5/4 Red Oak

As cold weather settles upon us we are busy producing lumber.   5/4 Red Oak sits outside in the yard awaiting kiln space. Production levels are good and our kilns are full.

Place some QUALITY, EXPERIENCE and INSPIRATION under your Christmas tree this year with a gift certificate from Wightman Specialty Woods. No need to fight for a parking spot, running form store to store searching for gift that does not disappoint. Visit our retail location just minutes from Oneonta and Cooperstown.

Happy Thanksgiving

We wish everyone an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday.

Retail will be closed Thursday. Retail will be open on Friday, 11/28/14 from 8 am to 4:30 pm and Saturday, 11/29/14 from 8 am to 12 pm.

21st Annual Fall Family Festival Open House

 Thanks to everyone who came out to our open house. 

Come and enjoy our 21st Annual Fall Family Festival on Saturday 11th October!

Please note that our 21st Annual Fall Family Festival will take place on Saturday 11th October (NOT Sunday 5th October as advertised on our billboard last week. Sorry!!). We'll have live music, kids crafts and games, refreshments, a mill tour, and tons of prizes! Hope to see you then!

New Web Page

Our new web page is now available. Please check out our fresh new look. 

Fall projects

The weather is cooling off and it’s a great time to think about cozying up your home with beautiful hard wood flooring. Wightman Specialty Woods offers unfinished hardwood flooring manufactured at our mill and also available for order a full line of prefinished and engineered flooring.

Improvements and expansion

As we wave goodbye to the summer of 2014 we remain busy with mill improvement projects.

        Our bolster production area was upgraded earlier this summer. 

                  Addition has been added to the green chain area. 

                Improvements to the staging area for the debarker. 

                              Pouring concrete today in our log yard.

            We still have other ongoing projects. 

          Stay tuned in to see what else we are busy doing.

Renewable energy

Renewable energy

Congressman Chris Gibson visited our mill today along with Jessica Frohman Lubetsky, officer, clean energy for The PEW Charitable Trusts. Today’s visit was focused around how Wightman Lumber uses sawdust, a byproduct of our manufacturing process, to produce heat. Saw dust is feed into our boilers to generate heat for the kilns that dry lumber and to produce heat for the facility during the cold winter months.

Utilizing this technology allows the company to turns waste material into energy and provides substantial cost savings.   

PREFINISHED FLOORING

We now have available for order a full line of prefinished and engineered flooring.

Stop by and check out the new options we now offer at Wightman Specialty Woods, Portlandville, NY

Woodsmen's Field Days

It’s time again for the NYS Woodsmen’s Field Days in Boonville, New York. We hope that those who are luck enough to be able to attend  have a fun and enjoyable time.

The schedule of events can be found at http://www.starinfo.com/woodsmen/schedule.html

A few of the activities include, Woodsmen Lumberjack Contests, displays, vendors, food, kayak Races, 10k race, and parade. Sounds like something fun for everyone.

Event runs from Aug. 14th to Aug. 17th this year.

Specialty Moudings…..

Wightman’s mouldings are milled with state-of-the-art equipment from solid wood that is chosen and produced for its high quality. We offer stock mouldings in pine and oak as well as custom mouldings from our catalog of over 400 profiles. We invite you to stop by our retail location in Portlandville, NY.

Summer Employee Picnic

On Friday, July 25, 2014 had the pleasure of sharing in an employee picnic at the mill followed by our monthly safety meeting. 

 Cliff Clune was kind enough to step up and be our grill master.

 We now have 140 days without a lost time accident and we are setting new goals everyday.

Meet our dedicated yard personnel

At this time I would like to mention the various segments of Wightman Lumber that combine to make our business run efficiently. Today we’ll talk about the yard crew. They are overseen by one of the partners of the business; David Wightman. David works in the yard with the crew, and in the office co-coordinating wholesale sales.

Foreman: Dan Hunter, with his 25 yrs. of service, is responsible for assigning employee coverage to the various tasks. Dan has the ability to cover just about anything that needs doing in the yard, however his specific task is prepping wholesale loads for shipment, maintain safe operating conditions with safety inspections, help maintain inventory and production as needed. As if that wasn't enough, he also helps cover the retail yard when necessary. No moss grows under Dan's feet.

