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Saturday, November 5, 2011

U/V or not U/V?

I get many questions about preserving the look of a newly installed product. Just today I fielded an inquiry about how to seal up and enhance the looks of a fire escape I installed earlier this year. It was a bargain job, with Yellawood and a cedar railing system, but for the moment, it still looks sharp. The trick here, even with a relatively inexpensive product like treated lumber is to maximize the life of the product to ensure proper return on the investment.

Ask your carpenter the right questions before it's too late.

I’ve been out of the deck “building” game since the days of CCA. I built that escape pretty much because it needed to be built. I didn’t make any money on that thing, but I don’t want the owner feeling like the money hasn’t been properly spent either, so I consulted someone who knew quite a bit more about the subject than I.

I went to Sherwin Williams. There’s a fellow over at my local store that I worked with in college for a time. He’s spent eighteen years since selling paint and protectants, and I’m pretty sure he knows what he’s talking about. My inquiry, in this case, was to the effectiveness of the products he offered to bring some color to that treated lumber and simultaneously protect the integrity of the wood. He went over the basics, such as using an oil-based application with some tint. Even a little tint is better than an untinted application in terms of durability of the coating, because it assists in blocking the damaging rays of the sun.

Yeah, sun…I’m calling you out. Sure, you heat the earth and provide it all possibilities necessary for life, but you’re also messing up these decks. So, please invest in a bit of tint if you’re worried about keeping the decking looking as much as it does as installation as possible. Trading off a little darkening initially can best preserve the coloration of your hardwoods, if this is the look that is desired.

Others want the natural coloration some of our hardwoods provide through the natural weathering process. Our customers who elect to naturally weather their hardwood installations aren’t making a bad choice at all, though there will be a little loss of the effective life of the deck. If we’re talking about a thirty year product, giving up a year or so of life isn’t that big a deal when weighed against the increased maintenance of keeping the product more deeply colored.

End sealer is non-negotiable in my book. If you want to greatly increase the chances of splitting on the ends of a highly unacceptable volume of product, feel free to skip the process. Sealing the end cuts with a wax or polymer sealant is the number one measure an owner can do to maximize the effective life of the product. To invest the amount of time and money of our exotic hardwoods while skipping the end sealing process is folly. It's inconvenient and time-consuming, but it's essential.

In any event, it’s always about the weather. I owe this blog an update on the effects of various meteorological conditions just as soon as I can figure out something useful and a little coherent on the matter. Any input from customers who don’t live in Kansas is greatly appreciated. (Not to discriminate against my wonderful fellow Kansans, it’s just that we already share a healthy bond of the wild variations in our beloved continental steppe.)

There are sealants of all types heading this way as we speak. I’ve just ordered a quart of Messmer’s UV+ to get started. I’m rounding up all kinds of products our customers have used through the years, and I’m going to put these finishes to an accelerated acid test starting this winter. I don’t know how much artificial wear of the likes I’ll be providing will enlighten me to the durability of these finishes, but there needs to be a starting point, and this is one of the winter projects for Specialty Lumber Solutions. We’re getting to the bottom of this. At least as a representative of what can happen in Kansas winters when a guy chains up several sticks of wood to the back of his truck and drives around 40 acres…the cattle are gone now, and that pond might as well do somebody some good.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Warps: Causes and Solutions

We had a customer inquiry today about warping, and I thought I would place some response here. This article by Eugene Wengert and Dan Meyer from the University of Wisconsin is the most succinct summary of the prevention and remediation of warp I’ve been able to locate.

My response to the customer follows:

I'd like some clarification about your product. You say the decking has warping. An unusable warp represents significant deflection across both the x- and y-axes looking at a crosscut of endgrain. (product has a twist to entire length of stock)

Crooks, which I think are what you might be referring to here, are deflection across just the long presentation axis (where clips are inserted) of your surface boards. A bow would be remedied simply by installing the boards, I would think. I've never seen cupping be a serious issue with our stock.

Ipe is as solid as any organic building material you'll find, fire rated the same as steel or concrete. But with any organic product there are bound to be some imperfections from time to time. The sawyer won't always get it just right at the mill, so when the stock dries there is always the possibility of an issue. What is the volume of product that is twisted and unusable from your order? If you could take some pictures of these boards, that would be very useful to us.

I just finished replacing a fire escape with treated lumber, and I wouldn't use that stuff on anything that was my own. The owner selected that product due to monetary constraints, and within four or five years it is going to show. That contemporary treated product simply hasn't been given an acid test against midwestern weather yet, in my opinion. Yellawood, and other products like it, are going to be a decent selection for anyone who doesn't mind redecking every decade or so...or who doesn't mind annual maintenance of the product.

There was plenty of bowing of that material (and even a bit of bowed/crooked warping--I think I returned a couple of deck boards out of about 25...) We recommend to our customers to account for 8% waste in placing their order, so that the worst of the stock can simply be set aside for use in smaller cut runs. Bowing/crooking of any material longer than 8' is fairly common, and at 1" over 14', I would think most of the stock of that nature could be used. It's not always handy, but I've never built a deck that was particularly fun. Then again, I'm getting too old to be fooling around on many more decks.

Please give me a ring if you would like to further discuss this issue. Bugs won't be a problem with that species. The oils and genetic makeup of Ipe naturally provide all the protection against decay a person would need against the elements. Rot should occur under only the most exceptional of circumstances, and would require a little bit of creativity and bad planning to accelerate the process. The wood, once installed, is rock solid.


