Asian Delegation Learns About Blue Stain Pine Products
Posted: August 18, 2013Source: Montana Business Quarterly
Missoula’s Sustainable Lumber Co. workers know every board personally. Each board is handled up to 12 times to allow them to check quality and detail, according to owner Ryan Palma. And each product is manufactured with Old World artisan style craftsmanship by a local Mennonite/Amish community and is of topquality.
One of the products that was most interesting to the Asian delegation visiting the company’s showroom was the beetle-killed blue stain pine. Beetle-killed wood is a variety of blue, gray, and orange colors that can create various vibrant patterns in the milled wood and can be used in highend furniture and interior design products.
“The mountain pine beetle has devastated millions of acres across the Rocky Mountains,” according to Arnie Sherman, executive director of the Montana World Trade Center, the organization that brought the reverse trade mission to Montana. “With the large number of mountain pine beetle-infested trees throughout Montana, Asia could be a new potential market for blue stain pine products.”
Sustainable Lumber Co. was founded by Palma in 2011, after working in the wood products industry for 17 years. Palma’s goal was to find homes for locally reclaimed and recycled wood, as well as for sustainably harvested and salvaged timber. As a result, Sustainable Lumber Company’s entire product lines are produced from local reclaimed, recycled, SFI-certified,* and salvaged timber. The company produces custom wood doors, custom cabinets, Douglas fir flooring, beetle-killed blue stain pine flooring and paneling, recycled pallet paneling, as well as various other interior design products.
With a sustainable focus interwoven throughout all aspects of the business, all of Sustainable Lumber’s wood products are grown in Montana and made in Montana. Each piece of harvested wood is slowly cured to 6 percent moisture in a kiln that is exclusively fueled by renewable woody biomass and salvaged timber.