Timber today
Absolute shite most of the timber, especially in this country. So why is that? Let’s investigate…
I
Teak and Mahogany
Well, they make boats out of teak, why? It does not rot even in the water with its natural oils. Mahogany being very very hard you would not want a slap from a Mahogany cricket bat. So to speak! So why is it so expensive now and very rare? Someone obviously forgot to look after the forest. I googled it but google doesn’t know because it was gone long before Google came into existence. As a furniture maker, I love these woods. You make a door it will stay a door, not a banana door. Some of the teak going through the saw is a bit poisonous or something but I’m a carpenter I’m immune. Prefer that any day to MDF.
M.D.F
https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-health-risks-of-mdf.htm
Google knows all about medium density fiberboard, and here is one link of many of how bad it is for you. That is just having it in your house not cutting it with a saw. Easy to build with but absolute shite. This is not even timber and I do believe it’s the Devils work. Now I’ve gone through my fair share of it, especially veneered stuff. In fact, at one stage I was making burgers out of the dust and eating them. (Better than the wife’s sandwiches) I’m still alive but it has been a few years since I was using it so often. When I was it was disgusting. Drys your skin and really fecks your lungs. Mask and extraction unit, makes no odds this stuff is Evil!
Also, I note of late people spending 60 thousand or a lot more on lavish kitchens made primarily of MDF. Hand-painted and all they do look grand. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of them in five years after all the damp sinks in. Let alone what damage this stuff is doing just being around it. If this stuff absorbs water, it swells up like a sponge made off dust and glue. Never unswells, the structure of the dust has changed forever. I hate M.D.F Always did. Another scaringly serious article below.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1997/sep/21/antonybarnett.theobserve
Types of Timber
- Green
- Air dried
- Kiln Dried
Green timber is still wet and is not good for much, carpentry wise or for burning. Green oak is used a bit but know it is going to move and split when it drys.
Air dried is best and dry’s in the natural air and you’re talking a couple of years minimum, and that’s just for burning. To make furniture you then need to season it. There’s stuff in my workshop twenty years plus. Completely confident to use that and know it won’t shrink twist etc. However, I’m running out!!
Kiln dried is hot air pumped a
Good and Bad timber
Not talking about straight or warped timber here. There is approved timber and non approved. This is more about illegal logging and forests that are felled faster then they can grow. Now I hope your all intelligent enough to know the forest goes the
Good timber does not grow with ease, the stronger the wind the stronger the trees
Ok, I’m a” wood butcher” I hear you say. If it weren’t for wood butchers like me there would be plenty of forests. Early on in my career I thought the same and fitted out shops in veneered MDF and fitted load of kitchens in MDF hand painted and all. When in actual fact I was killing your kids and giving them asthma. It wasn’t me that cut all the forests it was globalisation, legal and illegal logging. The way of the world right? Wrong its the way of the human. Timber is one of the most used natural resources known to man since the woodage. Did you notice that too there was a never a wood age an ice age a stone age, shite we live in the information age and wot do we know? We fect the trees up.
End Grain
So I was taught for every ring you see that counts for a years growth. The tighter the grain is the stronger the timber is. New timber today is grown fast, leaving looser grain, weaker timber. How do they grow it so fast? Like the food, you eat it has been genetically modified! That’s end game, end grain! No point planting a forest of genetically modified shite in my opinion. Future of things are bleak nature-wise, but what can we do now?
Reclaimed Timber
Expensive but now you understand why? There is not much left. Meanwhile “dark furniture”, classic pieces made of hardwoods sells in the charity shop for much less than a tenner. Yet we order new SHITE from IKEA because its grey! (I vomit silently being careful not to choke) Reclaimed timber is the best because the tree was already cut down many many years ago, hence saving us cutting down a new tree. It’s better because trees where better back then. Did I mention it’s extremely seasoned 100 years on? If you go to somewhere like oak furniture land looking to buy a solid piece of furniture. You will find strips of oak laminated together to make a plank. Where if you go to a reclaim yard you can find 8″ 10″ wide planks of oak.
Why can’t oak furniture land use 8″ wide planks of oak? This is because its new GMO fast grew fast dried Shite and would twist if a plank was 8″ wide so they use 1″ strips. Kinda like an I-Beam, Ah shite now I go to do a paragraph on I beams. Before I do let me just say if I had all the money in the world apart from a bit of gold bullion because can’t really go wrong there. Not being a Ferrari type bloke I would buy all the reclaim timber and all the dark solid furniture out the charity shops and put it in a massive massive warehouse. With massive security and massive dogs and I’d be happy with that.
Will I make a bespoke table out of 100-year-old cherry and maple inlaid with vintage beech and walnut today? No, maybe I will build an entire house with an oak frame? Nah what about that Mahogany cricket bat…
Like I tell you what, if there was the apocalypse or zombie type scenario, you’ll be looting Tesco. Meanwhile, I will be moving into the nearest reclaim yard securing all the timber, burying it to prevent theft if needs be…
I beams
Lots of bits of plyboard glued together on edge, as strong structurally as steel and we are using a lot of steel in our builds of late. Wonder which has a bigger carbon footprint? Steel or genetically modified plywood. There is some very good engineered wood out there, I joist I beam and I’m all for it Although you can’t beat a massive solid oak purlin in your roof like that are in many old houses 200 years on. Goto be better than an I Beam or even worse Steel. The worse thing being is no one can afford an oak purlin because that’s the way of the world and they’re not a surplus that’s the scary thing.
Robert Marnock
Robert Marnock (1800–1889) was one of the outstanding English horticulturalists and garden designers of the 19th century. He was considered by his contemporaries to be the best exponent of the Gardenesque school of landscape gardening.
Responsible for Regents Park and many famous gardens including Warwick Castle. Lucky enough to have worked on the Knights Lodge there a couple of years ago in the middle of all these lovely trees and scenery. The tree you see above is the “cedar of Lebanon” At 210 years old it came down in January much to my dismay and killing four Peacocks that were roosting in the tree. Also, an old rare oak came down.
Matt Halford who is responsible for the 60-acre Gardens now and some 1000 trees must have been very upset. I had the pleasure of working with Matt such a Bonnie Gentleman. Who does not sware ever. With over one hundred carpenters and tradesmen on site. Things don’t always go to plan. The company’s foreman for the whole site who I was subbing to noticed Matt never swore.
So we tried to make him sware even asked him to in the end. “Go on Matt just say OH BLO##Y HELL you’ll feel better.” Nope, it just was not in him to sware an absolute Gent and does a great job of looking after that place. Some lovely Birds of Prey over there and is a great day out. Must stop swearing myself on that note especially on this Blog. Carpenters are renown for filthy mouths, must research why that is for another time.
Welsh Rugby
The Daffs were out on Saturday for a massive win over England. With Wales getting some historical hot weather this week. The sun shining on the only team left in the six nations who can win the Grand Slam. Ireland just scraping a bonus point against an ever-improving Italy. Sad day for English fans but it opens up the whole tournament. Now wales must be stopped. With two Celtic cousins to face the Scots at home in Murrayfield the fortress. Then the Irish on the eve of St Patrick himself in Cardiff. I think the Irish will snaffle it on the day and maybe the six nations if England doesn’t get too many bonus points. Exciting stuff if you like rugby of course. If any of the coaches want any advice please don’t hesitate to contact me…
Wishing you all well for the weekend
Thanks Mart