Shannon's Lumber Industry Update

Douglas Fir is a species we find everywhere. So much so that we may not even know we are looking at it. It has two distinctly different markets: construction lumber and fine (very fine) lumber for cladding, decking, soffits, and even furniture. The species has had a rebirth of late and is outcompeting Western Red Cedar in the forests.

What are the markets for the common species of lumber you find at your hardwood lumber dealer. I delve into who is buying what and for what. Plus further discussion about logging in national forest land, wood movement and heat, buying veneer, and harvesting Boxwood.

This time I featured Parota or Guanacaste. The Costa Rican national tree and known for being avialable in wide slabs of red, ribbony goodness. I also discuss how to know if the wood you are buying will be good for the project you intend to build, and fungus..mmmm fungus.

Time to revisit the old stud torn from a building that is compared to the new stud fresh from the big box store. But more to the point, let's take a look at how wood is sawn from a log to meet market demands. Not that trees don't grow like they use to but do we actually need them that way too.

This episode's featured species is London Plane or Plantanus hybridia. Nearly identical to American Sycamore it is a fun blonde wood option with a striking quartersawn lace pattern. Soft and light it is easy to work but can be difficult to dry without a lot of twisting and checking. We also open the can of worms on the lumber tariff conversation and look at how lumber can pose a national security threat. Other topics include, decking product options, softer woods for cabinets and counter tops, and finally lesser grade lumber availability.

My guest today is Mark Dubac of Windwood LLC in Portland, OR. Mark has a reputation on social media for humorous posts about the sawmilling world. Often making fun of influencers he has become a bit of an influencer himself by pulling back the curtain and showing what actually goes into sawing logs as a business.

Red Maple is also sold as Soft Maple and it is one of the species of Maple commonly found in the Soft Maple group like Big Leaf, Silver, and Striped Maple. Box Elder is often lumped into this group and sold as well as Soft Maple. Also in this show: KDAT, Lumpy plywood, and untarped lumber.

In this episode I have the CEO of Thermalwood Canada, Bob Lennon on to talk about thermally modified wood. Thermalwood is a member of the Thermowood Association and follows their procedures for modificiation so you can expect consistent quality throughout their kiln runs. But beyond just the typical thermally modified hardwoods, Bob and his crew have been experimenting and creating new products to fill holes in other markets. In particular is their Obsidian product which may just replace Ebony entirely in guitar manufacturing.

Today I highlight Persimmon wood as a lumber source. The North American Ebony. Then dive into the variety of decking products on the market and their lifespans. Might start to wander into touchy topics when I get to the composite market...maybe. Also I talk about Lignosat and what the future of wood in space might mean.

Today I have Shaun Preston, the Director of Camp Small, Baltimore Urban wood recycling center and saw mill. Baltimore leads the nation in its treatment of their urban canopy as a resource and Camp Small's ability to be an intake yard for EVERY city tree that comes down. Then they repurpose the entire tree from fire wood to mulch, to furniture, lumber, and even zoo animal playgrounds. Shaun and his team have built an amazing set up and I was luck enough to get some of his time. This interview occured just a bit before the devastating fire that burned the entire log yard in early December of 2024 but nothing has changed with their mission and the work they will continue to do for the urban canopy of the City of Baltimore. Find out more at: https://www.treebaltimore.org/camp-small or follow them on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/campsmall.baltimorecity/ I hope to get Shaun back in the coming months as they regain their footing after the fire and I wish them luck in restarting the great work they are doing.

Holly is a shockingly pure white in color with almost no visible grain. But it stains quickly if not felled, sawn and dried in the same day. Moreover kiln drying it can be tricky to keep it white. It also has a lot of significance and lore surrounding it that makes it a central part of the Christmas sacred traditions as well as waaaaay back in history as a symbol of life and protection.

This episode is the Venn diagram of me. I talk nerdy sciency stuff related to wood that can be moulded into high bike frames. What a perfect confluence! Chris Mroz of Pure Timber joins me to discuss cold bending hardwoods using compressed wood technology. This stuff will blow your mind and yearn for one of those flexy straws and a cold drink.

This time I feature White Oak but spend time talking more generally about the Oaks and the differences between the Red Oak group and the White Oak group.

This week I dive into curly figure in wood. Curl encompasses a lot of different types like blister, pommelle, beeswing, fiddleback, etc. I look at what causes it and how to grade it.

In this special Halloween episode I will talk about magical woods. Woods with folklore and mystery that surround them. A listener who has a Harry Potter obsessed daughter asked me about the properties of wand woods and that is what has inspired this episode.

