People in various industries will sometimes find themselves having to work with wood. It may even be what you’re planning to do full-time with your new business on Etsy. Whether you’re a construction worker, a wood supplier, or are simply working on a short-term project, this is the advice you need.
Using the right wood for the job. Let’s say you’re constructing something for a children’s playground. The wood needs to be strong and sturdy enough to handle several people using it at once. It also needs to resist easily splintering. This might seem like something you’d want for the wood of any project. But your needs may require something that will bend a little easier. Not all wood is the same, and it’s important that you understand the subtle differences.
Preventing breakage and rot. A lot of wooden constructs will end up outside, exposed to the elements. The elements we’re most concerned about here, of course, are wind and rain. If untreated wood gets wet for too long, then it’s going to rot. The structure will severely weaken faster than you might expect. Thankfully, there are several things you can do to help keep the wood protected. The most obvious is to use primer, a liquid coating that hardens and keeps moisture out. Preventing rot is extremely important for health and safety.
Reshaping and cutting responsibly. It’s very rare that you’re going to get wood in the exact shape in which you need it. A lot of people would say that cutting and reshaping wood is fairly easy. Well, first of all, I can assure you it isn’t! The more intricate the shape you need, the more dangerous this work is going to be. A saw is nowhere near as easy to use as it looks! You should enlist the help of someone with a lot of experience with this kind of work. Better yet, you could look into professional wood routing.
Working with paint. Painting wood seems easy enough. You simply grab a paintbrush, some paint, and you get coating, right? You need to be careful, though. Too simplistic an approach can spell disaster for the longevity of both the wood and the paint. Even something as daunting as painting a wooden chair could be done very wrong indeed. You need to make sure the wood is clean, with flaws and old paint chipped away. You need to prime the wood before adding paint. And the type of paint you use needs to be right for the type of wood! You want to avoid chipping in the future.
Ethical suppliers. There are good ways to get wood and there are bad ways. The keyword you need to be on the lookout for here is “sustainable”. Whoever’s supplying the wood, they’re getting the wood from somewhere else. And that’s going to be from trees. Of course, chopping down and destroying a tree for wood isn’t exactly the best thing for the environment. But this can be countered by the methods they use. Do they use energy-efficient equipment? Do they plant new trees for every one they destroy? If any of the answers are “no,” find another supplier.
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo
Milo Senalle
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