The Timber Rack…

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…not an instrument of torture but a playground for woodfans.

The Cocking Sawmills Timber Rack has been around forever (or at least 4 years!). Recently it’s taken on a life of it’s own, a sort of woodyard within a woodyard.  In response to crowds of woodfans vying for elbow room in the overly stocked, single bay of racking… we’ve had a makeover. And not just any makeover. A proper makeover, with real thought and planning and everything!

the covered yard workshop and timber rack in the kiln dried shed at cocking sawmills

So, first up in rack-challenge-2017… the yard.

We’ve done away with that open yard between the workshop and the kiln dried shed and now it’s an all-in-one big undercover space you can drive right into. No more rainy loading! No more muddy feet! No more droplets on that immaculately planed wood! No more lugging your boards round to the visitor parking.

Yard.. sorted.

panorama of the Timber Rack in the woodshed at cocking sawmills

Next up… space.

One bay? Seriously. Not any more. The timber rack is no longer confined to that first double bay just inside the door of Peter’s Shed. We’ve gone wood wild and given over the whole northern wall of this, our oldest woodshed, to vertical A-frame racks that are quicker and easier to sort through than the horizontal stacks (even with Ian’s super new blue racking). This long awaited timber rack extension means we’vee gone from 2 to 9 walls of wood in one move! Not to mention the enormous back wall piled deep with waney edge overspill.

Our woodshed visitors seem to be drawn to the racks like no where else in the yard so they deserved some time and consideration, and from time to time we ask ourselves the question ‘why?’ people get so excited by the rack.

We never actually get to the bottom of it because we all have different theories.

timber rack bay 1square edge left hand sidetimber rack bay 1 square edge sorted into species sizes and already priced uptimber rack bay 1 square edge right hand sidewhen you see cedar of lebanon in the the rack like this it's hard not to want to take it hometimber rack sycamore perfect workstop desktop stuffthere's non stop oak in the timber rackthese are some lovely bits of Ash waney edge in the timber rackthis is just showing off we know but just look at that cedar of lebanon in the timber rackthese are some super chunky bits of Oak waney edge in the timber rack

Most popular current theory is the ‘rummage-ability’ factor.

Everyone loves a rummage. Fleamarkets, bike jumbles, jam packed antiques shops… they’re just irressistable to us hunter gatherers. The timber rack is no different. It’s something about seeing overflowing through and through boards or square cut pieces of wood piled deep, some of them with ridiculous prices (how can a piece of Walnut really be £13.42?!) some of them in hard to find sizes and others in hard to find wood species. You just know that the one’s on top might look amazing but there’s bound to be something even better underneath.

This theory makes a lot of sense to us woodgeeks.

panorama of the timber rack square edge all measured and priced and sorted into timber species

Close second is all about the busy bees.

The timber rack means no waiting for a forklift to turn up to start picking your cutting list. No waiting for an extra pair of hands to become free before you get your hands on some boards. No hanging around. Whirlwind visitors get in and get out with military precision. Job done.

Yup, that works for us too.

timber rack bay of waney edge board centraltimber rack bay upon bay of waney edge boardstimber rack bay of waney edgetimber rack at cocking sawmills woodshedcedar of lebanon showing it's true colours in the timber rackenglish cedar of lebanon and ash lined up next to each othertimber rack suare edge species and pricestimber rack oak bay with pippy and character oaktimber rack english cedar for furniture making

The third theory helps out our whirlwind visitors but it’s really for the number crunchers.

The timber rack means knowing what the numbers are up front. Each piece or board has what it is, how big it is and how much it is (inc VAT) written in brightly coloured timber crayon right up front. No puzzling the dimensions or fumbling for a calculator. A bit of light mental arithmetic and Bob’s your uncle in timber rack territory. It probably doesn’t harm that lots of the waney edge boards have had one or other face planed too, so you no longer need x-ray specs to see what’s going on beneath that weathered and dusty, rough-sawn surface

panorama of the woodshed timber rack packed full of oak square edge

So timber rack sorted. Next stop workshop…

 

MORE

Want to come shopping in the timber rack? Come on down… HERE

Want to see the main timber stock? Search our online listings.. HERE

Read our Rack Blog archive

2020 https://www.englishwoodlandstimber.co.uk/hardwood-timber-rack-sale/ 

2019 https://www.englishwoodlandstimber.co.uk/timber-rack-sale/ 

2014 https://www.englishwoodlandstimber.co.uk/wood-shop-rack/

2011 https://www.englishwoodlandstimber.co.uk/the-rack/

Posted on October 30th 2017 under english hardwoods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.