Just got my first bit of Beech the other day. A friend was throwing away some old aluminum webbed lawn chairs that had become too dilapidated to use. They had some wooden arm rests, so I salvaged those off the chair before tossing the rest in the trash. After planing the arm rests a bit, it turns out they're Beech! From just playing with the stuff, I do like it. I'll definitely be looking to get some of this lumber in the future.
Most likely European red beech. It is a great deal more stable than American beech.
Could be.
Do you know if this is the stuff sold as "steamed" Beech?
It's kind of a bland wood, but it has it's uses when combined with a focus point, such as highly figured wood, or some sort of art.
They steam the beech to relieve some of the tension caused during growth (lignin creep), and equalize the white sapwood slightly. Europeans will buy American beech that way. Only real market for our local beech used to be flooring, where small pieces and many holds kept it in line, but now it's being shipped out. Ill-behaved wood, and definitely not one you want to stack outdoors to bring it down to the kiln-ready 20%. Stuff will often rot by then, or twist into unuseability.
What can I say? It *is* a fact that sugar maple is harder than American beech, although I don't think I ever said it was "significantly" harder. It is also a fact that beech is more prone to warp than sugar maple unless quartersawn.
On May 12, 11:12 am, "Michael Faurot"
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Then I'll repeat my previous suggestion -- get a copy of R Bruce Hoadley's "Understanding Wood" and peruse the US Forest Laboratory site. You can learn all there is to know from the folks who really know...
I'm not sure that split beech for planes would be all that expensive, since at the lengths required (generally less than 12"), firewood is sufficient.
scott
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