Wood Source for the Lumberyard Skiff

As promised last week, here's the result of discussions with a specialty pine mill in Mercer Maine, regarding a materials kit for the Lumberyard Skiff:

There will be no complete kit from this mill, but you can buy the difficult-to-obtain stuff (the long, wide sideboards) from them. Having purchased a house full of flooring from this business a few years ago, I can vouch for its quality: This mill specializes in beautiful, wide, white pine, and carefully dries it to 6-8%moisture content. Their product far exceeds what you'll find in an average lumberyard. It's reasonably priced, too, at around $3/board foot for the select grade. Shipping, however, is the problem. Crating and then shipping just a few boards to a remote US destination may prove prohibitive for you. (In fact, the mill has a policy of 250 board foot minimum order, for that reason.) But maybe you want to order some extra, for flooring, or furniture, or another boat or two (keep one… sell one to pay for the materials….). That might make it worthwhile for you. And, if you’re in New England, you could make a weekend of it and drive to Mercer to pick the stuff up yourself.

While a kit would be wonderful for this boat, the idea will take a while to develop—if it happens at all. So, to satisfy those who are itching to get going on the boat now, here's the name of the mill. Order your sideboards and some white cedar bottom planks from them if you can balance the shipping costs with your requirements.

One other thought: They sell boards up to 20" wide. You could eliminate the side-plank glue-up with stock of that dimension, which will save you some money on epoxy. It will also save you from a messy gluing operation. The time and money saved there might just be worth the shipping cost.

Wood Idea
2158 Bacon Road
Mercer, ME 04957
Tel: (207) 587-4832
www.pineflooringdirect.com

Comments

[Dan]

where is a source for cedar in northern Mass.? Any ideas?

thanks Mike L.