The best blanks come from veneer grade logs as they are the top grade. Years ago Sherm and myself were getting some wood from a guy in northrn Wisconsin adjoing the Michigan Penninsula. This man had his own saw mill and kilns and was in the business of making furniture parts for different furniture companies. He knew nothing about pool but someone he knew was supposed to know about shafts and he started making shaft blanks. We went up one winter to see his operation and equipment. While talking to him he said that it was almost impossible to get the proper wood anymore. He said that when the trees were dropped and cut into logs the different sawyers would come and bid on the logs. He said the bidding would go 70 or 75 cents a board foot and all of a sudden a Japanese buyer would bid 6 or 7 dollars a board foot. He said that they were buying up all of the good woods, taking them to lake Superior, loading them on ships that were equipped with whatever equipment needed to turn the logs into veneer. The ships would cruise thru the great lakes and by the time they got to N.Y. they off loaded the veneer. By doing it this way they were paying more for the logs than they were worth and still have the ability to sell the finished product, the veneer, back to the Americans at a lower price than the Americans could produce it themselves. The ships were portable Japanese factories, cruising our waters without having the taxes or health and safty laws that cover the rest of the industry.
Dick