We at Specialty Lumber Solutions encourage our customers to order about 8% of waste above their order for a couple of reasons: 1) Every twelve deck boards or so, the worst board (usually still very high quality) is set aside for shorts and fill ins down the road; and 2) It’s a small buffer for minor underestimations of the takeoff. I’m guilty of this myself. On my last project, I was sent to the lumberyard after my initial delivery because of the unexpected and due to my own error. That 8% won’t always get your back, but it would have saved mine in this instance.

I’ve had pretty good luck getting rid of moderate crook with a couple of guys armed with chisels. It’s not particularly fun, but it is effective.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Relative Humidity, Part I

Some time back, we had a customer make an inquiry to the effects of very low humidity coupled with extreme variances in temperature. I told Charles I would look into the thing, and possibly come up with a few conclusions about the topic. It turns out the effects of humidity and temperature variation on organic building supplies is a little more complicated than I’d initially thought, especially considering the wide variances among different wood species.


Kansans and Muscovites can look forward to this in about six months.



Further complicating a relatively simple inquiry is the fact that climactic variations throughout North America are extremely large. Virtually every condition in which man resides can be found somewhere in the United States. A blanket explanation or a simple chart is therefore impractical when considering the specific climactic occurrences one could encounter throughout the country.

The best thing a homeowner, contractor, or design specialist can do to ensure the maximum utility of their wood decking and siding products is to properly acclimate the wood to its new environment. I’ve written a little about this before. It is occasionally difficult for the contractor to exercise patience at this point of the process, as most of our orders are of a very time-sensitive nature. Skipping this important step in the process will only degrade the quality of the finish installation.

The science behind the nature of wood acclimation over time still fascinates me, however. It is impossible to predict exactly how any particular species will perform on site without first knowing the moisture content of the species at the point of installation, the length of time the acclimation process occurs on site, and the relative humidity and temperature variations of the installation climate. I’ll begin with some fundamental knowledge here, which is required for any further scientific explanation of this common and accepted variation in organic building supplies.

Simply put, relative humidity takes into account the pressure, temperature, and amount of water vapor present in the air to determine a uniform, temperature-neutral measure of the current air makeup. Relative humidity provides a little better measure of what’s actually going on as it relates to current weather conditions. I don’t know how much stock to put into the explanation found here, as I am not a scientist. I’m pretty sure that atoms bounce around at different rates depending on how warm they are. I leave further explanation of the phenomenon to the experts.

What’s important to the contractor and end-user is the net effect on the finished product. Checking is pretty common in dense timbers such as Ipe, where moisture within the timbers attempts to equalize with the moisture norms of its new environment over time. I don’t have a whole lot to say about other climates around North America. My experience in one of the most extreme climates in the world tells me that if it’s good enough for Kansas City, it’s probably going to be good enough for your location as well, so long as a few precautions are taken to value the overall appearance of the installation.

After doing some very basic research with the almanac, about the only other place on earth I can find with such a similarly severe continental steppe climate is that of Moscow. So, I’ll make the broad brushstroke here that woods such as Ipe, Cumaru, and Massaranduba would very likely take the pounding just about anywhere. No other places where people substantially congregate on earth experience the oppressive humidity, extreme hot and cold, and subsequent dryness associated with harsh winter with the steppe climate seen in Kansas City and Moscow. Five or six days a year, however, it is quite nice here. Probably most urban Russians could make a similar claim. Today is not one of those days. It is very likely to reach 105 degrees Fahrenheit here today with something meteorologists call a heat index in the neighborhood of 120 degrees. That means it’s pretty damned humid. So, if I’m still alive tomorrow, I’ll follow up on section II of this series. We’ll explore in greater detail just what to do about phenomenon such as today.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Minnesota: Closed for Government

I wish I could explain Minnesota politics, but I cannot. There is a hell of a history in the land of 10,000 lakes. Professional wrestlers, comedians, and representatives with quite aggressive foster parenting histories adorn the history of politic in the state.

Well, they’ve outdone themselves and shut down their operations, but at least they hired someone to make a sign explaining the government shutdown, purportedly with government dollars. Will the Feds be next? I hadn’t heard of a debt deal yet today..

An article in this week’s Economist covers the Minnesota debacle much more clearly than I can.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Geithner's Swan Song?

This is pretty dated, but I happen to be a few news cycles behind. Such is summer. I’m going to leap to the assumption that while sleeping, the Federal administrators of the United States have still failed to reach any sort of compromise to the debt ceiling, which could cause the country to default by August 2. This is pretty old news, and I shouldn’t have to be issuing anything about the subject, but the continuing inability of our two parties to find anything to do but blame each other for our nation’s ills is becoming more than a little alarming.

"So, The Federal Government and the People's Republic of China walk into a bar..."

One poor guy caught up in the middle of this mess is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. This incumbent was previously the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Under his watch, Mr. Geithner reduced the amount of operating capital required to operate lending institutions. This is at least somewhat important to note, because in the same breath he is the man who helped orchestrate the structured bailouts of the volatile institutions of many Wall Street firms just three years ago.

