The Unique Qualities of Red Oak: A Frank Miller Lumber Highlight

Posted by Chelsea Timmerman on

At Frank Miller Lumber, we take pride in supplying the highest-quality hardwoods to customers worldwide. Whether you’re a craftsman, architect, or designer, red oak stands out for its beauty, strength, and adaptability.

Aesthetic Appeal: The Beauty of Red Oak

Designer and Craftsman: Yew Studio

One of the most distinctive features of red oak is its open-grain pattern. This prominent grain enhances its visual appeal and makes it an excellent choice for staining. Red oak absorbs stains evenly, allowing for various finishes, from light and natural to deep and dark tones, giving artisans the flexibility to achieve the desired aesthetic.

Durability and Strength: Built to Last  

Red oak is not just about looks; it’s a workhorse in terms of durability and strength. Red oak is tough enough to withstand heavy use, making it ideal for high-traffic areas and demanding applications. Red oak is often used in flooring, cabinetry, and furniture – where longevity and resilience are key.

Sustainability: A Responsible Choice

 We are committed to sustainability at Frank Miller Lumber and red oak aligns perfectly with this commitment. Red oak is abundant in North America. By choosing red oak, you select a material of exceptional quality that supports sustainable forestry practices that help preserve our natural environment for future generations.

Why Red Oak from Frank Miller Lumber?

 We’ve been sourcing and supplying top-quality red oak for generations. Our commitment to excellence ensures that each piece of lumber we provide meets the highest quality and sustainability standards. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or embarking on your first woodworking project, red oak from Frank Miller Lumber is a choice that combines beauty, strength, and environmental responsibility.

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Frank Miller Lumber Fine Woods - Exotic Hardwoods

Embracing a New Chapter: Welcome to Frank Miller Lumber Fine Woods

Posted by Chelsea Timmerman on

At Frank Miller Lumber, we’ve always been committed to providing top-quality lumber and unparalleled customer service. Over the years, we’ve grown and evolved, continually striving to meet and exceed the expectations of our valued customers. In recent weeks, we have slowly rolled the rebranding of our retail store to Frank Miller Lumber Fine Woods. This change reflects our dedication to enhancing our product offers and signifies our commitment to becoming your premier destination for the finest woods and woodworking materials.

Expanded Product Offerings

Bush Oil EZ-Sanding System

With our rebranding, we are excited to introduce an expanded range of products catering to various woodworking needs. Whether you are a professional carpenter, a dedicated hobbyist, or someone embarking on a DIY project, you will find an extensive selection of premium exotic hardwoods, locally made finishes, handcrafted gifts, and much more.

Our inventory includes:

Exotic Hardwoods: Explore rare and unique species from around the world, such as zebrawood, purpleheart, and padauk, ideal for crafting one-of-a-kind pieces.

Domestic Hardwoods: Choose from the finest quality oak, cherry, walnut, maple, and more, all sourced sustainably.

Specialty Plywood: Choose from various high-grade plywood, ideal for structural and decorative applications.

Live Edge Slabs: Experience the natural beauty of live edge slabs, each uniquely shaped and perfect for creating stunning tables, countertops, and other statement pieces.

Woodworking Accessories: Explore a range of finishes, sandpaper, and Bush Oil Product finishing kits to easily complete your projects.

A New Look, the Same Trusted Service

While our name and logo may have changed, our dedication to serving our customers remains unwavering. We are still the same family-owned business you have come to know and trust, now with a renewed focus on providing an even better shopping experience. We invite you to visit Frank Miller Lumber Fine Woods and experience the transformation yourself.

Thank you for your continued support and trust in Frank Miller Lumber Fine Woods.

For more information, please contact us at 765-964-7705 or [email protected].

Kauffman Center for Performing Arts: Helzberg Hall

The Truth About Quartersawn Red Oak!

Posted by Frank Miller Lumber on

Quartersawn Red Oak has increasingly found its place as a premium hardwood choice for flooring, cabinetry, millwork and furniture. It is readily available and affordable.

The straight grain of quartersawn Red Oak will restrict its shrinkage to the thickness of the board as opposed to width.

Our forest has an abundant supply of Red Oak, which has a stronger growth trajectory than popular alternatives.

Medullary rays are shorter in Red Oak resulting in subtly figured “quartered” boards and “rift” boards that display straight grain with minimal flake.

This also minimizes warping and cupping. Its inherent qualities of stability, beauty, and durability places Red Oak in the company of other premium American hardwoods.

  • Kauffman Center
    Kauffman Center for Performing Arts: Helzberg Hall
  • Private Residence
  • ‘Fugu’ by Jasper Morrison Studio
  • Kauffman Center for Performing Arts: Helzberg Hall

Why Forest Management is Important to the Environment.

Posted by Frank Miller Lumber on

Are you concerned about our climate? This is what Frank Miller Lumber is doing to ease your concerns.

Most people have heard trees are the best asset when it comes to protecting our environment from changes in the climate.  Climate change is often debated.  Some say we are not experiencing a change in our climate and that we are going through historical weather cycles we once experienced; others tend to say the opposite.  Regardless of your position on climate change, maintaining healthy forests is key to improving the world we live in.  Trees consume carbon dioxide to convert that compound into a food source for the tree.  Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.  As trees consume and convert this compound using the carbon to help create its food, the trees respire the oxygen molecules for us to breath. 

