Working with 'Beetle Kill’ pine
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Does anyone have any experience working with beetle kill pine? I’m a bit of a locovore and I’d like to utilize as much native wood as possible. Here in Colorado I think that means Spruce, Fir, Aspen (then again, I’m very new to this world).
There is one local lumberyard that does seem to offer it, but I have yet to identify what kind of shape it is in. Most people in this area simply burn the stuff for firewood. Is it usable for woodworking?
I’m really in a pinch for wood here in Western Colorado. I can’t seem to find any local woodworking guilds, clubs or classes that can help me find a decent supplier of wood. I feel like my searches may be misguided, there has to be someone in this 100k person town selling decent wood but I can’t seem to find them. Does anyone have any suggestions for folks I could contact?
Nathan Wertman (Grand Junction, CO, USA, 81507)
“But ‘it will do’ is a very bad maxim, especially for a person learning a business; the right principle is to ask oneself, ‘is it as good as it can be made?’ or, at least, ‘is it as good as I can make it?’” - The Joiner and Cabinet Maker
Nathan, it really depends on how severe the damage is and how quickly they harvested the wood after the beetles killed the tree. When I lived out west they used beetle killed trees no problem but again it was the above factors that determined usuability. Try some boards out and see how it compares.
ps – check your pm
-Canada
Dave, you are an incredibly awesome person! I will definitely pay your generosity forward when I’m able to help out a beginner.
Regarding the Beetle Kill. What should I be looking for when I’m going over the boards? About the only lumber I’ve ever picked out was for my workbench and that hasn’t gone too well thus far (but I’m learning a ton by working through my mistakes).
Having lived out west, are there other species of wood that might be considered ‘local’ which are good for woodworking? I’m a bit of a loco-vore and I would prefer to be able to point out species in the wild I use to make products in my shop.
Nathan Wertman (Grand Junction, CO, USA, 81507)
“But ‘it will do’ is a very bad maxim, especially for a person learning a business; the right principle is to ask oneself, ‘is it as good as it can be made?’ or, at least, ‘is it as good as I can make it?’” - The Joiner and Cabinet Maker
If you can find it, Fir. It was only after I built mine out of 2×4 that I found a local supplier of Fir. Living out east is not as easy to find softwoods but my local timber yard has tons of hardwoods :).
To be honest, just find a home depot, lowes or some such big box store and buy 2×4 SPF. (stands for spruce, pine, fir), it makes good material for benches but it can be a bit difficult to plane. Its good practice tho.
Beetle kill, if its sawn timber it should be okay, the crap I saw was punky, almost rotten. If I recall correctly the silviculture guys said they had a year to harvest after the trees needles turned red, anything beyond that they piled it and torched it. Is been years since I worked out there so I might be “misremembering” 🙂
-Canada
I went with Paul’s suggestion and I am building my bench out of construction grade lumber. I found the best wood I could in a Home Depot in November and I had it sitting in my shop until February. The base is done, now I’m working on the top. In the few months, there has been quite a wind/cup/bow in the 2×12 boards I intended to use for my top. It is a Nicholson style bench from the Chris Schwarz book. I intend to rip the 2x12s down to 2” and laminate them together. This prevents me from having to buy new wood. It is more work, but it saves on the budget where it is currently very tight.
I was mainly asking about beetle kill because I’m looking for a lumber supplier/type to use when I start working through the Master Class projects. I’d like to use something local, and beetle kill seems to have an interesting appearance.
Thanks for your suggestions Dave, I appreciate the feedback.
Nathan Wertman (Grand Junction, CO, USA, 81507)
“But ‘it will do’ is a very bad maxim, especially for a person learning a business; the right principle is to ask oneself, ‘is it as good as it can be made?’ or, at least, ‘is it as good as I can make it?’” - The Joiner and Cabinet Maker
If you’re still looking for local wood then craigslist in the materials section is a decent place to find local people that mill their own timbers. I have no real lumber yards by me, but I do have a place that takes in trees that are cut down from tree services and mills and kiln dries them. Kind of a boutique sawyer, but maybe not quite that upscale. I like that it’s all local wood and would otherwise be wasted. There are even smaller outfits where a guy has a bandsaw mill and mills timbers for people, and I’m sure you can find one similar around you.
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