He’s undoubtedly a man of many talents, but one thing that has been apparently lacking is a clear vision of future course from our current Treasury Secretary. It would be nice to hear a concise indication of direction concerning our nation’s currently unmanageable debt obligations. Without question he has the ability to kick the problem down the road. The question currently facing our nation is whether we have the stomach to make any meaningful progress toward an active resolution of an unsustainable situation.

Again, this is over a week old, but the Wall Street Journal published Damian Paletta’s review of future candidates for the Treasury post, should Mr. Geithner leave it following some so-called resolution of our current issues. Roger Altman, Erskine Bowles, Bill Daley, Jack Law, and Janet Yellen receive brief capsules of their individual qualifications. Hopefully, communication will be a strong suit of the potential successor.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Israel, Palestinian Reforestration, and You

The Jewish National Fund is always going to be controversial. Their stated goal is to acquire and hold land for Jewish development in Palestine. Their first land purchase in Ottoman Palestine in 1903 predates by more than four decades the successful establishment of Jewish Israel after the Second World War. The JNF has been instrumental in the continuing political and economic operation of the Jewish state.


Free shipping, and $5 to the JNF. Mr. Linden is their American Spokesman.

Politics and history notwithstanding, I’m quite interested in the JNF’s active tree-planting operations. Many of the reforestation projects have come under some fire due to the incorporation of some non-native species. Additional claims of logistical military strategic plantings of these areas have been levied. Taking the politics completely out of this analysis is next to impossible, but I don’t much care WHY the JNF is planting trees where they are. I want to look at the ecological and economic effects of the program over time.

Bedouin overgrazing has been an issue in these arid lands for some time. Additional population additions to the area over time have compounded the strain on the resources of an already stressed area. Many of the JNF’s tree-planting programs have turned around once barren wastelands into sustainable forest locations. Cypress is heavily planted in Israel by the JNF.

The reforestation of pines carries an economic benefit for the JNF and the people of Israel over time. Turning non-productive lands into productive ones is always a sound economic model. Say what you want about the politic or intention of the issue at hand, the landowner is the landowner. I’ve seen many landowners do much worse with productive lands…

It has been estimated that the JNF, all holdings calculated, owns up to 13% of land in Palestine. So the West Bank issues still on the table for discussion are nothing new here. Sometimes forgotten or unknown are the years of capitalization and holdings growth that took place in the decades leading up to WWII. Much of the paperwork was already in place for that transaction.


Hal gets down and dirty with reforestation.


The JNF has been active in reservoir building, parkland establishment, and something in the neighborhood of 240 million trees have been planted, and over a quarter-million acres of land have been developed. They build roads. They build infrastructure. This is an essential piece to understand the current- and long-standing conflicts over the interests at work in any peace negotiations to even be conceivable. The overthrow of Israeli law could lead to massive disputes over property rights. And a hell of a lot more fighting.

Recent political turmoil for the JNF focused on the leasing operations to non-Jewish leaseholders, such as the Bedouins mentioned above. In Israel, like in the US, internal domestic debates over policy and practice eat up a lot of legislative time. Thus much continued discussion for another time.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Post-Bubble Hangover

Once in a while, a person has to wonder about the learning processes of Americans. A massive bailout of our banking system was necessitated almost three years ago by the inability of our biggest (and smallest) banks to properly regulate their own activities. Lending practices over the decade leading up to our housing meltdown could do nothing but lead to a market bubble. Home “ownership” rates were at an all-time high, and the corresponding failures of those being foreclosed upon now is a simple market correction of the banks’ collective inability to make accurate risk analyses.

An obese housing market slims down by wearing smaller pants.

The Weekend Journal had a good write-up by Nick Timiraos and Maurice Tamman about big banks’ response to being saved by the American taxpayer. After letting lending standards slide so far toward loose money, the banks, it seems, are overcorrecting a bit now. The tightening of the current money supply helps to indemnify lenders against future error, but the multiplier effect of funds available to lend and stimulate economic growth are now tied up in possibly overcautious rates of credit denial.

Today’s lending market is more heavily reliant on borrowers with ample cash, which creates kind of a vicious cycle here. Those who don’t need to borrow money have ample means and historically low interest rates with which to attain credit, while those people and areas that need credit the worst are now unable to acquire it.

If the banks were “too big to fail” three or four years ago, they are every bit as big or bigger today. Furthermore, their books are still polluted with toxic assets—a number of properties stagnated in limbo between foreclosure and renewed marketability. The banks can’t release all the foreclosures they should back to the market at one setting, or the entire pricing structure would become devalued. Every bank would be stuck with piles of worthless paper.

So now it appears our banks, and perhaps our housing market, are “too big to succeed.” Fun stuff, knee-jerk pendulum politics...

Monday, June 6, 2011

Goodbye, Holocene?

The cover story of last week’s Economist suggests we may have seen the last of the Holocene. (The most recent geological epoch) It’s a little concerning to be among those actively participating in this transition. The article suggests that 90% of all plant activity in the world is reliant in some way upon people. The advances to worldwide food production have pretty much forced the issue upon our earth. It’s just not possible to expect the world to remain a similar place supporting ten times its population of three centuries ago.

Can the Robocene be far behind?

That responsible forestry has become a more acceptable practice worldwide is encouraging. Since we are already pretty much in the middle of an “Anthropocene Era,” we should do our best to not cause some sort of mass extinction, I suppose. Population swells will have to be managed with the available resources.

