I think every woodworker has at least some hoarding tendencies. But I tend to loan or gift away my old tools to family or friends (mostly so I have something functional on hand when they ask me to help with a project). And I freely distribute completed projects long before they clutter start to clutter up my living space. Neither do I hoard scraps, having but a single bin for useful longer boards and another box for smaller (mostly quartersawn) off-cuts, with the rest going in the fire. What I hoard, though, is uncommon boards. Whenever I’m at the lumber yard and I see a particularly tantalizing (which, for me, usually means “wide”) board , there is a good chance I’ll buy it.

For example, I’ve had for about two years now an eight foot long, 17 inch wide, 8/4 board of white ash, which I swear one day will become something. I also have four foot long, 6 inch wide, 16/4 slab of soft maple, which seems to have been cut diagonally along the length of the tree so both faces are entirely end grain like a miter (and, therefore, probably perfectly stable).

But my most prized board right now is probably the least flashy. A ten foot long, 17 inch wide, perfectly clear piece of 5/4 eastern white pine. Not a single knot in the 18 or whatever board feet this thing represents.

I have absolutely no idea when I purchased it, and I only just rediscovered it stashed behind a sheet of plywood in storage. In theory, you could get the entire carcase of a blanket chest out of the single board. But I already have a blanket chest, so there is nothing to do but let it sit until something else comes along.

There is a little bit of punk near the middle of the board (it may have been dropped on a rail or something at some point), and one end has a bit of wain, taking it down to a paltry 16 inches wide. But I could cut around those minor defects.

But it just goes to show: sometimes, the treasure was with you all along.

JPG