Visit To John Ormsby's--Wood Gloat...

Last week I joined LJ Rabbet (scott) for a little journey over to see John Ormsby in Live Oak CA. Once in a while John has surplus wood that he offers for sale…although his focus is his own construction and woodworking business…not wood salesman…

So when Scott asked me I thought it would be great to see John, his shop and find some cool wood! I met John two years ago at the Sacramento Woodworking Show. He shared with me that he had spent a lot of time years ago in Napa working at the Beringer Winery—-the room he worked on is exquisite…amazing wood work…

Then last year when I got the CRAZY idea to build a 20 foot sail boat…I asked wood workers with sailing/boat building experience to check out the design…and websites…

John took a lot of time to investigate and talk to me about the boat…when we met again at the next wood working show he talked a lot about the boat with me…he had worked on many boats and had done a lot of sailing so his experience was super appreciated…I have been a teacher for 13 years and john does a really nice job explaining things.

When we got there John gave us a quick tour of his shop and some of his specialty tools and woods…and then in multiple garages he showed us huge stacks of wood…he said that he will use most of it over time…but had some extra…one wood he showed us that I really liked was his stash of Big Leaf Maple…I really like maple and these woods that he had cleaned up were amazing…

IF you live in the SACRAMENTO area—-I would add John as a “buddy” so when he posts a sale of his surplus wood or tools you will get a notice…

The picts below DONT do the wood justice when looked at up close and in person…

The first picture shows the big sticks…all Big Leaf maple except for the piece on the far right which is Red Oak….in that picture the 3rd piece was really nice…I had first overlooked the piece because of the twistiness and John said no problem that is a keeper for me—-he then said ” I will make a goegeous jewelry chest out of it and take pictures of it for you…” I was getting a good stack going so it went into my maybe pile…then at the end of the day when my budget had not been broken (due to John’s overly fair prices) I asked about that twisted piece…

He said he thought he wanted to keep that one…but I could wrestle him for it…so with the rain starting to come down I pinned him in the mud and got the prize piece…and I told him I would make a gorgeous jewelry chest out of it…and take pictures of it for him…

The smaller wood in 3rd pict was a series of mahogany for turnings and then john had a pile of fire wood he let us pick through…john’s fire pile is my exotics…that is the 5th pict—-some walnut, cherry, maple and mahogany…

The 4th pict is a wide piece of Big Leaf that looked like nothing on the outside…so john cleaned it up and ranning it over his jointer and some big color popped out…again the pict does not show much of what you see in person…

Again…IF you live in the SACRAMENTO area—-I would add John as a “buddy” so when he posts a sale of his surplus wood or tools you will get a notice…

-- Matt--Proud LJ since 2007