With many of our distribution and millwork customers focused on custom offerings, we now offer a cool solution to the growing demand for nickel-gap, shiplap, and v-joint paneling with an old-time circle-sawn or band-sawn face. More and more houses use feature walls that exhibit character as a “straight off the saw” look along with an aged, Barnwood, reclaimed look. While we have not yet figured out how to age Alder, we have some suggestions that can make Alder look 100 years old. This gives you all the benefits of knotty Alder, a great-looking knot structure, and the stability Alder is known for while not paying a big premium for reclaimed wood.
We are now taking both our Rustic and Premium grades, width sorting them to our standard pulled-full-to-width sorts and then applying the circle-sawn or band-sawn face. This allows manufacturers to order the width they need, keeping yields high. Our minimums to set up are full unit quantities of the width sort. As we move closer to May, when our modern ripping system is installed, we will soon be able to offer this lumber ripped to width, which will let us ship you molder-ready blanks ready for a tongue and groove or shiplap joint.
Samples are available. Just call your Cascade rep, and we will get them on the way.
We are continually looking for opportunities to further the use of solid Alder in the marketplace. With so many products using veneer and engineered construction and cabinetry having moved sharply to flat panel doors and frameless construction, the volume of solid hardwood used has fallen. Things like circle-sawn and shiplap paneling solidly fall into the opportunity column for increasing solid hardwood use. If you have any ideas for products we could supply, please send them to us. Those customers in the flooring business are probably already familiar with the line of finishes made by Rubio Monocoat. They make a product called Pre-Color Easy, a line of 14 opaque stains applied before their topcoat finishes. We have tested these colors on circle-sawn Alder with great results. After the Pre-Color Easy, their flat, hard wax oil finishes work great as they keep the Alder with the flat, aged, no-sheen barnwood look that a genuine reclaimed Pine, Spruce, or Oak might have.
For more information, look up: https://www.rubiomonocoatusa.com/products
