Your source for kiln-dried specialty hardwood lumber
We are located in the beautiful Fraser River Valley near Chilliwack, BC
Note: My prices are very competitive. However, should you find comparable lumber in like dimensions that costs less, please let me know. I may be able to meet or beat the other wood retailer’s verifiable pricing, if need be.
Native to the lower mainland, this lumber was rescued from urban sprawl and bandsaw milled into 3″, 4″, 5″ and 6″ thick planks, many with natural edges, then kiln-dried in a vacuum kiln, making it the ideal wood loved and preferred by woodworking craftsmen.
We offer for sale to the public what may be one of the largest collections of hardwood lumber in British Columbia. Our competitive pricing for kiln-dried hardwood covers several species in a variety of thicknesses, widths and lengths.
Our inventory includes many live-edge slabs, some up to 4″ thick, 6-1/2 ft. wide and 12 ft. long. Others are as thick as 6″ and 5 ft. wide. Most of the oversized slabs are one-of-a-kind and have been air-dried.
A Pacific Coast native, the broadleaf maple’s heartwood is white or cream to light brown or reddish brown. Sometimes figure may appear to our delight! Other times a burl may surface, inspiring a new project. Reasonably hard and heavy, kiln-dried maple is easy to work with and takes a smooth polish.
Beautiful planks of sawn maple and other species were kiln-dried to 6% moisture content and then stored in the wood barn. Many have interesting figure and colour, making them the ideal material for building custom furniture or if resawn, for finish woodwork.
While going through our stickered stacks of hardwood lumber, sometimes you’ll find boards sporting spalted maple brilliance, or a flare-up of birds-eye on a bottom maple board.
You can also contact us by email: sales@hardwood4u.ca
Building handmade custom furniture has always been my dream. Back in 1983 I established Mount Cheam Woodworking and soon realized dried hardwoods were expensive to buy. A few years later I began to gather local English brown oak, maple and walnut logs which were sawn and air-dried for one year per inch thick.
By using a bandsaw mill I was able to increase the volume and value of the wood, giving it a smoother finish, custom sizes and far less sawdust than a dimensional sawmill can produce. For oversized or unusually shaped logs, I used an Alaskan mill powered by chainsaws and two husky sawyers.
Being located in the Fraser Valley we enjoy a high relative humidity. This unfortunately makes it difficult to air-dry wood to the desired moisture content for furniture building. Using vacuum kiln technology, I can now dry and condition, sawn hardwood of most dimensions to the desired 6% moisture content, with almost no degradation.
During the late 1990s, I sold and delivered curly, spalted and quilted maple to some of the best woodworkers on the West Coast – from Vancouver, BC to Bisbee, AZ, with many stops along the way. This was when the desire to create fine home furnishings was born in me, and using my specialty lumber I created various pieces, some of which I entered in the Design in Wood show hosted by the San Diego Woodworkers Guild.
Remarkedly, the wood barn now contains about 105,000 board feet of dried BC hardwoods. My rescue efforts of local hardwoods slowed down a little, but I was always on the lookout for logs with pistol grip curves, or oversized logs for one-piece dining and conference table tops. Now I’m spending less time salvaging and sawing logs and more time designing and creating handmade home and office solid hardwood furniture out of some of the most unique precious wood that has been hiding in the back of the wood barn.
Call the Wood Barn at 604-791-3320
email us at sales@hardwood4u.ca
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