JURRASIC BARK

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The furniture is assembled with old-fashioned woodworking techniques, such as pegs in place of nails, and pinned mortise and tenon joinery. Craftsmen who use the wood first had to rediscover and learn these largely antiquated methods. "We had to teach ourselves," says Gregory M. Leick, chief executive officer of Leick Furniture, based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which makes furniture from the logs. "Because this wood is so special, it deserved the best treatment we could muster."

Leick Furniture uses the wood for such items as its red oak Ashland -Curio Cabinet, which costs $2,500, as well as for red oak clocks, which retail from $100 to $750.

One of the traditional techniques Leick Furniture uses to improve the quality of the products built from the wood is the quartersawn method. The modern technique for cutting slabs of wood is the flatsawn method, in which flat slices are cut from a log like slicing a carrot. The quartersawn method, however, cuts the log into four sections, like a pie. This, Leick says, exposes ray-flakes, which enhances the appearance of the wood, giving it a traditional Arts & Crafts look. "The yield isn't as good," Leick says, "but it makes more stable wood because the rays bind across the grain."

Dave Johns, a local Ashland craftsman, makes furniture and crafts from the wood, ranging from a dining room table made from bird's-eye maple to a flaming red-birch softball bat made as a trophy for a little-league softball team. "The wood is totally different than anything I've worked with," says Johns, who praises the wood for its hardness and the crisp clear lines it holds when shaving and routing. "There's a limited supply," says Johns, "that's what makes it special."

Others seem to agree. Microsoft mogul Bill Gates used paneling made from the old wood in the library of his mansion. Other notable sites that have incorporated the wood are the Boeing Building in Seattle and the Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames hockey team. "We've got architects who are salivating over this wood," says Mitchen.

The wood is also ideal for musical instruments. In fact, the logs now being harvested from the bottom of Lake Superior may one day produce some of the finest instruments in the world. The water of the lake chemically altered the fibers of the logs, giving the wood an added resonance for musical instruments. Changes have occurred at the cellular level of the fibers, as anaerobic bacteria in the water ate away certain starchy substances that dampen acoustic vibrations.

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