Meanwhile, people are certainly living longer. So the strains on the system increase incrementally with each generation, even if there were an effective zero population growth. This has been established already in much of Western Europe, but not so elsewhere in the world. China is already questioning its one-child policy as it is experiencing its most remarkable economic growth period in its modern history.

Again, we’ll see if we make responsible decisions home and abroad. International mandates have certainly become more common, and rogue nations are experiencing just a little bit of difficulty worldwide…in case anyone hadn’t noticed quite yet. Now we can root for a simple little epoch change instead of the end/beginning of a new era.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

The May Jobs Report

Still struggling a bit in the USA, it appears. The latest jobless numbers came out last week, and the consensus was fairly gloomy. Oh, well. This article by Justin Lahart in the Weekend Journal kicks this ball around in the dirt a bit. China is quite predictably selling off their short-term US Treasury holdings, and the Dow has ticked backwards for five consecutive weeks.

It appears we have room for improvement, eh? The housing market, for better or worse, is a crucial indicator of our nations’ economic strength. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve got quite a way to go here. The final tally still isn’t even racked up on the total number of homes underwater. Part of the reason is that the banks left holding the paper aren’t in the position to absorb all the losses at this time. Furthermore, immediate liquidation of all delinquent properties isn’t possible—the devaluation of those currently making their payments would make virtually every home in the country unaffordable.

So we’re stuck for a bit. There is some good news, however. From May’s jobs report, Educational services, health care and social assistance, and mining and logging were sectors showing a net positive overall growth from January 2008 through May 2011. So…someone out there is still harvesting some trees. Construction still hasn’t made a complete recovery, but there are signs of this trend leveling out, and possibly rebounding pretty well in the next couple of years.

There is definitely development going on—it’s just a little more selective, and one hopes quite a bit better thought out than the practices of the first decade of this century. We will see. I remain optimistic. Growing pains are inevitable when an entire generation hadn’t seen a substantial letdown in economic growth. The measure of our character will be demonstrated, I suppose, in the nations’ response over the coming years. I’m cheering for consumer confidence!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Balata Balls: A Golf Flashback

I was informed earlier today by Charles that we were playing in a golf tourney next Friday. If I could hit the ball at all right now, that would be one thing. Unfortunately, there’s much work to be done…So I hit the links.

A member's snapshot of the BGA the morning of the Open Championship.

The local golf course in my town is the Baldwin Golf Association, a nine-hole, 2833-yard sand greens remnant of the 1950s. Someone playing immediately before me left a treasure-trove of circa-1990 golf balls sprayed around the first hole of the club. (It’s a local custom to fire as many balls possible strewn randomly across the course, so that someone else can pick them up.) I was a well above-average player in 1990. Today, I don’t bother even handicapping myself. But the discovery of this golf-ball time machine took me back a bit.

One of my all-time favorite golf balls was the Titlist Tour 90 compression. It had a balata cover, offering the best feel one could accomplish for players who can work the ball a bit. I used to be one of those players, but I haven’t committed the time recently to make that happen again quite yet.

The balata cover used in the manufacture of these and many other popular balls of the era was derived from the sap of the Massaranduba (Manilkara bidentata) tree. These balls haven’t been made in quite some time, due to the more recent advances in Surlyn and other synthetic covers.

The diversity and wide range of uses for many tropical hardwoods is astounding. Medicines, latex, and many other raw materials are derived from responsibly harvested forests.

The earliest golf clubs were often produced with Hickory shafts. Persimmon was the wood of choice, back when they were making "wood" clubs. They were stiff, yet flexible. It was the best-suited shafting material for these earliest tools. With the industrial revolution came the advent of more predictable metals, and the consistency and mass-production capabilities of steel would later be supplanted with titanium- and graphite-alloyed creations.

None of this is very interesting if one can’t even properly strike the ball. I have a little work to do.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Proper Acclimation: A Necessity

Too often in the contracting field, unnecessary and easily avoidable errors are made due to deadlines and impatience. I’ve been a culprit of this myself. Needing to have a job done by date X, corners are occasionally cut, and it almost always shows.

When a commitment is made to a high-end decking material such as Ipe, Cumaru, or Tigerwood, it’s essential to remember that with the solid durability and resilience of these species come a few concessions. The most important allowance any contractor or homeowner can make to assure the highest quality installation is proper acclimation of the building materials.

If I were contracting an exterior siding or decking job, I would certainly allow the delivered wood to be sorted, spaced, and stacked with adequate spacing to assure proper air-drying for all four surfaces of the material. Cover it, forget about it for a week or two. Catch up on some other projects. It’s so easy to get anxious for delivery of the stock and immediately start pounding through the inventory to finish the contract. Sooner than later, this oversight will show up.

It doesn’t always necessarily happen. But I wouldn’t want to assume the risk of anything but the highest-quality installation. If the homeowner/project manager is already investing several dollars per square foot for a high-end material, the project should likely be budgeted to allow for this crucial acclimation of the lumber. Especially in the instance of finish boards, risers, skirt boards, and other applications which require direct fastening and/or plugging, having as close to a fully acclimated lumber member will prevent splitting from shrinkage or swelling of the stock when it has not yet fully adapted to the local climate.