Today I have guest Dan Edelman from TimberHP a wood fiber insulation company out of Maine. This company has create 3 insulation products: fill, batten, and board using the wood waste from the nearly defunct paper mill industry in Maine. They repurpose a large percentage of the millions of tons of wood chip waste and create a fire rated, high R value, and acoustical value, fully non toxic insulation from what is a waste product.

Today I discuss the featured species, Narra. It is a beautiful SE Asian wood mostly known in its burl form where it is called Amboyna Burl. Narra is undoubtedly a tropical wood in the Padauk genus but unlike many tropical woods it is easier to work with due to a lower hardness and a luster that serves to lubricate tooling while working its. I also discuss some of the elements that may make locally sourced timbers more expensive than wood brought from across the country. And finally how you might start the process of having your own trees introduced into the urban lumber market.

Today I talk about burls. What are they to the best of our knowledge and how to work them. But I also spend a fair bit of time talking about genuine Mahogany and some statements made lately that 80% of Mahogany is illegally harvested. Buried the lede a bit on that one but its important to understand how to buy a wood if you are not sure about its sustainability.

This week I feature the Tamo Ash, Fraxinus mandshurica. It is a species of Ash primarily sought for the unique "peanut" figure. Like a lot of figured woods it is not totally understood how the figure is formed but proper use of the whole tree must be considered for the health of the species. Also talk about ray fleck in White Oak and drying wood. Is there an ideal environment for drying and preventing bugs in your woods?

What is a healthy forest? Today I have a guest, Nick Smith from Healthy Forests to talk about it. Nick is the executive director and he is the man behind building awareness and policy that can help us manage our forests and reduce the growing threat of wildfires that are decimating our forests today.

The featured species of the month is Sweet Chestnut or European Chestnut. Similar of course to the blighted American Chestnut, but the Sweet variety flourishes in the UK and Europe and is often lauded for exterior cladding and for all manner of bushcraft work. The Chestnut is also a prime species for Coppice Forestry and I have a discussion about that silvicultural practice too.

Wood dust is a major health risk. Mostly as a cumulative effect (AKA sensitizer) that can sneak up on us and ruin your health after decades of working with wood. It is imperative we protect our lungs from even the most benign wood dust. So imagine how dangerous more toxic woods can be when in dust form that you get on your skin, in your eyes, or lungs. In today's episode I discuss the various categories of wood toxicity and what you can do to ameliorate your risks when you are working with a toxic wood. But remember that just about every wood is toxic and everyone will react differently. Moreover what doesn't bother you now could very well cause health problems in the future with continued exposure.

This time I feature the Eastern Cottonwood and actually do some field reporting on it as I was recently out in the prairie states. I also go some time to work with a slab of Cottonwood to give some hands on experience with it.

Today I discuss Hemlock, our featured species. This is a wood with an identity crisis. Its long been a mainstay in construction lumber yet has more refined purposes as a high end clear, CVG siding and cladding product. Now it has an even brighter future as a thermally modified option for both interior and exterior uses.

Today I look at Monocots. The Bamboo and Palms that you may have seen showing up in flooring or plywood or even turning blanks. I also answer questions about branch wood, air dried wood, and the commercial vs local names of lumber.

This week I welcome Brandon Long, a structural engineer who plays as a woodworker at night. Brandon actually knows what he is talking about when it comes to structures and fatigue rates and all that stuff that I pretend to know about from watching "The Big Bang Theory".

A word of warning on this episode. New levels of nerdery on display here. If I had a white lab coat I would have worn it while recording. To sum up, woods with a higher T/R ratio will be harder to dry. But if you are like me and want to know why a higher T/R ratio is harder to dry, keep watching to dive into some organic chemistry and cellular structure. Also I feature Sapele this month. A much more mainstream species but one worth looking at closely due to how it has taken over the Mahogany market. A reminder that Walnut tier supporters on Patreon will be getting the fancy Sapele sticker with all of the details I discuss in this episode. Become a supporter at: https://www.patreon.com/lumberupdate

Lots of breaking news in the Lumber world and it was time I dust off my teleprompter and read everything that is on it. News from Notre Dame, the Paris Aquatic Center, Carbon Fiber and Mass Timber, Key Bridge Tragedy, and lots of great feedback from y'all. Plus I fit a few questions in about drying end grain cookies, lumber jobs, and Aniegre.

Today we talk about American Hornbeam, why some trees are brittle, fast growing trees for lumber, IBAMA strike and the CITES impact, and a possible source for urban lumber.

Let's talk about grassroots sustainability and how giving back as users of wood can start with education and grow into all kinds of programs for and individual or your local woodworking guild or even sawmill business.

Iroko or African Teak is the featured species this month. Found all across tropical Africa, the Iroko tree is enormous producing wide and long boards. It is growing in popularity as an alternative to Teak due to its similar color. But Iroko is a great species all on its own for exterior and interior projects.

