You’ve probably noticed a few changes around here lately. We’ve worked hard over the past few months with the help of ruef, a design company in Dayton, OH, to create a website as unique and state-of-the-art as our company. This site launch is a part of a larger effort to rebrand Frank Miller Lumber. It represents our revitalized approach to…
I have been asked several times recently about the benefits of bamboo for flooring applications. I might get one question like that in a typical year, but over the past two months I have been asked about bamboo a half dozen times. I don’t know if this is the result of a marketing campaign on behalf of of the bamboo…
I just returned from the Middle East where I gave a series of presentations to architects, designers and joinery companies. Part of my presentation is to tell those in attendance that the challenge of design is threefold: 1) Create a vision; 2) Convey a vision and 3) Make it deliverable. In my mind number 3 is the most important because…
As I give presentations to architects and designers around the world I am often asked why it is so difficult to match the color of the veneered wall panels to the solid wood flooring and fixtures. Frank Miller is currently supplying quartersawn cherry to a furniture manufacturer making courtroom pews. The architects are having a difficult time reconciling the difference…
In this forum I have told the story of the process of Quartersawing and why its use creates beautiful and stable hardwoods for some of the world’s most iconic projects. Frank Miller Lumber has been used in some very high profile buildings as well as beautiful homes around the world. I have set a goal for myself in 2015 to…
Soon after I embarked on my Frank Miller Lumber architectural marketing journey, I connected with KPF (Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects) in New York. I have presented my AIA “Quartersawn Hardwoods” course to nearly 100 of the designers and architects in their offices in New York. Over the past 4 years I have assisted many KPF design teams with all manner…
In this blog I have talked about the challenges that the Bourbon industry has presented to quartersawn white oak log procurement pipeline. In my presentations to architects around the country I have made the suggestion that in order to avoid the problems inherent with a tight white oak supply, the design community needs to look at red oak as an…
A few years ago Frank Miller Lumber got involved with supplying the quartersawn red oak for the floors of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City. I have written about the advantages of working with the mill source on projects like this, since in doing so the project team minimizes its variables. That project, for example, was…
For more than 4 years I have explained in my presentations to architects and designers the difference between red and white oak. “Tyloses” in white oak give the wood a closed cell structure making it resistant to rot and water. I use a device to distinguish the difference in porosity between red and white oak, which lies with the letter…
I want to start this edition of “Criswell’s Corner” by telling you all that the hiatus I took this winter was actually due to a cancer diagnosis I received in October of 2013. I have been focused on my treatment and recovery and am happy to report that two weeks ago I had a PET scan that was free of…