American Woodyard

 
While we stayed in Asheville I called into Asheville Hardware which was a bit of a mix. They are a Festool distributor, a dealer in secondhand tools and machines as well as selling lots of timber. The room downstairs had lots of large end reared boards, this is the way to sell timber. When it's all stacked in piles (that require lots of effort to uncover) it tends to stay that way.

This large stump that would make a great coffee table with a slab of glass on top.
Two huge walnut book matched planks below caught my eye.

There were good areas of figure but at $2,500 per board they were a bit steep.

More planks of nice dry wood.

A very large board of osage orange, very tough and heavy. This was the first time I had seen this wood, it would be great to makes some planes with.

Another book matched pair of figured and coloured maple boards, I'm sure James Krenov would have made good use of these.

To round off my posts on our trip to the US I'll leave you with Barnes and Noble. If you thought the internet had killed off books, then somebody forgot to tell them!

The store was enormous.

They had a well stocked woodworking section, the one English book was by Mark Ripley.

An equally well stocked magazine rack with a better showing for the Brits.

And I'll leave you with this shot which could be viewed two ways, a massive faux pas or a very observant reflection on the American diet.