Loader operator: Jeff VanDewerker, who also has 25 yrs. with Wightmans, is on the go loading tractor trailer customers, relocates logs and lumber between the sawmill, grading department, drying kilns and planer department. Jeff also keeps track of what is stored where in our many storage facilities of kiln dried product. As if that wasn't enough, he also loads shavings &
sawdust as needed for retail customers. No one knows a Volvo loader better than Jeff.

Ed Cotton: With 15 years at Wightman's, Ed also knows his way around. Ed's job is to maintain the low moisture content of the kiln dried lumber. With that comes constant overseeing of the kilns so they run at peak efficiency, as well as moving lumber in the various facilities to keep it at the correct moisture content, very critical.

Larry Kessler: Now semi-retired, Larry has been with us for 13 years, still working 3 days a week he maintains the boilers as well as prepping loads for export, and also still delivers to customer sites.

John Ashe: Although he's only been full time for 6 months, he is busy running forklift moving inventory as well as delivering.

Eric Waddell: The newest member of the yard team, has been with us for 3 months, is training to handle loading & unloading the kilns, and is able to work in the production facility as well as maintenance of equipment.

As you can see, many jobs and areas overlap, so teamwork is vital to the expanding growth and fulfilling customer needs. Over the past year we have introduced employees with a total of 497 years of dedication to the industry.  Our experienced employees allow Wightman Specialty Woods to insure high standards of excellence in our manufacture process.  We take great pride in the many fine products we produce and invite you to stop by our retail location in Portlandville, New York. 

Summer…Relax, Refresh, Rejuvenate

Wightman Specialty Woods can provide you with the ideal wood for dock or deck projects this summer. 

Create Amazing Outdoor Projects with Ipe

Ipe is an exotic wood species which grows mainly in Central and South America. It has a fine texture which appears oily. Among the more common uses are: pathways through gardens and natural areas, ground level patios, outdoor showers, saunas and spas, mud mats, outdoor planter foundations, picnic areas and balconies.

Ipe is a high density and harder wood. It is unique in its coloration, character marks and graining variations.

Now available at Wightman Specialty Woods.

Stop by our retail location in Portlandville, New York

or call 607-286-9201 to speak with our professional sales staff. 

Prefinished hardwood flooring now available at Wightman Specialty Woods

Any type of hardwood flooring to                                                                            meet your needs. 

We know that unfinished hardwood flooring is not always the best answer for your flooring needs. To insure we can supply you with the best products we expanded the product line available to you at our retail location in Portlandville, NY.  Should you be looking for engineered flooring, strip flooring, or prefinished hardwood flooring we can assist you in finding the right product for your project.

Bolsters

Wightman Lumber is the major supplier in the Northeast of heat treated bolsters for the export trade. Bolsters affixed to packages allow loads to be moved rapidly, placed anywhere, and re-handled efficiently. Heat treated stamped bolsters are heat treated in our kilns to meet the NELMA specification. Want to know more about this product? Please visit our web page at http://www.wightmanlumber.com

STIHL Timbersports Competition Comes to Cooperstown

Over the weekend of June 7th and 8th we took a short road trips to Cooperstown. Wightman Lumber helped sponsor the first Cooperstown Lumberjack Legacy Stehl Timbersports competition. 

The weather was amazing, the backdrop of Otsego Lake was beautiful, and the event was fun to watch. Plans are already being made to hold the event again next year at the Lake Front Park in Cooperstown. 

Visit our Face Book page to view the photo album of the event. You might know some of the local competitors.

A recap of the different events (taken from the Stehl ...webpage) included on Saturday for local competition and Sunday for the Northeast US Qualifier, one of 4 qualifiers in the nation follows: 

Events included

Hot Saw
In this discipline, the competitor uses a customized chain saw with a modified engine, usually taken from a personal watercraft or snowmobile.

Single Buck
The competitor makes one cut through 19 inches of white pine using a single man cross-cut saw. The competitor may have a helper wedge his cut into the log to prevent the saw teeth from sticking.

Standing Block Chop
Mimicking the felling of a tree, the competitor races to chop through 12 to 14 inches of vertical white pine.

Underhand Chop
The competitor stands with feet apart on a 12- to 14-inch white pine log. At the signal, he begins to chop through the log with his racing axe.

