Brief Description: Sitka Spruce from Klamath Oregon Arrives
I had the arrival of Sitka spruce for my outer wing panel spars from Oregon by UPS yesterday. The Sitka Spruce having travelled from Klamath Falls, Oregon via Salt Lake City, Denver, St. Louis and Atlanta prior to arriving here in Savannah, Georgia. The 2" x 19" x 104" plank of Sitka Spruce was very nice, but certainly not perfect. It has been extremely difficult to get Sitka Spruce meeting the level of quality needed. I unwrapped and spent some time seeing how to get the spar flanges cut from the wood. Despite the plank size it is either enough for all spars for one wing panel or the longest ones only for both. My Sitka Spruce stock originally planned for the outer wing panels was partially used to recut the center section front spar flange after a defect was found on the first center section flange I cut. I can generally say that 2/3 of all the Sitka Spruce purchased is only good for smaller pieces or unusable. The supply seems to be really limited for the domestic US market. It is my understanding that in some instances entire stands of Sitka Spruce have been bought that will not even produce timber for 50 years and much of the decent wood is going overseas for instruments. This is OUR domestic wood! Keep it here and send some my way. Cutting parts twice and having only 1/3 of the wood acceptable while quality wood is being shipped overseas is very disappointing. I’d gladly pay more and not need to be on working months and years ahead to create a decent stock for building.
This wood is now on the shelf for several months to be acclimated to my shop environment before cutting.
