No surprise. There is a lot of beech in Ohio, not much birch. A big part of the cost of wood is transportation cost. There is also a lot less demand for beech, it's primary use seems to be for making fake maple furniture.
Beech is tight grained and has a reputation for being difficult to kiln dry without a lot of waste. A local sawyer will not even try to kiln dry it in thicknesses, over 4/4. Probably your supplier needs to dry it on a schedule that holds it at temperature longer, which will raise the cost.
Shellac would probably help too, but you've indicated that it would have to go through a long approval process, despite being approved in other food applications.
It comes in spurts. Sometime we see fine checking in a batch and know there will be trouble. We try to weed out the worst and pray for the best. We've got the kilning conditions, the weather and the trees themselves to deal with. What can you say...it's wood!
If you ever want to hear a good belly laugh, order a bunk or two of 6/4 beech FAS.
Fri, Feb 16, 2007, 3:43pm (EST+5) snipped-for-privacy@ohiobrush.com (Tom=A0Gardner) doth sayeth: I make wire brushes from KD Beech. It is a problem when we ship to California
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