: . . . Still it's rare to ever see a decent board around here. You could cut
: out the clear sections and scarf up longer boards but I was trying to
: avoid that. But that's the only way to get any length and is probably not
: such a bad idea. I could build a cutting guide and clamping jig if I was
: going to do a lot of it.

There is a very simple reason why all you are seeing is "indecent" lumber. Grading. The guy or gal at the sawmill who does the sorting of each plank as it is cut from the tree is the real moneymaker at the mill. They direct how the big boards are fed into the saws which cut them into smaller boards. Their job is to maximize the amount of clear lumber they can get out of a board. What is left is re-sorted and the graders get to decide if it is number 2, number 3 or firewood. (At a sawmill I toured in Oregon they burned the sawdust, bark, and scrap to heat the kilns which dried the wood.)

With modern managed forests you are seeing more lumber cut from younger trees than you might have seen 50 years ago, but these trees are pruned at an early age to remove the lower branches, encouraging taller, straight growth which will give fewer and smaller knots in the lumber once the trees are harvested and cut into boards.

That clear lumber at the bottom of the tree has got plenty of people bidding for it. You'll see it in the wood trim and millwork used around doors and windows, and in baseboards and moldings. The stuff from the top of the tree is going to have more knots, and maybe they'll squeeze through a nominal 2x4 which has a rounded edge that still has some bark attached. As long as it is not too much bark, they can call it a construction grade 2x4, and put it on the pallet with all the other castoffs.

As I see it, the high volume lumberyards, and the big-box home centers which sell lumber place massive orders for wood. In order to get something that looks like a 2x4 at a competitive price they'll buy common lumber, #3 and better, or #2 and better. When this stuff shows up in the stores the general public thinks this is what a board should look like!

When you pick through a pile of #3 or better, you are not going to find anything better than #2--'cause if it was better than #2 it would have been sorted on the skid of #2 and better.

If people would only walk down another aisle and look at those "appearance boards". These are probably not clear, and certainly not the best boards on the market, but they are the best in that store, and what an average piece of wood should look like. The prices for these will be relatively high, but if you want a nice piece of wood from a home center, then you have to pay what they ask. Don't even talk to them about cost per board foot.

If you want good wood you have to ask for the top grades at a lumberyard which regularly handles good wood. If you go to a lumberyard which primarily handles softwoods for constuction use, then you won't find wood suitable for fine cabinetmaking. If you go to a lumberyard which handles fine woods, you won't find anything cheap. (I just saw a 4-foot-long 2x3 of black walnut being priced at $22, and I've got a face cord of shorter pieces I'm burning as firewood.) People in Australia can get better quality red cedar at their regular lumberyards than we'll see in the US. Why? because the cost of shipping is so high it makes sense to send only the best stuff. It will be expensive when it arrives, but since it will be a quality piece of wood, they'll pay for it. Meanwhile, back in the US, the #2 cedar is used for decks or siding, and you have to special order anything in a better grade.

From one point of view it looks like a really screwed up system, but from a business standpoint it makes sense. The lumber business is allocating its best products to specialty dealers in the US and around the world, at a premium price, and selling off the rest of the wood at discount prices. All you are going to see is the stuff being discounted.

I'm s big believer in scarfing up clear boards from shorter pieces. I like to take relatively short, wide boards, rip them in half and flip them so I cut the scarf joint in the top of each half. The color and grain match nicely and the scarf joint is less noticeable. A 10-foot-long 1x6 gives me an 18-foot-long 1x3, which I can rip into chines, gunwales, or strips for canoes or kayaks. I'll do the same thing with boards which are not clear. Stangely, when I rip those into strips, the knots fall out and the strips break where the knots used to be. That gives me a lot of long, but random length strips, which are magically "clear'. Amazing what happens when you turn most of a board into sawdust.

Good luck with your projects. Once you have that 30 inch bandsaw working you should be able to resaw some long 2x12s into 3/16 x 11 1/4 strips. Joint and edge-glue a couple of those to make 22-inch-wide panels, and you can then cut pieces for a stitch and glue design from solid wood, instead of using plywood.
If you don't have clear wood, don't worry. Small knots will add character to the look of the boat, and epoxy resin will keep them watertight.

PGJ