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Domestic Species Focus: Western Red Cedar Wood

Last updated on June 5, 2017 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

Tropical decking is definitely in vogue, but you know what? So is Western Red Cedar, a domestic species perfect for other exterior applications. While J. Gibson McIlvain Lumber focuses on multiple hardwood lumber species, we also carry a few exceptional softwood species, and Red Cedar is one of them.

Introducing Western Red Cedar

Why do people love Western Red Cedar? It’s inexpensive, insect and rot resistant, and in plentiful supply. From boards of many widths and thicknesses to large timbers, Western Red Cedar is perfect for interior flooring, outdoor decking, siding, ceilings, paneling, and more. The standard softwoods grading system allows you to specify cut, such as vertical grain. Many of our customers request clear vertical grain (CVG) Cedar in an attempt to ensure that they receive the highest quality boards; however, requesting Coastal Cedar may be an even more significant way to make sure you receive the best Western Red Cedar possible.

Inland Cedar

Coastal Cedar, or Western Red, grows in coastal areas of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia; Inland Cedar grows over a larger area, extending to the Western side of the Rocky Mountains. Because of the greater area across which Inland Cedar grows, that variant offers less consistency. Inland Cedar also includes more knots and a lighter color, making it perfect for applications that require such character. If you’re looking for clear lumber with plenty of knots, Inland Cedar is your best bet.

Due to a greater variation in climate from early to late growth, the appearance of stripes adds to the wood’s character. Those same seasonal shifts cause Inland Cedar trees to remain fairly small and branch more often, producing many knots. Products such as panels, flooring, decking, and ceilings can benefit from such knotty appearance. Using Pine nomenclature, Inland Cedar is often considered #3 and better in the category of STK, or select tight knot.

Coastal Cedar

Also known as Western Red, Coastal Cedar trees quickly grow to be quite large. Since these trees grow relatively few branches, they produce lumber with few knots. Very clear, wide boards, as well as large timbers, are the result. Due to the high amount of rainfall along the coast, Western Red’s coloring is darker and more consistent than that of Inland Cedar. Characterized as CVG, or clear vertical grain, Western Red Cedar is used commonly for indoor applications such as paneling, flooring, and structural timbers, and outdoor uses like siding and shingles.

It’s not as much that one is better than the other as much as the fact that depending on your application and preferences, one will be clearly the better fit. J. Gibson McIlvain carries top grade Inland Cedar and Coastal Cedar in a variety of sizes.

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J. Gibson McIlvain Company

Since 1798, when Hugh McIlvain established a lumber business near Philadelphia, the McIlvain family has been immersed in the premium import and domestic lumber industry. With its headquarters located just outside of Baltimore, the J. Gibson McIlvain Company (www.mcilvain.com) is one of the largest U.S. importers of exotic woods.

As an active supporter of sustainable lumber practices, the J. Gibson McIlvain Company has provided fine lumber for notable projects throughout the world, including the White House, Capitol building, Supreme Court, and the Smithsonian museums.

Contact a representative at J. Gibson McIlvain today by calling (800) 638-9100.

Domestic Species Focus: Walnut Wood

Last updated on June 5, 2017 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

Particularly with design trends relying on extreme colors — extreme lights and extreme darks — American Black Walnut is renewing its place as a favored domestic species. No other North American lumber species can boast the same chocolate-colored heartwood, and even exotic species lack the same unusual beauty that Walnut displays. Since before the United States was even a nation, its Walnut lumber has been exported to other shores, where its remarkable beauty has gained popularity for interior woodwork and furniture applications for centuries. While more plentiful back then, today’s Walnut is still highly prized, and for good reason.

Walnut Characteristics

The Black Walnut tree grows across much of North America in many of the same areas where Maple trees grow. The larger, heartier Maple trees are more aggressive, however, and they often starve out nearby Walnut trees. Since Walnut trees demand much light and struggle when subjected to wind, they can often be found surrounded by Maples or other aggressive species, causing them to remain on the shorter side (usually only 30-70 feet tall). Because of their smaller size, Walnuts typically have many branches, often causing the grain to become twisted. The sap layer can be quite large, and the color variation between the sapwood and heartwood can be extreme; for that reason, Walnut lumber is often steamed to reduce the amount of contrast. With oxidation and UV exposure, untreated Walnut typically lightens, blending with other species.

