Hard wood for sale local

Here is a link to a local operation, just outside of Valley Center, selling hard wood slabs.
Elderslie wood works

From what I saw on their web page should work for table tops maybe even larger. Appear to have a large inventory of Black Walnut.

Dean

1 Like

i haven’t been yet, i think i talked to the other woodshop user who works with osage, and that is where he gets it from. ive been in need of some walnut. thanks

Elderslie is great!
They air dry their wood as opposed to kiln like the wood that ends up at Intermountain so it retains a lot of the natural character.

I am trying to understand the difference between kiln and natural drying. What does the process of kiln drying vs open air drying have to do with the character of the wood? I understand that warping and checking/cracking might be different if you dry the wood too fast, and the moisture is not even.

If you have any specific examples I would love to be educated.

If you look around on the Internet you will find a fairly wide range of responses on this issue. The problem is there are so many variables. For instance, SLOW kiln drying may be better than FAST air drying. My experience, in general, is that typical air dried lumber is easier to work with hand tools and generally more stable than typical kiln dried lumber. I think this is because kiln drying usually implies HOT & FAST drying and airy drying usually implies COOL & SLOW drying. Here’s one summary on the advantages of air dried wood: http://www.fullchisel.com/blog/?p=393.

My theory has been that some of the cells in the wood do not die, but just go dormant when lumber is rapidly processed after being separated from the roots of the tree. So, kiln dried wood of the most common type of construction lumber will grow, twist, warp, bow unless you store it long enough for the cells to all die.

Almost certainly I am wrong about this, but I have seen some pretty impressive distortion in wood properly stored or used immediately where protected from ambient moisture extremes.

A friend of mine that carved full size horses from basswood went through a process that took close to two years minimum from when he received the wood to it being stickered, rotated, stable, planed and squared up, restacked, restickered, stabilized again before gluing up

Mike B