Smith Woods "The Vault"

[Ken Smith]

I just got done moving some wood downstairs in case we have a huge flood which is possible if we get the maximum rain they are predicting, 1" per hour for a day or so at the height of the storm. I am hoping they are wrong about Hurricane 'Sandy'. We are only about 70 miles inland as the crow flies!

I had one stack of maple and walnut boards on the floor in an area that never gets wet. It was sitting next to one of the sump-pumps, one of five we have downstairs. This wood has been stacked there for about 10 years or so. I forgot already where it was stacked before. The walnut is figured Claro (25th woods), most boards about 22"w x 8-9'L or so. The Maple about the same or slightly bigger on some boards. All Tiger figure boards, slab cut across the tree so the outer 6-8" are tight straight grained high figure Tiger. I can't even remember the exact species the Log was from. We had dried it on sticks here for some time as I can see that we waxed the ends and then dead piled it to its current spot, off the sticks. Now, it's up off the floor up against a pile of Shedua that we use to make necks from.

Sometimes I move things around downstairs and find wood I barely remember but smile when I see it again. I worked up a bit of a sweat as I had to re-stack half of the Shedua to make room for the Maple beside it. The Walnut is up on the roller-feed table next to the big radial saw we use for cutting long stock before bringing it upstairs to process into neck and body woods as needed.. I dragged the walnut a few feet from pile up on to the rollers to get to the maple underneath it which I turned 90 degrees and dragged it over to the Shedua pile nest to it. The wood is all 5/4" thick on the cut so there is no way I was going to lift these boards my self. Usually it's a 2-man job to move and stack wood this size unless you are looking for a hernia.

So, when I run low on 5a Claro for Anniversary models, I know where it it!