Walnut Grading

Walnut grading is a big issue these days. The grading systems in place simply aren’t effective in categorizing Walnut. You can read about exactly how different the standards for Walnut are, but the basic idea is that the shorter boards and greater number of “defects” are accounted for. While downgrading lumber can generally be considered negative, when it comes to Walnut it actually makes sense. Since the purpose of a grading system is to help buyers differentiate between levels of quality, having fewer levels with which to work would make the system less effective. Using traditional grading category specifications, the FAS category would be virtually pointless for Walnut. All things considered, we are able to offer above-grade boards; at the same time, those boards will be quite different than above-grade Cherry or Maple.

Walnut Applications

Walnut is in high demand for use in cabinetry, furniture, flooring, and other interior woodwork. Today, it even rivals Cherry for popularity. It’s easy on cutting edges yet machines easily due to its mid-range hardness; at the same time, it holds details well and finishes beautifully. Growing demand for Walnut within the boat-building industry requires value engineering, due to Walnut’s very different availability, compared with that of Teak.

Because many people still perceive the quality of Walnut to be low, its high price tag seems to cause frustration. Some, aghast that it can be more expensive than Genuine Mahogany, fail to realize the natural limitations that plague Black Walnut. J. Gibson McIlvain continues to source above-grade Walnut lumber, beautifully steamed to provide our customers with consistent coloring that’s as good as it gets!

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J. Gibson McIlvain Company

Contact a representative at J. Gibson McIlvain today by calling (800) 638-9100.

Domestic Species Focus: Douglas Fir Wood

Last updated on June 5, 2017 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

In addition to the many domestic and exotic hardwood species, tropical decking, and hardwood plywood which we carry, we also supply our customers with some select softwoods species, including Douglas Fir. Particularly for those customers who require timber framing and exposed beams, Douglas Fir has become a favorite species. As the popularity of such styles continues to soar, we expect our inventory for this premium domestic softwood species to keep pace with the market demand. Why are Douglas Fir timbers so ideal? Let’s take a look!

Douglas Fir Details

Like another domestic softwood species, Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir can be classified by whether it grows along the coast or along the Rocky Mountains. Unlike Western Red Cedar, though, one area seems to produce superior Douglas Fir. Because Coastal Douglas Fir trees grow to be much larger and produce more structural timbers, we carry only that variety.

Like many lumber species, the name “Douglas Fir” is a bit of a misnomer; it’s not a Fir, at all. The lumber is similar to Hemlocks, though, with cream-colored earlywood, red-brown latewood, and extremely straight grain. The overall effect of the different-colored lines is a generally warm, orange appearance. The distinct lines separate areas of varying hardness, causing some challenges to milling; as a result, tool edges need to be kept extremely sharp to prevent splintering and tear out.

While exposed beams and timber framing are popular uses for Douglas Fir, other applications include rustic-looking paneling and flooring as well as exterior siding.

Douglas Fir Inventory

At J. Gibson McIlvain Lumber, we always ensure top quality by purchasing our Douglas Fir directly from mills in western Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest; we then offer Douglas Fir lumber in both common construction sizes and structural timbers. Due to the growing demand for large timbers and the challenges of moving such large materials across the country, J. Gibson McIlvain maintains a sizable inventory of Douglas Fir on both the East Coast and the West Coast. That system allows us to deliver Douglas Fir structural timbers anywhere in the country, without extensive amounts of lead time.

We carry rough-sawn Douglas Fir lumber in your choice of kiln-dried or radio frequency kiln-dried forms. Our in-house millworks can manufacture any paneling, trim, or mouldings you require, and we can ship those items to your job site, along with any hardwood plywood and other lumber you may need.

Douglas Fir boards which we typically stock include the following common construction sizes: 4/4, 5/4, and 8/4 Rough 4”-12” (kiln dried, vertical grain); 1×4-1×12 (C and better S4S); 2×4-2×12 (C and better S4S); 1×4-1×12 (CVG S4S); 4” and 6” Tongue and Grooved Beaded edge. In addition, we keep an inventory of 4-3 x 4-12 structural timbers in #1 Appearance and Select Grades, Freed of Heart Center.

Learn More About the Wood Industry

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J. Gibson McIlvain Company

Contact a representative at J. Gibson McIlvain today by calling (800) 638-9100.

Domestic Species Focus: Cherry Wood

Last updated on June 5, 2017 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

With roots meandering as far back as the Colonial period of America’s history, the J. Gibson McIlvain Lumber enterprise can trace beginnings back to 1740, even before the American Revolution. Just in time for the urban sprawl of Philadelphia and westward expansion of our fledgling nation, Hugh McIlvain established a new lumber business on the banks of the Schuylkill River, perfectly positioned to accommodate the direction of growth.

