G.W. Green Urban Forester

07/29/2025

07/29/2025

Start and finish photos of a huge maple butcher block island countertop. 1-9/16 X 61 x 103", 55 strips of maple, 660 beech biscuits, 1-1/4 gallons of glue, 400 pounds. Anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Odd, I'm not feeling any stronger...

07/22/2025

Eleven years ago, Helen and Ted came to me wanting to look at some wood then wanted me to glue-up and sand panels for a piece they wanted to build. Ted had shop classes in high school, but Helen had no background in woodworking. Needless to say, they have come a long way. Helen does the design work and both do the construction. I love their visits and can't wait to see their latest project.

07/07/2022

Haven't had anything exciting to post for quite some time - until today... A client came this morning with a big load of logs to saw, mostly pine and spruce for framing a barn. In the mix were two mulberry logs from the same tree, as straight as mulberry logs come. The butt log was the nicest mulberry I've ever seen, standing tree or logs.

We saved the mulberry for last and that butt log is what I would call a veneer log, that is if mulberry was ever sliced into veneer. One perfect board after another. The client, a woodworker, was going to use this material for flooring in part of his barn. He changed his mind when he saw the resulting lumber. Sorry, it's not for sale.

I've been passionate about trees and wood for as long as I can remember. I enjoy taking a tree, milling it into lumber and making something beautiful.

05/19/2020

LESSON TIME... Quite often someone has checked everywhere for, say, 4/4" X 12" wide clear walnut boards with no sapwood. Nobody has them. Why? There are a few reasons:

This would take quite a large log - you cannot cut 12" wide sap-free boards from a 16" log. Then besides being big, the log has to be very high quality. Sure, you might get one or two boards like this from a lower grade log but to get a number of them you are likely cutting a veneer grade, or close to veneer grade log. So what? It makes no sense for a mill to saw a veneer grade log into boards because the log is worth more as a log than the finished lumber that would come from it. The sawmill would sell the log to a veneer mill and make real money from it.

So why don't I typically have these boards? Well, I buy yard trees that may be veneer grade but veneer mills are not keen on slicing logs that might contain metal so they typically don't buy yard tree logs. So I buy quality logs, possibly veneer grade, at a decent price and take a chance on ruining blades. But why don't I typically have these boards? If I have a log of this size and grade I will typically saw 6/4 or 8/4 boards as they are worth more per board foot.

I have a bit of a glut of thicker material so sawed this very nice log as well as a couple other very nice logs into 4/4 I'll have a number of wide clear boards available late summer or early fall. Come and get 'em!

03/09/2020

Latest to come out of my shop - A salvaged walnut log from a client's lawn turned into a table and bench gifted to his daughter. I'm normally not that fond of painted pieces but this combination is stunning!

12/15/2019

Quiz time: How many knots can be found on these four freshly sawn 6/4 walnut boards. Answer - zero. How many knots do you suppose are on the reverse sides? Answer - zero. What is the percentage of sapwood on these four boards? Answer - 0%.

I bought several yard tree walnut logs locally and felt like I probably paid too much. Wrong. Very high quality material with very nice color. About 1700 board feet are headed to the solar kiln and will be ready around May.

09/26/2019

Ever been to a nice restaurant where they have some kind 'a magic mirrors or special lighting in the restroom that make you look like a million bucks? I figure they do that to keep you coming back or to make you buy more drinks so you need to use the restroom frequently. Whatever...

A ballast in the florescent lighting in the far end of my shop went out a few months ago, then a few weeks ago the bulbs burned out right next to that. Seemed like it was taking a lot less time to sand projects to perfection. Last night the bulbs next to those burned out which were directly overhead. The project I was working on looked fantastic.

Today I replaced the ballast and the burned out bulbs. Then I threw all of the past few weeks' projects in the dumpster. Lesson - if its broke don't fix it,

09/20/2019

I've just returned from the International Wood Collectors Societies' 72 Annual Meeting in Shipshewana, IN. Worst part of the whole meet is that I was "asked" to be interviewed by Channel 16, WNDU, South Bend...

It's a passion for this group, with members traveling hundreds of miles just to get new samples.

09/01/2019

If you're into wood and live within about 1,000 miles of Shipshewana, IN you have to come to this auction!

04/08/2019

Coming in a few months... I bought several fencerow soft maple logs which I knew contained some ambrosia beetle "damage". When it comes to ambrosia figure a little is not great but when it's heavy it is spectacular. I sawed the best into 6/4 wide slabs that will likely come out of the kiln mid-summer.

03/19/2019

Any sawyer can cut through a nail hidden in a log, but just try to saw one lenghthwise right down the center like I did this afternoon. It took 19-1/2 years of practice, but I did it.