Where Does the Salvaged Lumber and Green Sourced Wood come from?

Today we have become aware that all things are finite, except love and eternity!  That includes the forests of the world.  I have 4 grandchildren and I want them to have the opportunity to experience our forests as I have ............ so .............. I think I’ll leave them the trees that make our forests beautiful.  I have discovered, that with a little effort, we can find plenty of wood that can be “resurrected” an other sources that can be purchased from sources that replant and manage their forests as stewards of the land and forests, not pillagers.

Why salvaged or recycled wood for doors?  Many of my doors are Old Growth Redwood that was logged on the Mendocino Coast over 100 years ago.  We all know what a durable wood Redwood is, so it’s no wonder that logs that we left on the forest floor are still viable and make wonderful lumber.  Many times the trees were fallen down a gulch that was too steep for oxen to retrieve the logs.  Other pieces of logs were left on the forest floor because they were just to big to get onto a wagon and they would not split (easily) into smaller pieces.

This is the end of one of my door boards.
you can clearly see that this tree was
fallen by an ax over a 90 years ago

These logs have been laying on the forest floor
for many decades, and still have beautiful lumber.

All of my “figured” (fancy) Douglas Fir came from one log that a friend found in a “cull” (reject) log deck left out in the woods to decay or cut up for firewood by the local.  It had rot running throughout the log, which is why it was put on the cull deck, however there was still hundreds of board feet of beautiful salvageable Douglas Fir.

Here is a 5 foot diameter Douglas Fir log that we salvaged
from the forest in Humboldt County

I do buy Mahogany and White Oak from a hardwoods dealer about 3 hours from my home in the Redwood Forest.  All of the Mahogany that I use is sustainably harvested by Green Lumber Companies and the White Oak is harvested and replanted in the same ecological minded manner.  But the most important fact is that I travel down to “the big city” when a lumber container comes in and I hand pick and choose every stick of lumber that I have used in everyone of my doors.  There is just no other way.

Is it straight enough?  Is it vertical grain?
Are there any knots?

we scrape the paint off the board ends to find
the vertical grain sawn lumber .... very few

............ and I only choose the best quality wood I  can find .......... and if it isn’t of the quality that I demand and my clients deserve ............ I’ll just walk away and hope for a better day.

One more note you should know, I only use vertical grain sawn lumber in my doors.  It is the most stable and least likely to warp, now or in the next 100 years.  Make sure your doors are not made with random sawn or engineered wood with a veneer fascia. 

 Quality still matters.

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