Oh Scrap!

Scrap, waste, and off-cuts, (not Cut-Offs, those are old jeans turned into shorts) are all terms for the wood left over from a project. Some woodworkers believe that there is no such thing, that its all usable down to the dust. That may be but they must have a lot more space and organizational skills than I do. I generate serious volumes of this stuff. What you'll find in my scrap bin includes cherry, walnut, pine, mahogany, oak, and maple. A medley of the great cabinet woods.

So, what do I do with it? I burn it. Its great kindling for the nightly fires we have in the house fireplace between September and May. In the off-season I save it up for the fire season and I usually have just about enough to get us through.

Dinner guests are often heard to exclaim " you can't burn that, its beautiful." My standard response is "unless you take it home with you, its going to be burned." We have one friend who takes me up on the offer and carries it home. I suspect that after they realize there is not much that they can do with it they burn it in their fireplace.

By the way, I did not win the auction for the windsor chair. It sold for $350.00. It wasn't such a sleeper after all.