Less splitting, a truer feel of the finish presentation of the product, and a happier customer are what can be gained by simply exercising just a bit of prudence, and sometimes allowing a job a week or two allowance providing the stock, the builder, the architect, and the homeowner a proper chance at the highest-quality overall installation.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Angelium: Infrequently Asked Questions

Charles mentions to me the other day, “when you’re doing one of your blogs, you might want to do something on Asswood.” Naturally, I’m now looking into such a fine sounding product. First step, a Google search: “Asswood red angelium” No results. Hmmm. Second search: “ass wood red angelium” The results bring back some guy whose blog title is “Old Man Eats S**t.” So, we’re getting closer. But nothing in The Wood Database, or a number of other directories I’d checked out pertaining to the offensive odor.

In an informal survey, four out of five Santa Monica carnival workers preferred Asswood over Greenheart.

Third Google attempt: “red angelium” provides a number of porn links on the first page. So, I’m starting to think this is a put-on. But one of the links appears to be a legitimate building product touting the use of French Oak and Red Angelium. This is progress…

Charles was talking with a client who had come across a great deal on some angelium. The price was great, but the client brought up the fact that he couldn’t stand to work the stuff because of the highly offensive stench. “Yeah,” Charles tells the guy, “we used to call that red angelium ‘asswood.’ It stinks!” So, I guess we have two votes against. I’ve never been around the stuff…I think I’ll take their words. We don’t offer the stuff, because we don’t like fielding complaints about the stink of wood.

But nothing truly valuable has come of this search. At this writing, it is simply CC telling me that he has smelled the red angelium, and it is quite unpleasant. I’ve heard others say the same thing about Spanish Cedar, but I’ve worked it and found it no more objectionable than Ipe…but I’m biased…horribly allergic to the Ipe. Another tale for another day…

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Brazil's First World Play

Evidence is mounting that Brazil’s days as a second-tier world player are numbered. In addition to sporting South America’s most robust economy, the wealth is also spreading now within the country’s poorest areas.

I will provide an additional bit of update when I have time…

Friday, May 20, 2011

Responsible Forestry Via Digital Imaging

There’s a stunning set of images associated with a great article by Michael Lemonick in the May Issue of National Geographic. This image produced from the Society’s website does absolutely no justice to the quality of the content in the magazine, but I guess that’s why we subscribe?


The use of technology to map the carbon emissions in forests is vital to rainforest survival. Images can be provided in real time to assess the current conditions in many underdeveloped areas straight from space. The imagery in the magazine was provided courtesy of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, Carnegie Institution for Science. I’d say they’re holding up their end of the bargain with this one.

Incentives for carbon storage in the canopy are suggested as an economic carrot to prospective slash and burners. If it somehow becomes beneficial for corporations and individuals to protect their renewable resources, everyone benefits.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about the lumber industry. If the trees are gone, you see…we have no product. But…we have the ability to create more product. That’s exactly what’s been happening, especially over the last twenty years or so of much more advanced and increasingly responsible forestry.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

My Introduction to Padauk

I visit frequently with my dad. When we visit, and he’s about to brace me for something about to cost me money (buying his old cars, etc.), he introduces the proposition with: “Okay. Here’s the deal.” I don’t have any position in the world to complain about this arrangement, and I’ve become quite used to it. I’m scared to death of the next “deal”, because I’m getting to a place in life to have a great many more upcoming “deals.”

A Burmese, or Andaman Padauk. (Pterocarpus dalbergloides) With a little work, a guitar or two.

That being said, I had an inquiry today about the availability of Padauk. We don’t list the product in our price listings, but it is among a great many specialty items like greenheart, teak, and many others we are able to acquire. But here’s the deal:

It’s available by the bunk. The arrangement is such because furniture manufacturers shop in such a manner for that lumber. Rough widths, rough lengths. Random. That’s just how that “deal” goes. So…if you have any interest in about 300 board feet or so of Padauk, I can sure look into it for you.

The African Padauk (Pterocarpus soyanxii) is most widely available here to US woodworkers. The padauks and rosewoods are pretty similar woods in appearance, but the padauks generally have a coarser texture. Eric Meier's Wood Database has much more on the specifics and workability of Padauk, along with many, many other specialty species. It's a great resource.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Postpaid Freight

I use the United States Postal Service quite a bit. Probably 90% of the financial transactions I conduct are reliant on this service. Recently, the USPS announced a $2.2 billion loss for the first quarter of the year. Not good. This Weekend Journal’s primary editorial calls it like they see it—the bailout is coming.

A photographic representation of the currently negotiated USPS labor deal.

The questions Americans should be asking are obvious—Why can’t we treat the Post Office more like a private company? For starters, despite the failures of pension structure and wage scaling within their newly negotiated contracts, the system works. I say this only based on my experiences of sending and receiving mail. Very low failure rate there.

We ship our parcels generally through other service providers. Most packages are samples received from our suppliers and provided to our clients. The main reason we elect these services are the much lower associated costs with using FedEx or UPS. USPS isn’t set up quite the same. My rural carrier, for instance, drives around in a compact Subaru wagon. Not much pickup and dropoff capabilities in that thing, but there generally isn’t much need for it.

I’m not sure we have a good idea how much any bailouts are even going to cost anymore. This is some bickering over semantics, but WSJ is wondering in a roundabout way the same thing. All the while, the Federal Government is effectively out of money, and the trickle down eventually hits everyone. There are too many currently working in government positions and fulfilling government contracts, and one weak link in the system affects many far down the line.

