Famous Wood, Rich Price?
In this episode we talk about the Shawshank Oak tree setting a legal precedent, possibly the largest tree ever, killing bugs in the wood, jointers at the lumber yard, and case hardening. Then fresh off my trip to Vegas schilling thermally modified wood I answer, "what is roasted Poplar?" What is the deal with thermally modified wood. Are they really as stable as the hype says they are and what other physical properties change with the modification.
Industry News
- The Shawshank Oak may be famous but what will a lawsuit requesting a high 6 figure value do to create a legal precedent on "unique" trees?
- Has the largest tree in the US been found in this monster Eastern Cottonwood?
Feedback
- Robert asks about selling Padauk cutting boards and how the CITES ruling will change that. Are export permits needed?
emails
- Matt runs a sawmill and wonders about a jointer or a moulder for his operation.
- Jack asks about reversing the case hardening of "junk wood".
- Kyle wants to kill bugs and asks if kiln drying is the only way.
- Howard wonders why Poplar isn't used in timber framing
- Matthew wants to know what roasted Maple is. More on modified woods in Episode 53
Hey Shannon, first off I gotta say that I really do love your podcast(s) and my only complaint is that there’s not more of them haha. So I have a ton of stuff that I want to talk about, built up from not messaging you each episode. But I’ll stick to this episode right now. I’ve only written to Wood Talk once before… I was the pirate voice that you guys got a good laugh from, arrrgh matey, haha.
So my point in writing you is to question the guy from NY saying he found the tallest tree and it was a poplar. (Snicker, Snicker). Did he take into consideration Hyperion, the recognized tallest tree in the world at 379.7 feet (115.61 meters? Hyperion is a Sequoia growing here on the west coast, that’s all the information given so that the location remains a secret thereby protecting the tree from mankind’s less respectful members.
Hey Shannon, I looked into buying some of the Shawshank pen blanks a while back. Dees was selling pen blanks with a COA successfully for $12 per blank as early as 2017. So doing quick math that includes waste from milling, blank size of .75x.75×5, you could get roughly 30 pen blanks per bdft, 1500 pen blanks in 500 bdft @ $12 each adds up to $180k. Still a hard case to win, you would have to prove a demand for that many blanks over time to establish that value. It’s also hard to prove that there was a gentleman’s agreement that the mill would store the lumber, which the mill owner is now denying. Regardless, it’s an interesting problem regarding perceived value.