Forests

Forests should be thought of holistically. Not as just a group of trees but as a single holistic ecosystem. An intact healthy forest is a complex organization of trees, plants, fungi, insects, and microbes all cooperating to foster the growth and decay of woody biomass. In the process they are storing carbon, releasing oxygen, filtering and stabilizing the water supply, and providing habitat for the bulk of species on this planet. According to Peter Wohlbren in his book The Hidden Life of Trees, “There are more life forms in a handful of forest soil than there are people on the planet. A mere teaspoonful contains many miles of fungal filaments.” Then there are the countless plants, birds, and other animals that call the forest home.

Wood comes from these precious forests, so we honor it and do not waste it - even if that means spending additional time and money to use it wisely.

Wood made us human. We burnt it to cook food allowing our prehistoric bodies to access nutrients without hours of chewing. That gave us time to build shelters and tools out of wood. To this day, most our homes are still built from pine, spruce, or douglas fir lumber. Ash and Hickory are still the materials of choice for baseball bats and tool handles. White oak remains the wood of choice for boat builders.

Quartersawing vs Plain-sawing

They are many ways to saw a log into dimensional lumber. The most common is flat sawing, it is easiest and produces the greatest yield from the log, but plain-sawn boards are more prone to warping than quartersawn boards.

Quartersawing requires more work, and does produce a little more waste, but results in boards that are incredibly stable, with very little warping. See the drawings below taken from Christian Becksvoort’s book With the Grain: A Craftsman’s Guide to Understanding Wood for an illustration of the different sawing methods.