I've been a longtime customer (15 yrs?) of this business, buying both hardwoods and softwoods for my manufacturing business. Before this past year my compalints were minimal., like not liking the headroom in the loft above the office where they store some of the hardwoods. But that changed recently.
Once the items are assembled, I have to sand them with my Performax drum sander. After doing that, I noticed that some of the sapwoods exhibited damage caused by powder post beetles. They had been eaten away by the larvae, leaving a maze of tunnels. These only got worse as I tried sanding more, as the beetle damages wood from the inside out.
Some of the items had to be creatively repairs, while others were thrown away. The good news is that sapwood only comprises about 10% of the hardwoods I use. And, because it is of a light color, I've avoided buying it for the most part. I was informed by the sawmill owner that kiln drying kills all stages of the beetle, so assumed that the damge was done before that process, and was not noticed by them when they sawed up the log. One of the employees told me to just avoid the sapwood when I picked out my wood.
Then, about a month ago, I picked a board off my shelf where I stock the components that go into my finished product. I couldn't believe the number of tiny exit holes in the wood, nor the amount of talcum powder like dust on the shelf. That dust is left by the adult beetles as they exit the wood. Then the process begins anew. They mate, the female lays her eggs that hatch into larvae, which are soon tunneling happily through the wood.
I approached the owner with the oak board, he first saying that they only attack ash, then informing me that the slelves on which I store my componenets must be infested (they're plywood). The only logical expalnation is that the infestation came from the wood supplier (Kirkland). Either they have an infestation going on down there, with the beetle laying its eggs on wood already kiln dried; or the internal temperature of the wood is not raised enough during that drying to kill all stages of the beetle. Either way, I won't buy another thing from them. read more