Trees have a life cycle. 

A life cycle is nothing more than the number of years something is expected to live, be present, or exist before it dies, decomposes, or breaks down.  Through forest management, we remove the trees that are close to the end of their life cycle.  These trees will be manufactured into lumber to produce furniture, flooring, cabinetry, and millwork.  Better yet, you remember the carbon in these trees.  This carbon will be stored in these products indefinitely as long as these products are in use.  If a tree falls over and decomposes in the forest, it will release the unused carbon that it once stored.  That carbon will go back into the atmosphere.       

Not only do trees help us by taking a greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere and provide us with oxygen, but did you know trees are also a renewable resource?  A renewable resource is anything that can replenish itself.  So, when forest management is performed where trees are removed, new trees will grow from the stumps and root systems that remain in the forest.

Our nation has been truly blessed with some of the best forests in the world.  For these forests to be enjoyed on into the future and for us to have a better environment to live in, we must understand that forest management is essential in these forests.                           

Learn more about FSC-certified Hardwood.

How Vertical Integration Can Be of Help to the Design Community

Posted by Criswell Davis on

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 never delayed due to lumber shortages. The same was true for the Barnes Museum in Philadelphia and several other high-profile projects.

About a year and a half ago, Frank Miller Lumber acquired a high-end architectural millwork company, Indianapolis Woodworking International (IWI) in order to offer millwork services to the design community. In the world of bespoke commercial and residential designs, IWI can help to make a designer or architect’s dreams a reality through collaboration and integration with a skilled millwork partner.

In my role with Frank Miller, I assist architects and designers in adjusting specifications to match the realities of the resource.  Likewise, Gary Riegle, president of Indianapolis Woodworking International, can do the same thing, moving the design process along with samples and advice. For the design community, this synergy can be of immense value, working directly with a high-end millwork company that can help make your vision a reality. Just as flooring companies can be specified for a project, a millwork company can also be specified.

I was in Dubai a couple of years ago talking with a millwork company that produced the First and Business Class lounges for Terminal 3 at the Dubai Airport. The construction of those lounges was a herculean task. To give you some perspective, the architecturally sequence-matched American walnut veneered panels cover more than 1.6 kilometers. By the time the design fell to the millwork company for production, the timer had already been ticking for quite some time. The pressure to obtain material for the project was intense, and the project would have moved along more smoothly with advanced coordination between the designers and the millwork company.

The team at IWI has decades of experience behind them and has produced some gorgeous millwork over the years. You can see examples of their projects at http://www.iwimillwork.com. Let IWI help you in the same way that Frank Miller Lumber helps architects and designers.

Case Studies

Posted by Criswell Davis on

A friend sent me this picture of Patrick Stewart doing a one armed push-up and while that is an impressive feat, my eye was immediately drawn to the floor, which is rift white oak.  Now I want to find out more – is that Patrick’s house?  Who made the floor?  Who designed the space?  Could the lumber have come from Frank Miller?

I spend a significant amount of time thumbing through Architectural Digest and Architectural Record looking at the amazingly beautiful homes, hotels and other commercial buildings featured.  From time to time I see a gorgeous floor or built-in cabinetry that appears to be made from quartersawn white or red oak.  Rarely, if ever, is the flooring mentioned in the article.  I have, from time to time, tried to chase down the architects to see about writing a case study on the quartersawn lumber used in their design.  With a few exceptions, that effort has proved fruitless.

One perfect example of the futility of this effort is an 8,000 square foot residential space in Portland, Oregon where I worked with the architect on using rift white oak for the floors.  They were thinking of using an exotic wood for which there would be no sustainability paper trail and I convinced them to use rift white oak because it is FSC certified and was the most stable and beautiful floor they could lay in that space.  These conversations spanned many months and in the end the designers went with rift white oak and apparently were thrilled with it.  Naturally the goal was to have the rift white oak come from Frank Miller Lumber so that the quality could be monitored.  We fine-tuned the lumber specifications to align them with the realities of the resource and I followed the job from start to finish.  The missing link was the contractor who took the specs and delivered the flooring on time.  I tried repeatedly to talk to the contractor to find out who made the floors so that I might be able to determine if the flooring manufacturer is a customer of Frank Miller’s.  The contractor refused to reveal the source of the flooring as if revealing that information would somehow compromise his business.  I offered to have professional photographs taken of the project that he could use for his own marketing efforts.  All of my work was in vain.  I can reasonably assume that the lumber came from Frank Miller, but without knowing for sure, I can’t write a case study like we did for the Barnes Museum.  We know in that case that all of that lumber came from our mill.

The tricky thing is that because Frank Miller Lumber is not a flooring manufacturer we can’t say for sure where all of the lumber we produce goes.  When I suggest that designers and architects work directly with the mill, I mean that Frank Miller Lumber should be specified as the source of the lumber.  When that happens, all of the worries about quality, appearance and timely delivery are settled.  Frank Miller Lumber, when specified, becomes a partner in the project, one upon whom you can rely.  We can even recommend the best flooring manufacturers in the area surrounding the project to heighten your sense of security.  After the project is complete we can write a case study to tell the world about your beautiful work.