Let's go back to where this project began. The handrail is crafted from American ash that came from the woods of the Pacific Northwest. How do I know that? Cause I milled that log into lumber myself. Woodworking has always been a passion of mine, one of the God given talents I discovered at a young age. My journey in woodworking started during my teenage years, discounting some early exploration in my pre-teen derby car phase. Growing up in Arizona's desert landscape, I quickly learned the value of every piece of wood due to its costly nature. Expensive materials taught me early on the importance of minimizing waste in woodworking, especially when pursuing it as a hobby.
After years in the woodworking business, I struggled with passing on the high costs of wood to clients and felt a lingering sense of guilt. In an attempt to address this issue, I decided to expand my business vertically by investing in a sawmill two years before embarking on the handrail project. One of the primary factors for this decision was, if not obvious: to pursue market share at the expense of profit margin (if the results of my decisions were to be predetermined by the rule of economics)
The moment I acquired the sawmill was filled with excitement, and cutting the first log, felt like a meaningful gesture from the Woodmizer company that supplied the mill and the lumber we cut. The training I received on-site further fueled my inspiration, ultimately leading to (amongst many other projects) the creation of this Handrail.
Taking on a project from end-to-end was an exhilarating and humbling process as I began to really understand responsibility at each phase in industry.
It was about this time that I was coming to realize yet another economic lesson as it pertained to this idea of a vertically integrated, end-to-end woodworking. The value of space and time. Without getting too into the details; the general rule of thumb for drying your own lumber is 1 year per inch of thickness. That can be accelerated with a kiln but a kiln also takes up space and of course I wanted a vacuum kiln and those are not cheap.
….So I played the patience game.
At no time along the period that I had milled this ash, organized this ash and stored this ash had I any idea what this ash would be used for. And so I have reserved a space not only physically in the world for this lumber but it also lives very much in my head and if this isn’t the exact basic fundamentals of rationing scarce resources - I don’t know what is.
As a result of this lumber being the first log I milled, its contents occupied the very bottom of the stacks that would soon accumulate in the home shop. And so it became a viable option as I began unpacking this shop for a big life move when my family and I had planned to leave Oregon and move to Arizona.
Here are some more finished pictures of this handrail in its final resting state:
