Popular Woodworking 2003-08 № 135, страница 54

ceased woodworkers. But how do you get your hands on it?

Basically, it's a matter of putting the word out among your friends, relatives and co-workers that you're a woodworker and on the prowl for wood. Tell enough people, and you'll eventually hear from the friend of a friend who wants to dispose of some boards. Sometimes you get lucky. We once bought a garage full of impressive lumber that one woodworker (who could not take it with him to the afterlife) had amassed over several decades.

STICKER SHOCK

Twenty five years ago Gene Nurse, from Darmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, went to the lumberyard on his lunch break to buy some wood for a mahogany desk he wanted to build.When he arrived, the man who usually worked the desk wasn't there and a young teenager was in his place.

The sticker price on the pile of undressed mahogany indicated that the lumber was a typical $3 (Canadian) a board foot. Nurse said the young man, not knowing the difference between dressed and undressed lumber, said that the sticker "must be a mistake for that crappy stuff. They must have meant 30 cents a board foot."

After trying to dissuade the guy several times, Nurse loaded up his truck with 500 board feet of mahogany. Price: $150.

Feeling guilty, Nurse went back and explained what had happened to the man who usually worked the desk. The man thought the story was funny, said it was their mistake and let Nurse keep the wood. But next time, the man said, Nurse should deal with him personally.

— KG

Classified Ads, Auctions & Offcuts

There are a few somewhat surprising ways to find wood. Believe it or not, wood shows up pretty regularly in the classified ads of the daily newspaper and local free shopping papers.

And while you're poring over the classifieds, keep an eye out for auctions at farms and cabinet shops. When these places go under, there can be good deals on wood (and machines). Bear in mind that haunting auctions is both time-consuming and addictive.

Some people buy lumber through eBay.com, an online auction web site. Shipping can be a real killer ($1 a pound), so tread cautiously and do the math before you buy from online auctions.

Finally, for the true bottom-feeder, there's always the waste stream. Find out if there's a pallet factory, furniture manufacturer, veneer mill or construction site in your area. Their waste might be perfect for your woodworking.

We've cut up pallets made from mahogany, ash and other

desirable species. In fact, most of the projects in "Building the Perfect Tool Chest" (Popular Woodworking Books) were built in our shop using wood discarded from pallets. A cabinet shop that built a lot of face frames once sold us their falloff, which was the perfect size for chair spindles. All you have to do is ask.

And speaking of asking, make sure that when you climb up to that hay loft to check out that wood in the barn that you ask if there are any hornets' nests waiting up there. There's more than one way to get stung when hunting for lumber. PW

Straight from the woods, this pile of cherry is being stickered as we go. When complete, we painted the ends with a special paint (which is wax suspended in a water-based emulsion) to retard end checking.

BYOB: Bring your own bole.All over the country, independent sawyers such as Ed Motz can mill the logs you find into rough slabs. Moving it and drying it usually is up to you.

52 Popular Woodworking August 2003