Excellent red accent wood. Padauk is an excellent turning wood and is widely used for fancy turnery such as knife and tool handles. The bark yields a wonderful, bright red dye that was used for body coloring for religious festivals.

Optimizing production with new and existing technology: In order to be profitable and productive in today’s economy, woodworking facilities need to optimize their resources: equipment, supplies and their workforce. Many companies have done so through investments in new technology and production methods, including lean and sustainable manufacturing methods.

Q: What is a board foot? Also, I saw something about Doyle board feet -- what are they?

Q: I need to know what the difference is between black gum compared to sweet gum, and how do I identify black gum. I think I am getting black gum in my sweet gum and our customers do not want it.

Q: I have a flooring project we have just completed for a local college. The floors which we glued down to the base have buckled and lifted several inches off the floor at the top of the buckles. The contractor was not controlling the humidity after installation. Readings indicate that the relative humidity was 85 percent with a temperature of 65 degrees. Recently, the moisture levels have since been controlled and are stabilized below 55 percent, but the buckles are not entirely gone. Am I correct that this a moisture problem due to the high RH?

Q: What's the ideal ambient temperature and humidity level for a veneer gluing operation? We've heard about 50 percent relative humidity, but we're having difficulty maintaining it; our workers don't like the warm temperatures. What's the ideal balance?

Q: How can I separate white ash from black ash. I think our supplier is slipping some black ash into our white ash; at least the wood is much browner.

What really defines big in the 21st century woodworking industry?