Springboard Chop
A discipline based on the need for old-time loggers to establish a cutting platform above the massive root bases of old growth trees, the competitor uses an axe to chop pockets into a 9-foot poplar pole and then place 6-inch wide springboard platforms into the pockets.

Lumberjack Competition coming to Cooperstown

Wightman Lumber & Building Supplies will be an event sponsor for the STILH ® Timbersports Series event at Lake Front Park, Lake Street, Cooperstown, NY. 

Cooperstown’s Lumberjack Legacy Invitational Lumberjack Competition will be held on Saturday, June 7th 10 am to 4 pm

2014 Northeast US Qualifier event for the World Premier Lumberjack sports event which is the second longest running show on ESPN will be held on Sunday, June 8th 10:30 am to 1 pm

Events are free to the public.

Please stop by our booth, say hello and chat with our foresters. Chris Burke and Tom Foster will both be on hand. Find out about the current timber pricing. It’s a great time to set up an evaluation of your forest lots.

Hope to see you there!

Define your view with beautiful mouldings from Wightman Specialty Woods. 

   Check us out on the digital billboard on I-88 near exit 15. 

Wightman Lumber: where beauty and quality come standard.

Retail Hours: 

Mon. to Fri. 8 am to 4:30 pm and Sat. 8 am to 12 pm

Grown Locally, Milled Locally, Used Locally

Spring is arriving

Spring is arriving and it's time to plan outdoor projects. Wightman Specialty Woods can help get you started. 

Square Edge Material
4 /4, 5/4, 8/4, 4x4, 6x6
Ideal for porch posts, gazebos and other applications

                                    With deep appreciation to Larry Kessler we celebrated his official retirement today with a luncheon and cake. Larry joined the Wightman Lumber team in Jan. 2001. Over the past 13 years his talents have greatly contributed to the organization. Larry’s contributions included driving the delivery truck, caring for the kilns and working in the yard along with countless other ways his experience has help to build the company. Larry has worked so hard and given so much. We thank him for all of his dedication and we are grateful that he will continue to work part time.

 

You may have noticed log trucks are rolling along the roads in record numbers.  We have also recently added to our fleet to keep up with the demands of procuring inventory. Prices for raw materials are at a premium. Call our forester's if you have some land ready to harvest, and put some extra cash in your pocket, while allowing smaller trees to flourish. Trees, America's safest renewable resource.

Update on the Emerald Ash Borer

What’s that purple thing in the trees?  It’s a sticky trap used to detect the emerald ash borer. 

The Emerald Ash borer. Sounds almost like royalty, however this little pest stands a chance of wiping out the ash species. If left un-monitored, it probably would. It was confirmed to be in New York state on June 17, 2009. They were first discovered in Michigan in 2002, and have been spreading state by state since then, as far west as Iowa. There are now quarantined areas to try and prevent the spread of these little beast, including the complete lower half of N.Y.  As ash is one of more desirable species in the lumber business, we  strive to protect it as much as humanly possible. 

In an ongoing mindset towards the safety of our workers, we will now be implementing the use of hard hats through out the facility. Healthy workers are productive workers, and We strive to keep our production and quality up to meet our customers needs. We appreciate your business.

I thought it might be interesting to share some forestry facts Iobtained from the American Forest & Paper Association:

    In the United States, private, working forests support 2.5 million jobs, $235 billion in annual sales, $87 billion in payroll, $4.4 billion in state income and severance taxes, and $102 billion to the Gross Domestic Product.
 One-third of the United States is forested - 751 million acres. Privately-owned forests supply 91 percent of the wood harvested in the U.S. State and tribal forests supply approximately 6 percent and federal forests supply only 2 percent of the wood used by the forest products industry. 
 For the past 100 years, total forest area has been stable and grew by 2 million acres from 2000 to 2005.
  Today, the United States has 20 percent more trees than it did on the first Earth Day celebration more than 40 years ago on April of 1970
Insects and disease threaten 58 million acres of America’s forests. 

So there you have it, while it seems that log trucks are running up down the road constantly, through managed reforestation, the U.S. is actually gaining on the tree population. Good news as our status as a global supplier of lumber is ever increasing with the development of countries worldwide, and we at Wightman Lumber are proud to supply them with the best product possible.

There snow mercy… 

                        Mother Nature is having no mercy on Portlandville when it comes to cold weather and snow this winter.