Chat with an old timer at the lumber yard changed my whole approach to hardwood selection

I was at Anderson's Lumber in Portland last Saturday grabbing some cherry for a side table I'm building. An older guy named Bill saw me feeling a board and said "you're picking for color but you should be picking for grain orientation on the face frame." He showed me how a quarter-sawn piece would stay flat way longer than the flat-sawn stuff I usually grab for doors. It hit different because I've been doing this 8 years and never once thought about how the growth rings sit inside the wood. Has anyone else had a random stranger at the lumber yard give you advice that actually stuck?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_nancy7d ago

That's the kind of advice you remember forever.

hall.quinn6d agoMost Upvoted

And @the_nancy, I still tell people the same thing about just showing up and it worked out way better than I expected.