight, clear, and ray fleck heretofore imagined only in ones' dreams. This is certainly the most perfect piece of oak ever seen in the state of California. I want to hang it over the living room couch just as it is. Cutting such a flawless piece must be a misdemeanor in this county. I know what I must do, but thinking about chopping up this bit of nature's perfection is overwhelming me with guilt.

[SteveM]

Cutting it might be a misdemeanor. Painting it would be a felony.

Steve

[10KPete]

I have accumulated a few pieces of wood over the years that fall into that category. None quite that large though. Every time
I look at one with cutting in mind I get the feeling such action would not be worthy of the material. Someday.....
Don't even whisper about paint!!

Pete

[spro]

I also see it may be too much and be a waste. How many thousands of acres of trees were set afire in recent years? Where did that wood go ? Sure it may be a campfire and just may be a terrorist clan which we cannot mention. Nobody knows and it is gone. I say use it while you have it. Ripsaw, match, do your best. Save the outer sections for a further match.

[BadDog]

Heh, that would leave me completely paralyzed. I have a hard enough time second guessing myself over using clean new stock on hand. "What if I use 6" of that piece of material and then next week I need a piece 2" longer than what I have left?" It's a sad state of affairs, but I've experienced that corollary to Murphy's Law so many times, my mind goes there even though my rational mind knows better. Another too oft experienced corollary prevents me from throwing out stuff that is borderline useless. I can usually reason myself out of that hole, but not always, and still spend too much time fruitlessly searching my scrap pile for the perfect piece that will yield little waste when I could have otherwise been done and moved on. And it's oh SO satisfying when successful, almost like I imagine a junky drug rush might be. I am successful JUST barely enough to keep me from overcoming that behavior.

But to have a piece of wood like that, I would be completely unable to use it for anything for fear of the potential opportunity cost it might represent. Good luck!

[tornitore45]

I share all your sentiments, BadDog so eloquently described, although I admit Spro philosophy has merits. Life is short, eat dessert first.

There is a common way of thinking among people like us, people who like to build. A sense that nature resources are limited, valuable, almost sacred, not be spent likely. I shrug every time I have to dump swarf, knowing good metal will be forever lost to humanity. I am too small a potato to take it to the metal scrap depot.

Is the same mentality that makes all of us incurable junk collectors. I can see my children sorting out my stuff after I am gone... what was the man thinking? Why did he save just the stator of this fan motor? (for the copper wire, just in case a solenoid was to be wound)

[steamin10]

Straight up, it is conservation of resources. In my twisted mind i see things appear like michealangelo, remove the bad stuff, and leave the art. Like apparitions, i convert scrap lumber into boxes and holdersin my minds eye.. Trashed Pallets, into hand made objects, of oak and purple heart.Black Walnut appears at times in pallet wood, being the tops of trunks, and knotty and gnarled. I see beauty in the fans of crotches, and flow of grain. Each piece unique.

For me, it is my treasure, and I dont share much.

[TomB]

I'm in the process of moving from Southern Tier NY to Southern VT. In NY the area I lived in a massive Oak forest and in VT it is large but Patchy Maple stands. But the space in between the Maple stands is all forest, mostly hardwoods but some Pine and Fir stands. In both areas logging is a vital local industry and the process is very interesting. First the forester goes through the section with paint spray cans and labels and types the trees to cut with a color code. Loggers then come in down the trees, remove the branches and tops then pull the logs to a staging area. Some of the bigger logging companies will sort logs in the staging area but most move them to a specialized sorting company. There the logs get sorted by type: red oak, white oak, sugar maple, pine, etc. then for optimal sale value: primes that go to furniture, straights for flooring, big rounds for veneer plants, mid grade for board lumber, etc until the logs good only for fire wood or wood pellets are separated. Note that the group for furniture is different than the group for board lumber so when you come across a lumber board that should have been destined to be a table top but was miss categorized it seems scarce/rare. But in a logging area that type of wood is not scarce, we all see truck loads of furniture grade logs moving on the interstate, where each log is 12 feet long, 12 to 16" diameter with very little tapering and each truck is carrying about 200 such logs.

My grand daughter married into a saw mill family so I have the good fortune to be able to stop into the mill where I can pick what I need. But I think the conversations I've had with that side of the family about how all the sorting works is even more valuable to me.

Tom

[Russ Hanscom]

The RR trucks we are building for the Pullman Coach and MOW cars have frames that are largely oak - clear white oak 4" X6" x 9' - $2500+ per truck. It all gets drilled and painted - I agree that it seems a bit sacrilegious.

[reggie_obe]

What TomB said. That is but one board, hardly a rare species, not a crazy width like 30" either. No need to conserve it, they are plenty more just like it around.