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Rare Woods Capturing the Attention of America’s Craftspeople
and Homeowners
December 10, 1992
As hardwood interiors enjoy a newfound surge in popularity—in
everything from home remodeling to new commercial applications—building
professionals and homeowners find themselves combing through
catalogs and magazines in search of “the perfect wood.”
For some, the decision is based on color. Others look at
grain or for something unusual. Then it is always important
to think about durability and strength.
One choice that is earning a second look, and often a first
purchase, is a little understood wood that was so in demand
during the 1800s and early 1900s that entire forests were
clear-cut to virtual extinction. Southern Heart Pine is expected
to take an even greater leap in popularity this January, when
the well-regarded PBS television show, The New Yankee Workshop,
features the wood sand heart pine specialist George Goodwin.
Host Norm Abram, intrigued with the unique method George
uses to recover antique woods, took a camera crew on location
to film Goodwin and his staff pull heart pine and cypress
logs in a Southern Georgia river. The logs were lost from
up to 200 years ago when loggers used the waterways to transport
their cut timber down-river to the mills.
Goodwin Heart Pine Company, a small specialty lumber company
owned by Goodwin in Micanopy, Florida, is one of a handful
of companies in the United States that offer this rare wood
and the only one to retrieve lost logs from riverbeds.
“Unfortunately, because of the changing ecological
balance, the tree has nearly passed into extinction. It is
only available in limited quantities either by salvaging timbers
form old buildings, cutting down the few trees left, or like
we do it … by putting on a wet suit and recovering the
lost logs from the bottom of Southern rivers,” said
Goodwin.
More than five million viewers will see the process in action
Saturday, January 25, when The New Yankee Workshop airs on
about 300 Public Broadcasting Stations nationally.
The show opens with the segment about the river recovery
excursion and then will go on to show Abram giving step-by-step
instructions in making a lidded bench from the wood of a recovered
cypress log. The show is aimed at the amateur craftsperson
and features a complete woodworking project from scratch.
“Sure it is hard work to recover this wood, but it
is surely worth it. These logs, many of them 400 and 500 years
old are preserved by the cool water and lack of oxygen so
the heavy, dense heart remains in perfect condition, unspoiled
by saws and nails.
“Because it is so rare and valuable, I stay involved
at every stage. I do not pull every log out, but I do personally
saw, dry, and inspect every board we mill. We cannot afford
to make a mistake with this wood … it’s too hard
to come by,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin predicts the interest in Heart Pine and other rare
woods will increase as more craftspeople and homeowners gain
more information about the woods. To help the process along,
the company has just released a free video that documents
the extinction of the Southern heart pine. For more information
call Goodwin Heart Pine Company at 1-800-336-3118.
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