Seminar Report: John Gray Of Stickley Furniture Manufacturing Co.

Those of you who didn't attend the April 8, 2000, seminar at the Barn, missed out on a wealth of information. The turnout was good, about 22 members. John Gray, who did the presentation at the April meeting, covered "Woods and Their Uses." He made some pretty interesting opening comments worth thinking about. One he emphasized with a visual example. He had a 1"x12" six-foot long piece of number two pine, which he said he paid $5.95 for at Home Depot. He said he always buys number 2 grade lumber for all his own projects. This board was your typical knotty pine lumber that I usually call shelving. He turned it around to show how he had marked out all the pieces he could "harvest" out of that board that would be clear. He then calculated that by doing that he had, in effect, bought clear pine, which goes for about $5 per board foot, for less than $1 per board foot. Makes sense, I'd say. By the way, Ken Lofink does the same, only better. He gets it for about 80 cents per board foot. The other comments he made were that he only buys air dried lumber. Kiln dried lumber is case hardened as a result of the drying process; therefore you have an artificially stressed lumber. Another pointer: he stacks all his lumber vertically. He feels if the lumber is going to twist, cup or bow he wants to have it happen before he puts it into a piece of furniture.

Other bits and pieces: shrinkage for flat sawn wood is 10 percent; for quarter sawn it's 5 percent. A board with pith will crack. Sapwood shrinkage is the highest. Quarter sawn wood will sweep. Flat sawn will bow. Both will cup. Bluestain on Pine is fungus. He grades wood by its cellular structure - ring porous and diffuse porous. Ring porous trees are Oak, Ash and Hickory. Diffuse porous trees are Basswood, Walnut, Butternut and Maple. He cautions that those working on exotic woods should use dust masks. American Beech is becoming extinct due to a disease that has attacked that species. All in all, I've only lightly touched upon his presentation. The general consensus of those attending was that the day was well spent. I know I left a lot out, so perhaps we can spend a few minutes during the May meeting either to clear up what I wrote or to mention those I items I failed to highlight.

- Gabe Jaen