This Is The End Grain Of All End Grains...

Red and White oak cabinetry by Hawkeye Carpentry.

I received an email from Longleaf Lumber today which I thought was pretty interesting. Longleaf is an antique and reclaimed lumber company who have operations in Cambridge, Massachusetts, New York City, New York, and Berwick, Maine. They collect their wares from all over the United States and if you visit their site, check out the "History and News" page. Some of the buildings listed that they have reclaimed lumber from recently are a major part of American history and it is nice to see these aged resources are not going to waste. Like all lumber yards, they carry pine, oak, chestnut and even some hemlock, but the difference between Longleaf and the usual mill is that Longleaf's lumber is all 100-years old or more. As we all know, nothing ages better than wood.

To promote themselves and increase the interest in reclaimed and salvaged wood, Longleaf has started a monthly competition called, "This Is The End Grain". Every month they will grab an interesting hunk of lumber from their stock, shoot a photo of its end grain and post it on their Facebook page. Everyone is invited to check it out and take a guess as to what type of species it is. The winner for the month is either the one person with the correct guess, or a randomly selected winner from a group of correct guesses. Each monthly winner will win something they call "reclaimed, wood and gorgeous". I would hazard a guess here and say that they mean the prize will be a good hunk of reclaimed lumber. That works for me, although I have trouble recognizing the difference between newly milled maple and ash, so I think my chances will be slim to none, but I'll give it a shot just for kicks.

If you want to check out December's photo, check out their Facebook page and give it a go, just bare in mind that you will be looking at the end grain of a really, really old piece of lumber. Calculating its species is gonna' be tricky. While you are there, if you think they are worthy, give them the ol' "Like".

Peace,

Mitchell

P.S.: I have never made a single purchase from Longleaf Lumber so I have no idea regarding their service or prices. There are three reasons why I am posting this article; 1) I think it would be cool to win a hunk of 100-year-old-plus wood so I wanted everyone to share in the chance to do so, 2) I support those who deal in reclaimed wood because I am a bit of an environmental junkie, and 3) from the few pieces of reclaimed lumber that I have worked with as well as others that I have seen, reclaimed rules simply because it is bloody gorgeous. I have not been offered anything for posting this, I haven't asked for anything for posting this and I wouldn't take anything for posting this if it was offered to me.