Celebrating Local Wood
Celebrating Local Lumber
As a group we deeply believe in the importance of creating a market for both locally harvested and processed lumber and a market for the valued added pieces made from that lumber.
The 2022 Woodworkers Show highlighted pieces made from local wood. Through partnership with Jefferson Land Trust and the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, the Splintergroup will be offering sustainably harvested Western Maple and Alder wood from trees at Valley View Forest in Chimacum.
Project Update
Felling
The trees were felled by Pavel McGlave on December 11, 2021
The logs were hauled to Cody Wayland's shop the same day. Cody is a sawyer and builder who also runs a dehumidification kiln.
Cody milled most of the logs. We let some those boards air dry for about eight weeks. Then about 1200 board feet, mostly maple and some of the alder, went in to the dehumidification kiln. The boards were ready at in late May 2022.
The base crotch of the Maple was sawn using an Alaskan Mill. Those boards and boards from the base logs of the Alder are being air-dried with the intention of the wood being available for the 2023 and 2024 shows.
Milling
Here are some images of the milling process at Cody Wayland's shop. The log shown here is the bottom log of the red alder. This tree was felled at the perfect time (from a woodworker's perspective). Alders, as they start to die, rot from the top down and the bottom up. The dark colouring on these boards shows that this tree was close to the end of it's life. This is a also the biggest and clearest grained alder that we collective have ever seen.
Kilning
Cody has a dehumidification kiln, think of this as a kinder, gentler form of kiln. The biggest value to us was that the wood was not transported to a commercial kiln and knowing that Cody would be regularly checking the wood. The alder came down to 12% moisture content in about 4 weeks the maple took an extra two weeks.
Picking up the wood
The wood has been delivered to our storage location in Port Townsend.
We have kept the wood in flitches so book matched boards were available.
We asked $6 per boardfoot for the wood. We restricted purchases to project size.
We will be making the air-dried wood available for future show when the moisture content is low enough,
Our one request is that you be punctual for your appointment. The site is both a working shop and farm where time is tightly managed.