New Lumber Yard - Eutree.com

Saturday afternoon I took my neighbor and fellow woodworker John Stephens to visit a newly advertised lumber yard. This was the post I spotted on the Atlanta CraigsList:

Hardwood Lumber Sale
All lumber is Commercial Kiln Dried. All lumber is 4/4 unless noted. Minimum purchase $100, may offer package for all lumber in one stack.

Quarter Sawn Red Oak - 4 to 11 inch width and very clear, most will grade FAS - a portion has already been surfaced to 7/8ths. $2.50BF

Quarter Sawn White Oak - FAS Grade - $3.00BF - Some very large 6 and 8/4 sections perfect for bartop or judges paneling.

Black Walnut - 6 to 7 inch wide - $4.00 - some may be 8/4
Cherry - 1Common and FAS - 4 to 12 inches wide $2.75 to $3.75
Assorted Beech, Persimmon, various species also onsite and available.
Assorted Artisan Slabs and Hardwood Flooring also onsite and available.
All species are available already surfaced for a small charge.
We will be open to the public this saturday between 1 and 5. Our company is Eutree Lumber and can be viewed at www.Eutree.com

I thought the pricing looked very good and went to the website. As many of you know I'm a web geek, chronic recycler/restorer and something of a design freak - I thought both the web design and messaging were exceptional. Although many of the smaller lumber providers in the area have a similar method - buying trees downed by tree removal services for lumber - this was the first company that really extends the idea of using that as part of their marketing message (the web concept is that they don't "mine" forests, instead only preparing lumber made from hand-picked timber provided by tree removal services, in case the above doesn't make sense and you don't feel like going to the website).

I picked up John around 1:30ish and headed down to Mableton (that's on the west side of the perimeter right off of I285). As we drove, I realized that we would be going right past Hardwoods Inc (Eutree is on the same road heading south). There isn't a sign but an entryway on the Eastern side of the road - if you go you'll see huge trees stacked in the background with drying stacks on the North side and a couple of front-end loaders. I parked on the left next to this:

I'm not sure if you get the scale of that log - it's about 40 inches in diameter. I was greeted by one of the partners, (no longer with the company), who added us to tour he was giving to some other visitors. These are the warehouse shots:

Stacks of dried Red, White and QS Oak

Stacks of dried Cherry, Maple and Walnut

Wide Oak Boards

Slabs and Specialty Lumber

Those spalted maple slabs you see are from a 20+" wide log - it's also cut at 6/4 so you can see the thickness - what a beautiful table you'd get out of that one piece!

Really Beautiful Walnut

 So when you look at the photo above, you'll see some really beautiful walnut that hasn't been steamed to that muddy gray color - one of the main enticements for using a small specialty lumber yard like Eutree is to get your hands on something with some character. This walnut is really exceptional.

Couple of slab tables

 One of the partners is actually a woodworker - the advantage is that he knows what to look for in unusual timber and species.

Milled lumber air-drying, waiting for the kiln (man I need to get lose some weight! My friend John Stevens in on the left.)

More air-drying stacks

Founder (no longer there) shows the width of some QS boards

Slabs on a front-loader

The sawmill

Some of the largest Holly I've ever seen

To give you an idea of scale

Imagine what you can make from this Holly!

Eutree's newly built kiln

Two 6/4 Persimmon boards I purchased

Holly Log and 8/4 Spalted Maple Slab

Two Persimmon boards waiting to be added to my stacks

Before leaving I spied some really beautiful 6/4 persimmon - those went home with me along with a couple of gifts Joel offered me for a club raffle - a 6-8" diameter Holly log and an 6/4 spalted maple slab.

Overall I enjoyed my visit and tour of the yard quite a bit. I met two of the partners (One, no longer with the company, and Sims) and discussed at length what would interest area woodworkers the most in lumber. I stressed that unusual species that are atypical would be more marketable than those species that everyone in the area carries. Also thick cuts - their prices are already really good. They also expressed some interest in perhaps doing a presentation to the GWA class. The business is young, but that also makes them very flexible and I think they're off to a good start. If you're in the area you should definitely give them a try.

-- John