Shopping for wood

A friend works for a local College with large tracts of land.  John is director of their forestry department.

Recently he hired a portable mill to cut trees that they are culling.

Great timing for the River skiff.

Beautiful wood, staked up neatly on a ridge line overlooking the Mississippi river.

18 foot lengths!

In our shop we had four 16 foot 1 x 12 cedar planks we cut down to 4.5 inch widths.  Then milled to 5/8ths of an inch thick.  These will form the bottom of the hull.

From John we purchased 10 Tulip Poplar boards and a couple of Ash boards as well.

The Poplar is about an inch and a quarter thick.

We will rip it into half inch strips and re-stack to dry.  This will be used to form the chines.
The ash will be used to make a set of oars, (the white ash breeze).

On my next visit he is going to show off an ancient barn that is apparently filled up to the rafters with dry wood.

On the list of wood that is cut or to be, is black oak, red oak, poplar, ash, basswood, hickory, walnut, cherry......