Coming onto the site you can’t help but see the new video of a woodturning building in Philadelphia PA. It gets me right in the heart.
For those of you along the Connecticut River and many other places in the US, this is familiar story. I have some dear friends with operations exactly like this that have fallen off the map. Its such a shame. Many of the industrial turning operations have lost their way as the cheap labor fees for overseas manufacturing have taken their place.
The old timers that I knew growing up in the Walpole/Keene area of NH have faded away. With them a feel and knowledge of turning, beautiful workmanship and pride that an average guy could have a part of are gone.
When I found out that the “tree nails” for timberframing in the New England area were being outsourced to Thailand I almost cried. I knew the guy who made the pegs for several of the biggest timberframers in the area. He watched as peg wood(tight straight grained oak) was harvested in NH packed up and sent overseas to save 7 cents per peg– and a loss of jobs for several small town people in Marlow and Alstead, NH.
When you see it happen in the diner where you drink coffee it hits home. The ironic part of it is: everybody who looks at a frame after 2002, wonders if the pegs are as good as the old ones.
I won’t touch politics here but I wish all the best to the guys in Philly and I hope their operation doesn’t float down the Delaware like the guys up on the Connecticut River. It stinks.
osl
Replies
Hi Dan,
It's certainly disheartening isn't it. I am also familiar with those places you talked about in SW New Hampshire. We just lost a paper mill up here in Berlin and I hear there are more to go in the Northeast.
I've been harping to the local Ethan Allen factory in nearby Beecher Falls, VT that they should explore more markets, specifically sell their rough cut to us! You would downright cry to see some of the wood that gets ground up and used for sawdust!
I have a friend that works in the rough mill and he's more than once told me of beautiful figured wood (Yes, curly cherry and maple, tiger, curly birch, you nameit!) that gets treated as if it were culls! And they're going down the crapper if it keeps going this way.
It's a downright shame.
I did get some pricing on curly maple from another fairly local supplier. 4/4 - 5.25, 5/4 - 5.95, 8/4 - 6.25, 12/4 - 8.50 +$.75/bf for 10"+ wide boards. I will be looking at it this Sat. Will try to get some pics. I might be able to do better if/when my logger finds some real good stuff. I've got him on the lookout for figured birch, maple & cherry. Found some gigantic birch burls!
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 10/23/2007 3:52 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
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