A Visit to Artisan Lumber

A stunning slab of Bastogne Walnut. This is destined for a guitar maker.

I've found another candy store! I've mentioned a few times getting lumber from The Woodery in Lunenburg, MA. A reader asked if I was familiar with Artisan Lumber, also in Lunenburg. I wasn't, but I looked up their website and was immediately intrigued.

I got in touch with owner Brian Brown and arranged a visit. Amusingly, after Al Breed and Phil Lowe, this is the third person I've met in recent weeks who was featured on the new PBS woodworking show "Rough Cut", though I haven't yet seen those particular episodes.

Artisan Lumber is a boutique operation on an old farm lot, specializing in big slabs and full log sets. They use a large Wood-Mizer bandsaw mill to process mostly local logs. They stack and sticker most of the lumber for air drying, and there's also a small kiln on-site. This is what I had dreamed of doing back when I read Harvesting Urban Lumber, but I don't have the room.

They also do a lot of quartersawn lumber. That's what particularly interested me at the moment, because I've been looking for a source of thick quartersawn stock for making molding planes.

Another specialty is figured stock, relying on Brian's eye for figure hiding under the bark. There are jaw-dropping pieces all over the place, in the stacks and lined up along the walls of his garage and workshop. The one in the photo above is a particularly fine example.

These are premium pieces, commanding premium prices. For now, they're out of my league. However, Artisan has a range of woods, as well as odd pieces and logs that didn't turn out well enough. Brian says he's too much the thrifty Yankee to let anything go to waste, so he gave me good prices on several pieces that I can break down.

My take for the day: two thick slabs of hard maple (we had to cut one in half to fit in my van), approximately center cuts from two flatsawn log sets. The center cut is effectively quartersawn.

I'll process these into plane blanks. For those small sizes, I can work around the various defects and get the best grain orientation. They're also thick enough to resaw into thin plane bodies. So now it's time to finish building the Hyperkitten framesaw. Resawing this stuff will be some real work.

If this stock turns out well, I'll offer blanks for sale here. I see people looking for them online, and they're hard to find. I'll also pick up some other quartersawn species.

Here are a few pictures of what Sam Talarico calls "wood porn" in Brian's workshop. Brian ships via UPS or common carrier, so you can have some of this in your workshop! Whether you're a turner, instrument maker, cabinet maker, or furniture maker, get in touch with him and let him know what you're looking for and your price range; he has the experience as a woodworker to pick out what you need.

More guitar stock. A figured piece of curly maple from a guitar set, and a bookmatched solid guitar body.

A big beautiful figured maple slab.

A log set featuring some lovely figured crotch.

Another beautiful curly maple slab.

These photos show some of the stacks of stock available.

Some of the stock in the garage.

A stack of spalted maple.

More figured crotch.

Walnut crotch.

The lovely orange wood in the center is wide curly cherry. The narrow pieces on top aren't as valuable, so Brian gave me a good price on them.

Huge thick slabs.

Full walnut log sets.

Here are some logs ready for milling, and the bandsaw mill. Running it can be an adventure. They never know what they might hit. Brian showed me where some debris lodged in the wood had torn through his jacket. He said it's like sawing shrapnel.

A short walnut log ready for processing.

Another section with the bark stripped, and a few tools of the trade. This is a laborious process.

This magnificent log is veneer quality, on its way to a veneer mill in Germany. The muscular ripples in the sapwood hint at the figure hidden inside.

The bandsaw mill.

One of the things I love about a place like Artisan is their attitude toward the resource. Brian is passionate about the wood, and he loves to see what he can bring out in it.

RFC: What To Do With Green Apple Wood?

This is a Request For Comments. Your input is requested at the end!

Doe Orchards' old John Deere nestled in the rows.

This post by Kari Hultman put the bug in my ear about getting some apple wood. I had noticed a sign down the road at Doe Orchards in Harvard, MA, selling apple cuttings for firewood. I called them and left a message to see if they had any larger uncut wood for woodworking.

Larry Doe called me back to say they did have some bigger pieces, but it was all green. I told him that's fine, since I do green woodworking. I told him I'd stop by Saturday.

Looking at the weather report, Saturday's not going to be very nice. Today, however, is beautiful, so I used up a vacation day and headed over there, where Larry and Mark Dodd were clearing sections of red delicious and cortland trees.

Larry pointed me in the direction of the red delicious. He said the long stumps were still in the ground; he uses the leverage to pull out the root ball. Interestingly, he mentioned that growers were moving away from larger diameter apple trees such as these, so in 10 or 15 years it might not possible to find this wood.

The red delicious row, with a half dozen trees being cleared.

Loading up the van. A new definition for "Pick your own!"

These trees were all cut in December, so the wood is not totally green. I picked pieces that were 8-11" diameter, with the clearest sections I could find.

One load about ready. I limit it to one layer so I don't damage the suspension or get stuck. Each chunk is roughly 30 lbs. I still have snowshoes piled in the seats!

While I went home to unload, Larry and Mark loaded their trailer with the cortland wood. It was larger and clearer. The red delicious was much more gnarled.

Mark Dodd with the load of cortland.

I picked out the largest diameter, longest clear sections of cortland after they hauled it out of the field. I paid Larry for a load of firewood and headed home.

Stacked at home, cortland in front, red delicious with darker heartwood in back.

While we're at it, some cedar from the neighbor's house across the street. I think this was a shrub that got seriously overgrown.

Closeup of cortland, showing the fine end checking exhibited by all the pieces.

My lumberjack tools. I've split an 8'-long, 20"-diameter oak with these wedges and sledges (I'll have to post that video some time). The items at the lower left may not be familiar. From bottom, three birch gluts to hold open a split; a froe from Drew Langsner, a modern version of an ancient riving tool; and a hickory sapling club for driving the froe. The chainsaw is not really big enough for this kind of work. I also have a Shopsmith bandsaw in the basement.

For anyone contemplating using a chainsaw, first contemplate this OSHA diagram of chainsaw injury locations. Ouch! Yes, by all means, buy the safety gear and take a minute to put it on.

Now the question I have for you is, did I just buy a bunch of firewood, or did I get some good project wood?

Here we can use the power of the Internet to bring together two resources, this supply of apple wood, and the combined knowledge and experience of the people reading this.

If you've worked this kind of wood (either the apple or the cedar), I'm looking for suggestions on what to do and what not to do. Let me learn from your wisdom and your mistakes!

• What should I do to dress this wood? Should I split it with wedge and froe? How small? I can get it down to eighths easily. Should I flitch-cut it with the chainsaw, bandsaw, or handsaw on a sawbuck? I've done the latter with 8" birch after it sat in my garage for months; hard work, but not impossible.
• Should I work it as soon as possible, or let it season some more first?
• What about end coatings? 
• Should I debark it?
• Where and how should I store it, outside or basement? Stacked and stickered?
• What kind of projects would this wood be good for? Any particularly good uses for quartersawn (or quartersplit) stock? Can the apple be used for plane bodies if I sticker the splits for a few years?

Working this kind of wood is a bit of an art and mystery. It looks like it can be unpredictable with all the knots. I have books on green woodworking and green turning that mention apple, but not a lot of detail on using apple specifically.

Larry told me his neighbor had tried to make something out of a nice straight section that had been seasoning for a while, but not long after he cut it, it twisted all out of shape. So it still had a lot tension bound up in the fibers.

The other reality is that I don't have a lot of time available to work this wood if it turns out it needs to be used quickly. Worst case, if it becomes unusable, I can just burn it in the fireplace. But I'm hoping to do better than that.

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