Wood strength is a loaded statement. There are so many factors in HOW we use a board that determine which properties we look to for strength. This quickly gets complex so today I will boil it down to a density number and dispel the myth that rate of growth (width of rings) has anything to do with the density.

The featured species this month is Yellow Birch, Betula alleghensis. Its the most common Birch species and used for a wide variety of applications from plywood, to furniture and pulp products.

Let's take a deep dive into the Pinus genus and for that matter the Pinus sub-genera and try to understand how Pines can appear and work so differently. I discuss the evolution of the genus and how the industry has grown around these hugely varied properties and geographic distributions. Big thanks to all the great questions I got for this show from all of you.

African Wenge is an odd species and I use it to illustrate the exceptions to the rules about technical properties. Its a popular species due to its dark color and its use as an alternative to Ebony. Also covered in this episode: faux figure, burnishing, and property changes due to growing conditions.

Trying to catch up on my email inbox in this episode and talking about Pine, log buying, bugs eating old wood, plywood movement, and Yakisugi (shou sugi bahn).

The featured species this month is American Elm (Ulmus americana) but I discuss the different types of Elm as lumber and where they can be found. Plus some questions about cultivars, Spruce, and ripping for quartersawn stock.

I welcome Alex and Casey from the Completely Arbortrary podcast on this episode and talk trees and Jack Pines and have fun with a little Treevia! Check out arbortarypod.com and subscribe to their show to learn more than you ever wanted to know about trees.

The featured species this month is Cypress and I wax philosophical about why I like it so much and cover the technical details. Also in this episode: the White Oak shortage, Processing logs by hand, Amaranth?, and table top splitting due to movement.

Today I talk about why the board foot unit of measure needs to be put to rest and how ordering by grade and board foot will only lead to disappointment. In short, how to buy lumber to get what you actually want.

This is kind of a review of episode 5 but ideally a bit more applied look at what all those number mean when it comes to actually working with wood. In this episode I look at what I find are the most important numbers to consider and the tests that give us these numbers.

In this episode I feature Koa and talk a bit about Honey Locust, Cherry veneer colors, and then the historical price of Cherry vs Pine.

In this episode I welcome Matt Farrell from Burl and Grain in Hillsboro, OR. They are a sawmill and lumber yard like many of my previous guests. But Matt has extensive experience in drying lumber and has been a consultant to many firms to improve drying operations. So we talk quite a bit about preparing your space for drying and how important the air drying step is if you want to then kiln dry.

Questions covered in this show: why is Walnut so thirsty? Sticker Stain? Air dried vs Kiln dried for violin bow making. I cover the featured species: American Black Walnut, my favorite species to work. Finally I spend some time talking about a few stories about gene editing.

My guest this week is a retail lumber yard in Concord, GA called The Wood Yard. These guys are woodworkers themselves and totally get top notch customer service. I had a great conversation about their business and how they are embracing urban logging as well as good old fashioned community outreach. www.thewoodyard.com

The featured species of the month is European Beech. I discuss all the things and tell stories about this lumber. I talk spalting your own lumber and borax bug treatments. Then a dive into kiln drying lumber and explain the irony that to dry lumber you need moisture.

The Emerald Ash Borer or EAB is devastating the Ash forests all across North America. I have Dr. Jeremy Slone of Bartlett Tree Experts as a guest to talk about this pest and what is happening to the Ash trees.

This episode of the podcast discusses board foot rulers, lumber margins, and plantation management. Ultimately who gets to buy what lumber is based heavily on the demand and where you buy the material in the supply chain.

Today I talk to Kris Burns from Harvest Lumber Co in Austin, TX. Harvest Lumber is getting logs from the city of Austin. They maintain a retail showroom and have a log pickup and sawing service. https://www.harvestlumberco.com/ or @harvestlumberco on Instagram I also feature this month's species: Paulownia, Kiri, or the Royal Princess Tree (depending on how fancy you feel)

For my 100th episode it seemed fitting to discuss the long and muddy road of a board. From a tree in a forest somewhere in the world to a rough logging road to sawmill to truck to maybe even a ship at sea. The number of hands that touch the board you hold in your hand may startle you. The sheer volume of time and labor sunk into a single board by the time you buy it makes you wonder why anyone would choose to sell lumber! I guess you just gotta love wood.

This time I discuss the featured species of the month: Black Cherry and then dive into the deep topic of wood in the aviation industry. My guest Alex LaFavre is a pilot and works in the aviation industry and he shares all the fun bits about how wood has been used in airplanes through the nearly 125 years since the Wright Brothers took flight on a mostly Spruce airplane. Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/lumberupdate. At the Walnut tier you will receive a collectible sticker about the featured species of the month! Collect them all and start now as this month is our first one.