Over the years McIlvain lumber would be used to build iconic buildings of our nation: our Capitol Building, the White House, the Supreme Court, and Smithsonian buildings all contain lumber from McIlvain-family-owned lumber companies. Since those early days of the McIlvain lumber dynasty, we’ve considered Cherry a marquee product of ours. In fact, we’re still working with some of the same local mills across the Ohio River Valley that we forged relationships with centuries ago, sourcing premium American Cherry to meet our current customers’ needs.

Cherry Sourcing

Cherry trees grow across much of the U.S., but we’ve noticed that the Appalachian region, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, produces the Cherry with the greatest degree of consistency in color and quality. As with the imported lumber species that we carry, we carefully source our domestic Cherry lumber from mills with which we have individually worked to ensure that we get consistently high quality lumber for our customers. Our attention to detail includes travel to each individual mill in order to regularly inspect the Cherry we order; we take special care to ensure optimal heartwood-to-sapwood ratios that our customers request. Because of the extensive network of mills with which we work, we’re able to offer you plenty of options when it comes to length, width, and thickness of Cherry boards.

Cherry Characteristics

With its subtle grain and warm coloring, Cherry is an ideal species for interior applications such as furniture, mouldings, doors, and windows. When properly dried, Cherry moves in predictable ways and can be easily worked — two characteristics that make it a treat for woodworkers everywhere. Rough-sawn Cherry is much lighter than many people realize. The rich, reddish brown color which many consider a “Cherry finish” is actually something caused by decades of chemical reactions, combined with dirt and finishing techniques. Even though giving your Cherry a “sun tan” can help its pinkish color to deepen into a brown, dyes and stains are often used to expedite the process. For restoration work, the process of matching antique woodwork can be a daunting one.

While Cherry remains one of our favorite products, today J. Gibson McIlvain carries more than domestic hardwoods; we also carry a variety of exotic hardwood species as well as hardwood plywood, including architectural plywood with Cherry veneers. By ordering all the lumber products you need from a single dealer, you can avoid extra shipping costs, saving you and your customers time and money.

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J. Gibson McIlvain Company

Contact a representative at J. Gibson McIlvain today by calling (800) 638-9100.

Domestic Species Focus: 3 Types of Maple

Last updated on May 23, 2017 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

Did you know that Maple is the North American lumber species with the most widespread growth range? This remarkable tree can be found in almost every region of our continent, and J. Gibson McIlvain keeps two of the most common species, Hard and Soft Maple, as a regular part of our inventory. We’ll take a look at some of the most significant characteristics of both those well-loved species as well as some common and creative applications for which they’re used.

Focus on Hard Maple

Other names for this hardwood species include Sugar Maple and Rock Maple. The Sugar Maple is the one that grows across the greatest area, and the lumber cut from it is used primarily for flooring and cabinetry, this species displays a blonde coloring ideal for many décor schemes and especially for modern Scandinavian and minimalist looks, as well as Industrial trends. With its fine pores and extremely tight grain, Hard Maple is unique in that its white-colored sapwood is nearly as sought-after as its blond heartwood.

Sugar Maple’s hardness, along with its high density, make it ideal for keeping hard, crisp edges for mouldings; at the same time, though, the species can be hard on cutting edges. Its stability makes it ideal for flooring, while its tight grain makes dye penetration difficult and varnish or lacquer preferred for finishing. Once polished, it displays a beautiful luster.

Focus on Soft Maple

Also known as Red Maple, the term “Soft Maple” is actually a bit of a misnomer. While this species is softer than Sugar Maple, it is not actually a softwood; in fact, it’s not much softer than Sugar Maple. While the heartwood of this species is darker than that of Sugar Maple, when combined with the reddish brown latewood, the lumber takes on a pinkish cast. The wandering grain lines of flat-sawn Red Maple offer a different look compared to Sugar Maple’s more rigid grain. While Red Maple has a more limited growing region, generally limited to the eastern seaboard of the U.S., it is still readily available and typically comes out less expensive than its harder counterpart. Easier on tools and yet able to hold details well, Red Maple finishes nicely.

Figured Maple

Both Sugar Maple and Red Maple can display special figured grain. Such effects are highly prized by certain types of woodworkers, particularly those who craft instruments and furniture. At the same time though, figured Maple is far-from-ideal for others, such as those who make flooring and kitchen cabinets; instead, those applications require consistent coloring and uniform grain. J. Gibson McIlvain keeps figured boards separate from the straight-grained variety so we can provide you with whatever kind of Maple suits your needs best.

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J. Gibson McIlvain Company

Contact a representative at J. Gibson McIlvain today by calling (800) 638-9100.