If the United States gets serious about itself in the coming decade, we will be fine. The uncontrolled public-sector spending and unfunded private mandates will have to be reigned in soon. James Freeman’s Weekend Interview with Stanley Druckenmiller inspects this issue’s ramifications. The question, as always, is: Will we ever learn?

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Canada, China, People, Oil, and Trees

Resource management will be a crucial factor guiding the success or failure of independent nations, and of the whole world in the coming decades. For starters, there are too many people running around this rock. We are able to feed what we’ve got right now…kind of…but one wonders how localized events could shape policy decisions among the world’s policy makers. And how long is our system sustainable?

Recent developments in Canada have the locals all fired up.

Healthy economies need growth. Growth presumes additional human and raw resources to fuel the system. Recent Chinese census results have policymakers across the Pacific wondering about the nations’ long-standing one-child policy. In China, like everywhere else in the world, the aging population needs eventual care, and when the demography shifts disproportionally away from the working age population…

Population density in China is already pretty high. China is still a fairly massive land, but many of its territories simply aren’t the most hospitable for human population. I won’t get into any sort of “Free Tibet” argument here—Every map I’ve seen printed for a very long time contains this patch of Himalaya within Chinese jurisdiction. The point here is that even though it’s a massive amount of territory, much of it remains to this day completely undeveloped.

So where will the Chinese, and other developing nations to obtain their raw materials and building supplies if their resources become tapped? Over this century, the strain on worldwide resources will necessarily become an increasing topic of international mandate and policy. Nations will remain autonomous, I’m sure, but who is currently well positioned?

I look North. Canada’s Provincial Governments are taking steps toward management of timber and oil reserves across its massive boreal forest. The oil is important, to be sure, but the responsible management of the timber reserves is at least as great a long-term international concern. At a moment in time where the Canadian Dollar is swapping close to straight-up with the US Dollar, we need to start asking ourselves about our own positioning for the decades to come.

Furthermore, liberal governance in Canada has been pushed aside for the moment at the Federal level. We will see over the coming months and years just what they might have in mind, and if it has anything to do with autonomy of local government.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

America's Persistent Debt Issue

It’s more than a little disconcerting that the United States Government seems indifferent toward a practical and workable solution to our current public debt situation. Perhaps the timetable isn’t what the public would like, but it is what The Market is now commanding.


This pic was taken during one of Mr. Heston's meditations with The Market. The tablets, translated loosely, read: "Pay down your debts, Charlton."

Somewhere a long way from here, where it is blazingly torrid and parched, a man is staggering dazedly down a mountain slope. He’s been hit with a meteorite. The Market’s message to that guy was probably to do something about the debt issue, and to bring a GPS with him when he’s wandering around in strange lands…

There was a good editorial in the May 23 issue of Forbes by David Malpass. I hope you have better luck with the link than I am having. Their site, much like their magazine, has been wildly inconsistent for me. Here, at least, is a semi-serious starting point of conversation regarding the tipping point of the nation. I agree with Mr. Malpass—we’re not there yet—but it could happen with continued disregard of some rather serious issues.

One is the debt to GDP issue. If the damned Forbes link above would work, you could read about it. Or...If you have the misfortune of being a subscriber, you have probably already read it. I haven't even cracked my Weekend Journal yet, and this is the treatment... Figures range generally from 79-90% debt to GDP as a point of very serious concern, and it appears the United States is diligently stomping its way into the mid-eighties within a few years. The US appears to be well-positioned to handle such nonsense with a bit of responsible management. Japan has demonstrated it is possible through sound asset management. We’ll see if this happens at home.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Durability v. Cost: Ipe, Cumaru, Jatoba & Etc.

We received an inquiry this week in regards to comparative strengths and weaknesses among some of the products we sell. All hail Wikipedia! In short order, their "Janka Hardness Test" page was the best comparative chart I could find with easily accessible information on this topic.

A pretty nice Tigerwood deck. I've always had issues with the stair treatment here, but I've certainly done worse...

There are probably a number of silly things to be found on Wikipedia. My hope is that common sense will prevail for the moment, and prevent me from making embarrassing corrections to this post in the future. We will see. I imagine it’s pretty close, based on my personal experience.

A client called me a couple months ago, and asked about installing some ipe shiplap with a nail gun. It could just be me, but I’ve never been equipped with the required tool to get the job done properly. I would expect it would be a type of contraption that pre-drills a hole in your material with a laser followed up with one hell of a stiff fastener. If the US Patent Office wasn’t a couple of years behind, I might pursue something like that…

Another fellow asks about gluing ipe joints. “Get the stuff wet, and find the best marine epoxy you can find,” I believe is what I said. I say this because I’ve been that guy--you've seen him before!--gently, and with great difficulty, prying the poorly glued (via high-quality water-based glue, mind you) corner joints apart, and trying a different product. I know quite a bit more about what doesn’t work than what works.

Many of the imported species below face challenges when gluing in outdoor applications. The oil content and density of these species adds much durability and life to the product, especially when it’s not coerced to do things it doesn’t prefer to do. (Re: dry-glued with water-based wood glues!)

