To the north, in the tiny Canadian maritime province of Prince Edward Island, heritage is not lacking. And because of this, for Raeford Waite of RW Woodworking and Custom Milling, business is doing well. In fact, if you need a lathed, turned, or bent Eastern White Pine for, say, a 200-year-old arched doorway, Raeford and his trusty three-man team are your best bet on the entire island, and perhaps most. from Canada. . Sure, Raeford can build you a cabinet, or just about anything else, but his real passion is milling wood material that will be used to restore and preserve historic landmarks like churches, quaint storefronts, and government mansions.
In Canada, the federal government awards grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to restore heritage projects. Raeford remembers the 1970s, when that money just wasn’t available. When it came to renovating and maintaining historic monuments, corners were cut. In some cases, vinyl siding was even used due to lack of funds. Today, the government makes sure that these cover-ups are rectified and that history is restored. In the age of digital cameras, you had better be prepared to meet the expectations of people who appreciate real wood and authentic craftsmanship. Raeford Waite loves this challenge and is happy to receive a large number of requests for milled white pine and custom installations.
Raeford’s appreciation for White Pine is revealing. She can talk about the changes she has observed in the quality and composition of the stock she receives from suppliers throughout eastern North America. She explains that the density and stiffness of the grain has visually and tactilely degraded in her 25 years of carpentry. Decades of mass harvesting mean today’s Eastern White Pine crops are younger. Newer trees grow faster and the growth rings tend to be larger and smoother. As Raeford says, 1/8-inch to 3/16-inch ring grit simply won’t last as long, as softer grits absorb moisture, exacerbating vulnerability to rot. Now that the lead paint has been removed from the shelf, mold is much more common. It’s just harder to keep your pine tree intact than it used to be. Such are the challenges of modern woodworkers.
At the same time, one element that Raeford points to as a boon to craftsmen today is the quality of the wood glue. He wonders what carpenters would have done 200 years ago if they had access to the modern chemistry of glue and resin. He tells of ancient secret formulas seeping into an old carpenter’s wood-burning stove that may have incorporated horsehair or even stranger ingredients. The fact that current glues can hold 3,500 lbs. per square inch leads him to wonder if the old windows in the heritage projects he restores might not have held up for another 1,000 years. Perhaps, luckily for Raeford and his team, horsehair didn’t pay off in that capacity.
From one history lesson to another, Raeford poignantly expresses what’s interesting about pine milling and can evoke mystery and genuine emotion. Imagine a saw ripping apart a century-old pine tree and making violent contact with buckshot and lead bullets from a war no one is sure how to date. Or she muses about men searching abandoned properties for that perfect pine forest, not knowing if an old well is waiting to swallow you. And on the other hand, the trees themselves have known, over time, to digest lucky horseshoes that had been nailed to them, or clothesline pulleys. According to Raeford, you don’t want to be near a saw when a horseshoe hits. Reflecting on the history of Eastern White Pine and other materials from his craft seems to come naturally to Raeford. While his voice, rich with what resembles an Irish accent, reveals his 40-year-old youth, what he actually says reveals a wiser and more diligent spirit. He speaks fondly of his crew, whom he often lets decide what projects to undertake so they can take pride in his work. He goes on to describe how his “pride before profit” credo has as much to do with the heart and soul of a worker as it does with the “love of wood” that he expects from the men of him. These are, indeed, high standards to live by, standards that he will no doubt pass on to his son, Timothy, who by age eight has already built a fleet of toy airplanes out of scrap pine and other lumber found in the 5,000s. square feet. store. He first held his hammer when he was three years old. Raeford has little doubt that “Tim the Tool Man” will continue to walk in his father’s shoes. After all, he is the only son of an only son of an only son. And this, I realized after speaking with Raeford about Eastern White Pine, is the true nature of heritage.
