Figure: The term figure is often confused with grain. By definition, the figure of a wood refers to the pattern caused by color differences in the wood. The figure is also the pattern created by different types of grain.

Grain: The direction in which the fibers of the wood are running. Types of grain are straight, wavy, irregular, spiral, curly, interlocking and birds-eye. The fibers of interlocked grain have a weaved structure, thus making the wood strong and less apt to split and suitable for bending. Irregular grain is caused by interruption in the growth of a tree by branches or crotches. For ship building irregular grain is used for natural carved members such as knees.

Texture: A woods' texture is directly related to the suitability for carving and the fineness of detail which can be achieved. Texture ranges from coarse to medium to fine and ultra fine. In ship building, coarse and medium textured woods are suitable for heavy timbering such as hull framing and deck beams. Fine textured wood is used for planking, moldings, rails etc. Fine and ultra fine texture is for carving small fittings and delicate parts. Texture is also uniform or uneven. An uneven textured wood has different size cell cavities, giving the wood hard and soft spots. When machining or carving a piece and it suddenly breaks that's because you hit a large cell cavity or soft spot. Uniform texture is like cutting a soft plastic like material.

Customers of the Lumber Yard have different levels of modeling experience, capabilities and access to hand and power tools. We offer a number of services and materials to meet the needs of the customers, from the sale of rough lumber to custom ship work.

Rough Wood

Buying wood rough means you are getting material that is unsorted, unsurfaced and may have defects such as cracks, knots or warpage.

This material is direct from the source and will be in the form of logs, rough boards, or slabs with the tree bark along the edges. If its bulk wood you're looking for, leave me a message on the answering mchine or drop me an e-mail. I will check what I have and get back to you on the size and cost. I can cut down large pieces to a more manageable size if needed.

Resawing

This service is offered to the model builder working with modeling tools such as a 4 inch table saw, a small thickness sander, scroll saw, lathe or drill press. The material is cut in the form of billets, sheets, blocks or strips. Resawn material is cut, for the most part, free of defects but some small cracks or knots may show up. The surface of resawn material has the saw marks and will have to be finish sanded.

Three basic thicknesses of resawn sheets are offered:

3/32 for finishing to 1/16 and thinner

3/16 for thickness of 3/32 to 1/8

5/16 for thickness from 3/16 to 1/4

Any thickness of sheet stock is cut on request.

For the model builder who prefers to do his own resawing and finishing, but does not want to work with large rough stock, small billets, boards and half logs are available. This material is cut as free from defects as the material will allow.

Milled Stock:

This material has been thickness sanded to exact size. Example: keel stock 1/4 X 3/16 X 24 or planking material 1/16 X 1/8. Milling is done in inches or millimeters. All milled stock is sold by the linear foot. Check our milled stock page for the chart on pricing.