We’re able to get a number of the species listed on Wikipedia’s Hardness Test Page: (All average measures detailed on the site, measured in pounds-force)

Ipe (Brazilian Walnut): 4500
Massaranduba (Brazilian Redwood): 3190
Cumaru (Brazilian Teak, sometimes Brazilian Chestnut): 3540
Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry): 2350
Purpleheart: 1860
Caribbean Heart Pine: 1280
No Cypress listing that I see.

Lots of trade names mean virtually the same thing for similar species of wood. Once some of these species are cut down and milled, identification between subspecies can get to the point of nitpicking, so we’ll try to stick with the generality of the above comparison for a start. I’ll look into this a bit further. This is the type of thing that would make a good comparative chart. Many suppliers have pricing available on the webs, and we try to keep our listings as up to date as possible.

Hopefully, I'll have a little time to follow up on this soon.

Friday, May 13, 2011

End Cuts, Sealants, and Finishes

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve now been asked twice about the most effective method of sealing end grain of ipe. There is considerable discussion in online forums regarding this matter, and I have to admit I cannot yet make an authoritative decision regarding this matter. That will change soon. Hopefully by the end of the month I will have some sort of start.

My initial hypothesis is that Anchor Seal, when properly installed, will be the equal to other sealers available on the market. I have no factual basis—just a lot of what I’ve already heard among those in the industry. I’d like to see how it measures up against the two-part epoxies, and some of the synthetics. There are A TON of products out there for this type of application.

Same with stains and finish sealants. This testing business could end up being pretty expensive. Just running some basic numbers through my head, the investment of wood, finishes, and sealants will exceed $1000 just to get started with a reasonable sample. And this will be just to see how quickly I can destroy the product…

I’d been planning on a study of various types of lumber available for exterior application. The first question I’d been asked was in reference to the finish application of the product. Again, there is a lot of disagreement among installers. Each individual has their own experiences with various products, and I’ll be conducting a survey quite soon from contractors throughout the country. If I can get them to respond to the survey…

See, here’s the thing about finishes…You generally get what you pay for. Last spring and fall, I was painting a wooden fence on the family farm. It needed it. Looked terrible. I scraped the hell out of the thing, repaired various splitting boards and such, and used a water-based primer on the stuff. This was done out of expedience, not because I’m clever.

I’m not clever. That thing looks like hell already, because a section of it blew over, and I got pissed I hadn’t sealed the thing in a proper oil-base before winter hit. And it was a hell of a winter here. So I get to not only rebuild the fence this year, I will also have the pleasure of painting it for a second consecutive year. I just ran out of time…

It looks to me that a separate test for end grain sealing and surface finishing should be performed. Here in Kansas, the weather is about as severe toward hot and cold extremes as anyplace I’ve looked up besides maybe Moscow. So, by exposing some sections to one coat, some to two, and some to three, we’ll be able to see some weathered results over time. The one coat application around here will be a tremendous failure, I’m sure. It will be interesting to see how quickly the samples deteriorate.

Maybe I’ll throw a sprinkler on them this summer when it gets up around 110F. Two or three times a day. This will be fun. I’ll admit right now I don’t know enough about this subject, but I’m looking forward to learning a little something new.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Infrastructure, The World Cup, and Brasil

This week, The Economist has an interesting article on the progress of infrastructure development in Brazil. There have been numerous delays in the construction of several of the stadia to be used in the upcoming World Cup 2014 Competition.


Pele celebrating an occupancy permit for the 2014 World Cup in Manaus.

Brazil probably isn’t fundamentally different than a whole lot of other places inasmuch as once government gets too greatly involved, processes can grind down to unacceptable speeds. The whole of the country is very much on the clock right now, and there have already been concessions that venues may have to be changed due to the readiness of the facilities in which they were scheduled to be played.

These concessions don’t even address the problems potential visitors are facing once they arrive for the matches in Brazil. The Economist reports a somewhat woeful inadequacy in the nations’ current ability to effectively navigate its own infrastructure. Many needed airport upgrades are yet needed. (At 3.29 million square miles, Brazil's area is larger than the contiguous 48 states) Efficiency in transportation is logistically necessary because the sites are spread out all over this vast land.

Massive government spending is assured in Brazil in the coming years, and for the moment, their economy is relatively robust. By the end of this decade, chances are Brazil will be much closer to a mature world economy than one that is emerging.

And in the end, I’ll bet FIFA ends up playing a whole lot of futebol in a few years. And I’ll bet the Brazilians will throw a hell of a party, even if a contest or two turns into a pelada.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Wood Identification and Attribution

The diversity of wood is a continuing appeal as a design feature in construction. For form, durability, and function, there are few products available that provide the flexibility of lumber and wood products. Modern polymers, plastics, and even concrete and steel offer relative strengths and weaknesses architects, designers, and builders must weigh to maximize the utility of each design element.

After looking around a bit, I ran into a fantastic site by Eric Meier called The Wood Database. I think it’s great. There is a good mix of scanned images of various species and their relative strengths and weaknesses. I refer to this site often these days. I was looking for a database for some time combining each of these aspects of woodworking and design.

He’s got periodic updates via articles and recent additions to the database. This Wood Database has proved to be quite helpful to me to gain a greater understanding of the variations between species in the lumber market. Here are some samples of his work on Lignum Vitae, Purpleheart, and Spanish Cedar. Lots of differently named lumber products are actually quite similar, and may be effectively identical products, depending on the site specs and demands to be made of the building materials.

