The Basement #17: The Wood Room

By popular demand – after posting my recent shop video – I received several positive comments on the wood room.

Some folks were wondering where the collection came from.

I suppose this is a wood gloat – but only as it relates to the fact that there is something inheirently cool in collecting great wood. I have been lucky in that I have found some great deals on Craigslist some local lumberyards and some local online auctions.

If you can find the Curly Maple in the photos to follow – I did actually pay retail price for that – otherwise – everything shown below was bought below retail…........usually well below retail.

I am also lucky to have a nice little space in the shop to warehouse the goodies.

Early on with woodworking my biggest frustration was not having actual wood to work with, besides old 2×4’s and other odd scraps.

I should add that some of the photos below may be from the shed, garage and utility room as well…...........

I saw this ad on CL:

It ran for 2 or 3 weeks and I watched it daily wishing I had the money to own this fine lot – I finally called and offered to buy a portion that I could afford – he said come on out to take a look and ended up buying the whole lot for for a greatly reduced price. The exotic stuff can be really addictive – I love the way it machines – just make sure you have a sharp Woodworker II blade and you are good to go.

Here is some of that original lot:

Below are Rosewood boards from that lot – they are so heavy I am afraid for my planer. These are the kind of boards that make me say “I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy”....... Someday I will post a project with these beauties….

In the meantime – I was picking up various small lots of hardwood flooring – I probably have 15 different species of domestic and exotic examples. You can always get these cheap in small lots and find lots of uses for this material in shop projects as well as finished projects:

Here is Jabota – Brazilian Chestnut, 2 kinds of Rosewood, Ipe, and Eucalyptus

I also answered a CL ad for hardwood shorts from a local sawyer “Log to Lumber” and for $100, he supplied me a ton of really cool domestic wood, no duds here – lots of Hickory, Walnut, Maple QSWO, Ash, Cherry, etc…...some photos:

Along the way – got some “free” lots inclucding a truckload of from a retired cabinet restorer and his kids wanted nothing to do with the business…..Included a bunch of Mahogany (a fraction is shown here):

A local lumberyard also gets weird lots of stuff and good deals can be found – not always the top grade lumber but always an adventure – here is 16/4 Paduck – a bit rough, but very beautiful, and price was very right – pictured is the last half of what I bought – the rest is in projects:

The motherload was answering a CL ad for some Lacewood – not too far from home, I drove my rusty F150 over there only to leave with a load of mixed exotic wood. I couldn’t believe the truck would haul it – it was so heavy. Pennies on the dollar, it was being in the right place at the right time.

More photos from this exotic lot:

8/4 Lacewood:

4/4 Lacewood:

Tigerwood (Goncalo Alves) – Cocobolo – Bubinga – Makore:

From the top – Yellowheart (Pau Amarello), Makore (Ash strips in front, not from the exotic lot, but free on CL), Lacewood below.

On the shelf below – 10’ Bubinga boards with a pile Anigre on top and in front (the small blanks are Lignum Vitae – on sale at Rockler last month…:)

Cocobolo:

Granadillo and Spanish Cedar:

8/4 Sapele

8/4 Zebrawood:

(Counterclockwise from top left) Maple – Cherry – Sapele – Tigerwood (Goncalo Alves) – Sapele – Cocobolo – Maple – Zebrawood

Also on the shelf – some 8/4 Walnut and 4/4 hard Maple:

And a stack of thin cut Claro Walnut – this is really cool stuff:

Shorts are (somewhat) sorted by species or category on the bottom rows:

And other nooks and crannies:

Also tried my hand at sawing my own lumber (Maple and Ash):

Using a sliding jig on precison rollers (removed the band saw table for maximum cut):

Other finds:

A bunch of Maple blanks – good cutting board stock:

Bowling Lane (all Hard maple)- have more than pictured (alot more) but got it all for less than $60 – hard to work wiith tho – full of nails – will use it up eventually:

In the shed – some really rough Red Oak (super cheap, but planes up pretty well), Walnut, various flooring, and bolwing lane:

From the utility room comes this – Maple flooring on top, Oak in middle and Maple on the bottom – all CL finds:

The less glamorous side of the room – under the steps:

You never know when you need one of these gems:

Plywood scraps?

Actually this last shot shows my entire lumber storage area from the original shop – oh how times change…....

For those of you that actually made it to the end of this blog – thanks for checking it out….......hope you enjoyed it.

Jeff

-- Jeff - I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.