A new approach to the old way of doing things.
The wood flooring industry, as we know it today, has been built around widely accepted and standardized grades of flooring. Offerings like rift and quartered, #1 common, and plain sawn select are well defined and highly scrutinized. Associations and governing bodies exist to ensure each manufacturer brings a properly graded product to the market.
Early farmers and settlers were far more concerned with getting a barn built before the harvest, or getting their cabin done before winter, to worry with details like grain orientation and knot content. Before sawmills powered by water or steam, logs were crudely hewn and planks were pit sawn by hand. After the advent of steam power, mills popped up all over the country with infinitely more production and sawing capabilities. Still, logs were generally squared and then sawn into planks, and left ungraded, the most expedient and economic use of time and materials.
At Cochrans Lumber, we appreciate the utilitarian aspect of that earliest sawn lumber, and have sought a way to capture that unique look and feel, with our Live Sawn flooring options.
Thats why we have chosen live sawn lumber as our go to grade for newly harvested wood flooring. Live sawing is a unique, though very simple, method of sawing a log straight through its diameter, leaving in the heart of the log, and all the grain and character variations seen throughout all grades of lumber. Conventional sawing methods would avoid the heart of a log, cutting the higher grades from the outer portions of the log, and discarding the inner cant as pallet grade lumber. (see the diagram above) Live sawing is a very efficient use of the lumber, and therefore creates less waste product. The best part is the unique blend of character and grain that harkens to the early cuts of lumber produced by mills over a century ago. Therefore, our Live Sawn flooring is the best option to beautifully and economically re-create that original look.
Live Sawn Walnut
Live Sawn WO White Wash Circle Sawn
Live Sawn WO White Wash
Live Sawn Cherry
