Buying Beautiful Wood

It is important for all woodworkers to be able to find beautiful wood for their projects. It can be a fun experience, a horrible pain in the back side, an impossibility or anything in between. In addition it is a costly affair in terms of your time. If you make your living making beautiful things out of wood then this is an important consideration for you.

Hardwood dealers that have beautiful wood one month may suffer dreadfully for nice wood two months later. A new dealer that you go to may appear to have nothing, yet if you were to stop back by in a couple weeks or months you may find beautiful wood. It is a lot like shooting the proverbial moving target, or catching Brer Rabbit on one of his better days.

I have found a couple places that have provided me with a lot of beautiful wood and I am providing links here for individuals who may be having a hard time finding wood locally. Or perhaps you live in the Mid Atlantic area then you can visit these places yourself.

• Northland Forest Products

This is a big operation, with facilities up and down the east coast. I deal with the the one a bit east of Charlottesville in Troy Virginia. They have two to four million board feet of domestic hardwoods on hand pretty much all of the time. They can and do ship wood all over the US. They will also accept small orders by phone. However they do not have a great deal of time to go through their wood in order to find you those two special pieces you are dreaming of. Manassas Virginia is their retail outlet where you will find Warren, he's the fellow who will take good care of you and your order. His phone number is (703) 393-7500

• Good Hope Hardwoods

Norman Hughes and Skip Kise run this operation out of southern Pennsylvania. Their specialty is finding those perfect boards for your project. They are happy to take phone orders, will ship any where in the US and stand behind their product. They buy all their own logs and personally supervise the cutting of each one to ensure it complies with the quality they demand. You will pay a little more for this wood but you will find it worth the money.

• Herbine Hardwoods

Rick Herbine runs this operation, cutting all his own logs with a beautiful bandsaw mill. Rick is also an exquisite furniture maker who has been juried into many of the most prestigious shows in the country, so he knows what to look for in hardwood lumber. I have bought quite a bit of English Walnut from Rick over the years along with the usual walnut, cherry and maple. Rick also has a lot of unusual varieties like Osage Orange, Apple and un-steamed Walnut. You can reach Rick at (703) 771-3067, or email him at herbine@lucketts.net, or you can now visit his web site by clicking on Herbine Hardwoods