Creating Art from Wood

Building-supply store salespeople look at Alex Howse kind of odd sometimes. They’re not sure what to think when he asks for the knottiest piece of pine board they have. But then, Alex is no ordinary lumber buyer. The 70-year-old builds model boats and often needs small pieces of wood that posses a natural curvature and wood surrounding knots has that intrinsic feature. For larger curved pieces he does the same as many regular boat builders — he finds crooked trees to cut. Those ...