American Made Has Wood Market Appeal

Wood products that are Made in America are getting easier to find. While it’s true that as the economy recovers and factories hum, there are more products being made here. But there is another factor at work as well: more consumers are placing a value on buying products that are domestically produced.

Responding to this, wood products companies are emblazoning their goods, websites and e-stores with the reminder that this stuff comes from North America, generating jobs in the U.S. and for our trading neighbors north and south of the border.

At the High Point Market furniture market in April, exhibitors in the Made in America pavilion doubled in number, showing mass produced, mass customized as well as made-to-order furnishings.

Seeking Made in America
Made in America gained popularity as mainstream media recognized the critical part played by U.S. manufacturers — custom woodworkers among them — in restoring the U.S. economy to financial health.

“Made in America” can be as simple as working in North American species, such as the red oak, white oak, ash, cherry, poplar, maple, hickory, alder and walnut, delivered by American Lumber (p.16).

Or the more than 30,000 square feet of flooring for the famed Barnes Foundation art museum manufactured by Frank Miller Lumber in Union City, IN (p.12). It provided the FSC-certified quartersawn white oak milled by Muscanell Millworks, Cortez, CO, then installed by Pennsylvania Flooring.

In this case, the architects required stability and durability but didn’t specify Made in America. The quarter- and plainsawn hardwoods were exactly what was needed. And it was grown and milled in America.