The building I work in gets a good deal of stuff delivered to it on pallets. These pallets come from around the world, but mostly I ignore them. Now I know that many people knock pallets apart and reuse the wood to make all sorts of things. Personally, I find that a bit too much work for what you get out of the deal. Plus, I put enough nicks and gouges in my jointer and planer blades without the potential of nail-ridden pallet wood crossing their cutters. I guess you can say that I have a bad attitude towards them.
But then, as I was walking through the warehouse a while ago, I looked down and there was a pallet that made me do a double take. I looked closer and the whole 8-foot long pallet was made from ribbon-cut mahogany! I guess I don’t need to tell you that my prejudice against pallet wood went out the window for the next few minutes.
So I now have several pieces of 1-inch thick by 8-inch wide air-dried ribbon mahogany stacked in my shop. Some times it is better to be lucky than principled.
Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal
