History Channel/Modern Marvels

[Mike Wilkins]

Any of you guys check out the History Channel last night. They had a segment entitled Lumber Yards. Went through the whole process of tree to finished lumber, mostly framing lumber. Had a section on engineered materials such as particleboard and laminated materials as well.
But what floored me was the segment on hardwoods, both domestic and the imports. 5 foot wide panels and an amazing material that was cut into veneers that I think was Bird's Eye Padauk. Some pricey stuff well beyond us mere mortals. Serious eye candy.

[Curt Harms]

it's sitting on my RePlay unit (like a TiVo) waiting for my viewing pleasure and archiving if warranted.

[Gary Curtis]

Back in the '70s when I published books and newspapers, we were told that the increased price of print paper was due solely to the Japanese. They could afford to pay more for any kind of tree because they had better knife technology.

Thus their tree-peeling machines could spin off a thinner ribbon of wood than anything in North America. Thus, more yield per tree. I don't believe they make engineered wood products over there. But they are massive consumers of plywood products.

The tree-processing machinery is a direct spinoff of their knives and swords, which we know to be the finest for centuries. There are less resources in the forest, but there are ways to better use what is available.

Gary Curtis

[john blanchard]

its on again saturday night, got my tivo set.

[Mike Deschler]

I caught this episode also last night. It really is worth watching if you have a chance to do so. A real interesting part was where they harvested logs out of peat bogs and these trees were thousands of years old. Fascinating stuff.

[Jamie Buxton]

While you're being astonished at 50,000-year-old Kauri being recovered from bogs in New Zealand, check out today's New York Times. It has an article about furniture built from petrified wood. This stuff is many millions of years old. Apparently this furniture has become stylish for people with way too much money.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Interesting! I missed it but I will have to tape it saturday.

[Charlie Plesums]

There is a show on logging that was just prior to the lumber yard show, both times I saw it on (both were good). Fortunately taped the last one... very late at night, so now I will have the chance to see the rest of it!

[John Gregory]

What time on Saturday Dec 3rd? I cannot find a listing for that date on their website

Thanks
John

[Dev Emch]

Got only one word for both shows.... YUMMEEEEE!

How about that 100 HP 6 or 8 inch wide head rig with the 42 inch wheels. They slice up 12x12 doug fir like its nothing.

I was out in the woods today scoping out some dead ponderosa trees for possible T&G board use. Came around a huge rock structure and BAMMM, there she was.... tucked into this cove in this massive rock structure where the seedling got lots of shelter and water and just the right amount of southern exposure. It was a fir or pinon type pine tree with a trunk about 5 feet in diameter at its base. You can slip your hand in between the wrinkles in the old bark. This tree is at least 300 years and could be as old as 900 to 1000 years. I cannot cut this one down but I sure did salivate for a while.

Would love to run this baby through one of those monster head rigs..... I could use it to timber frame a new wood shop.

As is, the fat ponderosa I found has been dead for a couple of years or more and is about 3 to 4 feet in diameter. Will not know the condition of the wood until I get it down. Who knows, it may be nothing more than fire wood. But then again, maybe not.

I have found a few of these large ponderosa snags lately, but the owners seem to have been smoking the same illegal substance. They want to keep these huge trees standing for the birds to sit in and for the woodpeckers to build their house in. Sometimes you just want to shake these folks! Come back next summer and haul them on a field trip..... a field trip to a wild fire containment base camp. Where they can live with no running water for a week or two at a time. Enjoy coffee that tastes worse than the old oil out of my truck. Eat double warmed over, rations loaded with lots of powdered eggs and then admire what their woodpecker condo looks like when several tons of dry kindling wood shoots a flame well over 150 feet into the air. Then shove a paulaski in their hands and yell at them to get to work!

[Joe Horne]

On the Internet Listings for The History Channel, they will be running Modern Marvels, Lumberyards, on Saturday December 10th, @ 6:00 p.m. Central. That is the only listing I see for the near future, unless I missed something?

[Vaughn McMillan]

Thanks Joe. I couldn't find it in the DirecTV listings, but with your tip, I've now got the TiVo set to grab it. (4:00 PM Pacific time December 10 on DirecTV channel 269, for all you DirecTV people out there.)

- Vaughn

[Larry James]

On the Internet Listings for The History Channel, they will be running Modern Marvels, Lumberyards, on Saturday December 10th, @ 6:00 p.m. Central. That is the only listing I see for the near future, unless I missed something?

Go to History Channel web site and you can subscribe to history channel TV listings via RSS (read what is RSS on History.com). Select your time zone first. The Lumberyard is on December 10, @ 7:00 PM Eastern.