Category Archives: Lumber
Can You Carve Spoons from Dry Wood?
Spoons and other “treen” are traditionally carved from green wood, cut fresh from the tree. The obvious advantages are that (1) fresh-cut wood is softer and generally easier to cut than dried wood, and (2) you don’t have to spend … Continue reading
Requiem for a Post Oak
One of my favorite things about our little suburban yard has been the 100-year-old post oak tree–a species of white oak that you don’t see much down here on the coast. It was a beautiful shade tree, sheltering the west … Continue reading
A Little Dogwood
A friend of mine contacted me a couple days ago asking if I could help him take down some dead and dying trees that were leaning up against his house (and providing bugs with a convenient entry point). So I … Continue reading
Spalt!
It all began back in 2009 when a neighbor was having a pecan tree taken down. I came over to watch the arborist at work, and I asked if I could have part of the trunk. He kindly dropped a … Continue reading
Timber Framed Bunk Beds, part 2: A Pile of Lumber
The problem with timber framing is that you can work for days and days and look like you’ve done no work at all. Nearly a week ago, I began with a pile of lumber. After two solid days of hard … Continue reading
Timber Framed Bunk Beds, Part 1: The Plans
Last year, my wife warned me that the kids were growing out of their cribs and toddler beds, and that we would need to build them some bunk beds this summer. I started drawing up plans. The criteria: A three-tier … Continue reading
Identifying Some Mysterious Wood: Can You Guess?
Last fall while camping with some friends in the Florida panhandle, I came across some firewood that had been left at an adjacent campsite. There were five logs, all about 6″ in diameter and about 18″ long. Perfect firewood, I … Continue reading
Wax On: Sealing the Ends of Boards
I’m a lumber-scavenger. I pick up logs here and there, split them into manageable pieces, and resaw them on my bandsaw. Usually I seal the ends with leftover latex paint, which is somewhat effective in preventing checks in the ends. … Continue reading
Cleaning Shop, Saving Scraps: A Photo Essay
I have been working wood for only a few years, and I remember my early frustration with woodworking literature that always seemed to include the instruction, “Use a piece of scrap to…” I never seemed to have any “scraps” of … Continue reading
The Literary Workshop Blog 