Whenever I dig through my wood stash each piece of wood triggers a memory where it came from. When I used to have a wood stove in my studio it was a walk down memory lane to make a fire. Remembering a grocery list is coin toss, but I can remember where a scrap of wood came from 30 years ago.
There is a story this photo tells. On the bottom is a 4 x 4 of Alaskan Yellow Cedar that sat out in Oregon Coast oceanfront weather for nearly 4 decades. One would take one look at it and think it was rotted through and through. But just beneath the grey lies perfectly sound wood.
I was rebuilding a deck on an oceanfront home that had been constructed by a lumber importer and his lovely wife. I never met him, but worked quite a bit with her over the years. All of the house framing, interior paneling, interior trim, and exterior trim and deck were constructed of Alaska Yellow Cedar. To look at the condition of the deck I just assumed it would all get hauled away, not even being suitable for firewood. But when you sawed into a beam or post just an inch or two from the end, golden chips came out the saw exhaust. I took the beams and posts to my studio and stashed them. And have probably moved them more times than I care to count.
The payoff is when I need a nice clear stable block to use on a piece, that grey useless looking wood turns into the golden block on sitting on top. Just look at how tight the grain is! Look at how little radius there is to it! This wood came from a really big old tree.
I’ll post a photo of the block after I paint it soon.