Mr. Meier provides information about strength, shrinkage of tested materials, source of origin, scientific name, etc. etc. etc. I can’t say enough about the value of this resource if you wish to gain a good fundamental understanding of these diverse building materials. I can spend hours on this site. This won't interest everyone, but The Wood Database does a very good job concentrating a tremendous amount of information.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Underemployment, Continued...

This is something of a continuation of the previous post. The latest United States unemployment numbers came out last week, and the news is mixed. An editorial in the Weekend Wall Street Journal provides a brief analysis of the figures’ current relevance.

Some good news, some bad. There are individual sector reports which are promising, and just looking around the landscape here in Kansas, things seem to be picking up a bit. I’m noticing some filling of commercial vacancies, and there seems to be a little less reluctance to get something up and going around here.

In the end, we will see. I remain hopeful that Americans will innovate and eventually excel, despite some of the current systemic barriers. This doesn’t seem to affect the upper-end markets at first glance, but there is indeed some trickle-down effect in economic activities. Hopefully, increased capital investment in new ventures will continue to spur a little growth in North America.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Ignoring Underemployment in America

Occasionally, it appears the United States is not committed to a full economic recovery.  Perhaps there are elements within our nation’s makeup that preclude its occasion.  There are a number of systemic barriers which prevent the US from taking advantage of its entire workforce.  The current unemployment figures, for instance, indicate that we’re doing better on this front.  Employment figures are derived from government sources, typically.  Also, unemployment figures do not reflect those out of work that have simply stopped looking for a job.  America is becoming a world leader in dropouts.

Furthermore, these are somewhat lagging indicators.  This is kind of a chicken versus egg issue to me.  An argument could be made either way, but intuitively, an employer needs to generate business before taking on additional labor.

The opposite can play out, to be sure.  A firm could elect to drive revenues from newly employed sources.  This takes capital investment.  So again, we’re in a circle here.  I’m a very big fan of “The Economist.”  It’s quite British, but there seems to be a greater ability to agree to disagree over issues of relevance across the pond.  It’s the best periodical available for reasoned and practical analysis of world issues.  As the world becomes increasingly interconnected (and at more rapid speeds), this magazine is essential to me in harnessing a greater understanding of the world around us.

I’ve said for a long time that consumer confidence was the only real microeconomic indicator that meant much of anything to me.  I still believe it is the number one collective factor driving consumer purchasing decisions.  Lack of confidence virtually always brings with it quite dire consequences to practical business and social activities.  When a society operates out of fear, there are limiting effects on the progression of society as a whole.

This forum is not meant at all to be a social rant, and I don’t have the answers to much of anything, but there is a fantastic read in the latest Economist in part about America’s relentlessness in incarcerating young black men.  It’s pretty hard for a society to operate in a highly efficient manner when the society spends an immense amount of resources cordoning off a large segment of the general population.

Immigration haters are entirely missing the point on this one.  We have done very little as a country over the past 30 years to address the educational quality and underemployment of our current citizens, and the socio-economic reasons that fuel this vortex.  We simply sweep the problem under the rug.  Government can regain trust and consumer confidence by operating at a very low level of functionality these days.  If a governmental agency can simply demonstrate the ability to do something right, they will get something of a nod of reward from its people.

When the bar has been lowered to the point where communities take a great measure of pride in the size and quality of its jail, perhaps the focus is a little skewed.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

A Day Without Gribbles...

It’s a little more challenging than I’d expected to find decent and widely available and accepted standards for measuring the effectiveness of wood products.  It is relatively easy to find specific information on a subject, such as how individual species perform against each other in controlled metrics.  A comprehensive view is more difficult, due to the wide arrays of properties demonstrated by lumber opposed to other building materials, such as concrete and steel. 

Mathematical strength ratings are much more easily achieved with steel, for instance, because there is a highly predictable and consistent cellular nature of the raw materials.  Wood grows in the ground.  Funny things happen in the forest.  Branches, though they seem to follow a more specific fractal nature than previously believed, sometimes arrive in unexpected places.

The samples of specific studies can expose localized weakness in selection materials, different studies necessarily have different moisture content—in short, the number of variables found in organic materials selected from vast geographic locations makes any study’s reliability a statement of the study itself.

I didn’t start the day thinking about gribbles.

I hope I can sleep tonight without man-sized gribbles taking me on…Good thing to live in a stone house, occasionally.  These gribbles and their buddies the shipworms appear to give marine pilings serious structural issues.  TRADA (TimberResearch and Development Association) is an UK outfit that considers matters such as dumping various underused species of wood in some harsh salt water, having the sea do some kick-started sandblasting on the samples, and seeing what might happen.  The British, and some Americans, (don't buy into the plastic decking in that article.  That is a non-biodegradable problem of its own creation) have been concerned with the overexploitation of Ekki and Greenheart,  and are pursuing the consideration of a number of species for future commercial and common use.

Better managed and more responsible forestry is the counter to the rush for plastic building materials.  Emerging markets aside, the world will be required to manage its resources responsibly.  The market, over time, will see to this. 

Pretty interesting results in this nine page download by John Williams PhD, for TRADA Technology found: here.   Tali and Garapa held their own.  For those concerned with specific methodology of the study, the TRADA download is available here:   It’s an 160 page programme.