At Big Pine Lumber Company we enjoy seeing and sharing the craftsmanship used in the construction in many old wood buildings. We are dedicated to preserving and sharing that with out customers by not only providing high quality reclaimed lumber to be reused but also sharing the history of where it came from.
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Our TagsAll of our furniture pieces have a tag on them allowing the owner to look up and learn about the building that the wood from came from. We also provide tags to people that buy our wood to put on their projects as well. We are continually doing research on the buildings that we disassemble to learn more about the history of them and and the people that built them.
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Why Reclaimed LumberBesides the aesthetics of reclaimed lumber, there are several other advantages over new growth. Reclaimed wood from an old growth forest has dense, straight grain with fewer defects compared to new sawn wood. The dense forests caused the tree to grow straight and tall quickly in search for sunlight. The competition for sunlight and nutrients results in small tight growth rings. Reclaimed wood is also a more sustainable material. Using reclaimed wood results in fewer trees needing to be cut down and processed to be turned into lumber while preserving history.
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Old VS. New Growth
Old (left) vs. New (right) growth 2x4s
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Old growth trees grew in dense forests causing them to grow straight up in search for sunlight. This growth was slow causing tight growth ring patterns. The surrounding trees also restricted limb growth. When these trees were sawn it resulted in lumber with few knots and defects.
After these forests were logged and the new growth forests started to grow, there was little competition for sunlight and nutrients. This results in trees that grew rapidly and have large growth rings. In this picture, the left 2x4 is from a 100 year old home. It has 37 growth rings that are barely visible because they are so tight. The 2x4 on the right is a new 2x4 and it has 11 large growth rings in roughly the same size board illustrating the different growth patterns. |