We looked a little bit at how the natural characteristics of Walnut impact a project in a previous post, but now we’re going to look a little more in depth at why, exactly, that species is graded so uniquely. Maybe you don’t even realize that Walnut is graded on a different scale than other North […]
Lumber
Evaluating Lumber Trends: What’s Wrong with Short Lumber?
What’s wrong with short lumber? First, the short answer: nothing. Now for the extended explanation. Within the U.S. lumber industry, a “short board” is anything shorter than 8 feet. Most of our stock of “short lumber,” here at J. Gibson McIlvain lumber company, is between 6 and 8 feet long, the majority between 7 and […]
Evaluating Lumber Trends: Is Bigger Always Better?
With lumber, is bigger always better? In brief, the answer to this question is “No, not always.” In the lumber industry, we’ve noticed a trend toward customers ordering longer, wider boards. Okay, that makes sense when we’re talking about using large timbers or wide decking. However, when we take the time to ask customers about […]
Evaluating Lumber Trends: Does Species Make a Difference?
Does wood species really make a difference? We’ll start, again, with the short answer: a resounding YES! We ended the previous post in this series on lumber trends by recommending that designers and architects keep the “undiscovered gold” of short boards in mind. Now, we’re going to take it a step further and discuss how […]
Thinking Outside the Box About Lumber Sizes, Part 3
We’ve already looked at two ways you can save money, help eliminate waste, and enjoy higher quality lumber: Purchase narrow or shorter boards. In both cases, you’re purchasing smaller boards for a lower price-per-board-foot. (There’s more to pricing than size, but that’s besides the point.) Depending on your job, the smaller size may not be […]
Thinking Outside the Box About Lumber Sizes, Part 2
What’s wrong with short lumber? What’s wrong with short people? Contrary to Randy Newman’s song from the 1970s, the answer is the same for both: Absolutely nothing. Here’s a fun fact that backs up that claim: The U.S. lumber market is really the only one that specifies lumber according to such a term. In America, […]
Thinking Outside the Box About Lumber Sizes, Part 1
Did you know that the U.S. lumber market tends to be a little different than the rest of the world? For one thing, we generally want completely perfect lumber and are unwilling to settle for anything less — for any application. For another thing, we’re big on size. Maybe too big. We’ve looked before at […]
How To Do Lacey Act Due Diligence
From its inception, we’ve known that The Lacey Act holds “everyone in the supply chain accountable for legal logging practices; from the lumberjack to the carpenter.” In the August 2011 situation with Gibson Guitars, the lumber industry received some clarification about exactly what “due care” or “due diligence” means. In March 2013, legislation by the […]
The Global Lumber Market: Unnecessary Shortages, Part 2
As the lumber industry has ridden the waves of a difficult national economy, price wars from offshore competition and emergence of new markets have definitely taken their toll (see Part 1). Additional forces such as competitive labor add to the dilemma, but some natural consequences and surprising new developments lead us to have hope for […]
The Global Lumber Market: Unnecessary Shortages, Part 1
Some people might (wrongly) assume that lumber shortages are always due to a low supply of standing trees due to past over-harvesting. Many species, such as African Mahogany and Poplar, have lacked enough supply to keep up with the global demand, simply due to a decline or full cessation of mills harvesting and sawing the […]