Warren, Arkansas, had three sawmills cutting a combined 350,000 board feet of lumber a day by 1907. One of them, the Bradley Lumber Company, grew into one of the world’s largest dealers in hardwood lumber. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas records both facts in its Bradley County entry.
Saline River Workshop builds custom furniture in southeast Arkansas.
Warren and the Bradley County Timber Boom
Bradley County sits in the West Gulf Coastal Plain of southern Arkansas. The Saline River forms its line with Drew County. The Ouachita River divides it from Ashley and Union counties. Warren is the county seat.
Timber investors arrived in the 1880s as railroads reached the area. The first boom ran on shortleaf yellow pine. Warren became home to three large mills: the Southern Lumber Company, the Bradley Lumber Company and the Arkansas Lumber Company.
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas lists their 1907 output at 100,000, 100,000 and 150,000 board feet a day. Warren’s population doubled between 1900 and 1910. In 1958, Potlatch Inc. bought the Bradley and Southern lumber firms.
Hardwoods Used in Custom Furniture
Saline River Workshop’s shop lists pieces in white oak, walnut and pecan. Each species behaves differently at the bench.
- White oak: The heartwood pores of white oak are usually plugged with growths called tyloses, which make the wood impenetrable to liquids. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory says that is why white oak suits tight cooperage. Quartersawn boards show broad, conspicuous rays.
- Red oak: The pores generally lack tyloses and stay open. The Forest Products Laboratory calls red oak unsuitable for tight cooperage unless the barrels are lined.
- Walnut: The Forest Products Laboratory describes black walnut as easily worked with tools and stable in use. The heartwood runs light to dark brown. The sapwood is nearly white.
- Pecan: Pecan belongs to the hickory group. The Forest Products Laboratory calls the wood heavy, with sometimes very high shrinkage.
Questions to Ask a Furniture Maker
Solid wood moves with the seasons. A tabletop swells and shrinks across the grain as humidity changes. A good maker plans for that movement.
- Species: Ask which wood goes into the top, the legs and the drawer sides.
- Cut: Ask whether boards are plain sawn or quartersawn.
- Moisture: Ask for the moisture content of the lumber when the build starts.
- Joinery: Ask how the top attaches to the base. Mortise and tenon joints connect a rail to a leg or post.
- Finish: Ask what finish goes on and how to repair it later.
Workshop Location and Commissions
Saline River Workshop’s contact page lists a workshop in Wilmar, Arkansas. Its named series are Lumberjack, RattleSnake, Moro and Saline. Every commission starts with a conversation. Read more about the workshop, browse the collections or contact the workshop.
Related reading:
- Bradley Lumber Company of Warren, Arkansas.
- Saline River Bottomland Hardwoods in Southeast Arkansas.
- White Oak vs Red Oak for a Dining Table.
- Solid Wood Movement in Tabletops.
- Mortise and Tenon Furniture Built in Arkansas.
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