Millin', millin', millin'...

Some days milling lumber to size can be a real pain. Literally.

I take all this heavy wood and run it through my planer. And across my jointer. And through my table saw. Multiple times... It's pretty much back breaking work. And the faster I do it the sooner I get to enjoy that lovely glass of beer after all the machines are turned off for the day.

And then some days I'm working with a new wood and the new smells it creates in the shop remind me why I don't work in a cube anymore.

The North Carolina cypress I'm working today has a decidedly sour smell to it. Something funky happening in my shop today!

I admire the colors and patterns of the grain as I unlock those little secrets in each piece.

That makes it all worthwhile.

Soon what had been a pile of rough cypress that someone else would have bought to line their mushroom warehouse down the road becomes beautiful pieces of what will soon be a fine piece of furniture gracing someone's home.

All the cypress is milled and I carefully sticker it on a cart so it stays nice and straight.

Tomorrow I'll pull it out and start playing with the patterns in the grain as I arrange it for assembly.

Now on to selecting the top...

Last year one of my neighbors pulled into my driveway and asked if I wanted some Black Walnut from a tree he had had cut down and sent off to the sawmill. It had been laying around his place drying for a long time, but he needed to get rid of it.

So I went over to check it out what he had. Big beautiful boards with all their sapwood still attached. And the kicker? It was all air-dryed! Walnut's one of these funny woods that looses much of it's personality when it gets dryed in a kiln.

I mean it's still beautiful, but just more muted.

This wood on the other hand is going to jump up and say, "LOOK at me!"

I think I got me a top going now...