Hardwood Blog
Perspectives and insights on the hardwood lumber industry.
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Thursday, 21 May 2020 15:54
Keeping Employees Engaged
Helping employees keep motivation is a year-long objective for pretty much any business. But sometimes in the face of unexpected challenges, this can sometimes prove to be an extra challenge. In these and similar circumstances, workers sometimes can become less productive or otherwise have a sense of decreased motivation at their jobs. At American Lumber, we believe it is important to help employees maintain their motivation no matter what challenges present themselves. With this in…
Wednesday, 06 May 2020 16:09
Updates on Tropical Hardwoods
May is upon us and COVID 19 is still with us. Some states have even discussed soft openings at this point. Only time will tell what happens, there are very different opinions on that subject. Our import yard has been working hard and we shipped out a good amount of lumber to our customers in April and we have seen demand for just-in-time shipments remain steady so far. When we import our tropical hardwoods into…
Wednesday, 15 April 2020 15:57
Developing Your Leadership Team
Leadership is valuable in every organization, but planning, effort, and development into growing the leaders of tomorrow can be of immense benefit to your business. Often, day to day concerns get in the way of this goal. But as we are seeing now with current challenges everyone is facing, and the increased number of people working remotely, times like these show how team leadership is essential as business leaders look to get their teams ready…
Wednesday, 08 April 2020 16:44
Tropical Hardwood Lumber Updates
The current situation in the market coming into 2020, has certainly not been what anyone had anticipated. At our tropical hardwood yard in Cove City, NC, the facility remains open as the forest products industry is considered an essential business. However, we have been very mindful of implementing all necessary safety measures at all of our facilities and our production is reduced as we have implemented extra distance between our employees. While the majority of…
Thursday, 19 March 2020 13:53
Ways You Can Show Gratitude to Your Loyal Customers
To instill loyalty in customers, some businesses believe that providing high-quality products or services is sufficient. In some ways, this is still the case. If you offer low-quality products and services you can’t expect to generate much repeat business. Many organizations are starting to understand that loyalty isn’t something that is created overnight, but something that is cultivated over time after building strong relationships with customers. In addition to the obvious benefits of customers feeling…
Wednesday, 04 March 2020 20:00
The Beauty of Bloodwood
In the past, Bloodwood was a deep, dark gorgeous vibrant red color. It was truly a unique looking hardwood species. While that variant of Bloodwood has been gone for quite a few years, for the most part, today Bloodwood is still a red-colored hardwood. It does show some variance from light red to dark red and the color can also darken over time with exposure to direct sunlight. Bloodwood is very dense and has a…
Wednesday, 26 February 2020 14:46
Not All Red Oak is the Same
Sought after by many in the production of furniture, cabinets, interior decorative items, flooring, stairs, and even moulding industries, Red Oak is one of the most widely used and abundant hardwoods in the eastern United States. However, the more time you spend in the hardwood lumber industry the more you come to realize that not all Red Oak lumber that is produced in the same product. Red Oak grows plentifully in the eastern portions of…
Monday, 10 February 2020 16:11
Revisiting How You Conduct Employee Performance Evaluations
The way in which businesses evaluate an employee’s performance seems to be evolving, as many business leaders recognize that the current ways of evaluating performance often don’t have the desired outcome. The reasons for this? Sometimes the performance reviews occur too late in the year to alter the employee’s real-time productivity. Beyond this, it can also contribute to an atmosphere that employees are being “graded,” among other negative outcomes. With this in mind, it…
Monday, 27 January 2020 18:12
The African Hardwood, Aniegre
The African Hardwood specie Aniegre has carved out its own niche in the veneer, cabinetry, and high-end millwork industries with its fantastic golden brown color. It can even be seen used in the creation of furniture, boatbuilding, and carpentry uses. Aniegre’s heartwood is usually a light yellow-brown color and sometimes can even carry a pinkish hue. With age, the color darkens to a pleasing golden brown color. This is what makes it such a popular…
Thursday, 16 January 2020 16:17
Industrial Hardwoods & Grade Hardwood Lumber. What’s the Difference?
An undermentioned fact about the hardwood industry is its outstanding ability to get the maximum amount of use and value out of each and every log harvested. During the process of sawing logs into lumber, all by-products created like industrial hardwoods, hardwood chips, sawdust, etc. all are used in one way or another. When a log is sawn, typically, the most valuable parts of the log are sawn into “grade lumber”. Depending on the sawmill,…
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Wednesday, 18 December 2019 19:45
Helping Your Employees Achieve Work/Life Balance
As the new year approaches, it is always a good time to look back and reflect on the past year and what you can improve on. One of these things could be achieving a better work-life balance for you and your employees. In the last few years, it has become common knowledge that in order to have productive employees, they need to find the right balance between their work and personal lives. However, oftentimes many…
Thursday, 12 December 2019 19:29
Building a Culture of Teamwork
In today's hypercompetitive business climate, can anything short of full collaboration with your team members truly help a business to grow? Teamwork factors into almost all business processes. For us that could be our team of lumber traders to our service personnel. From green lumber buyers to kiln supervisors, teamwork is paramount because it allows us to provide the best possible products and service to our customers. As we continue to try to improve, we…
Wednesday, 20 November 2019 16:32
Procuring African Mahogany
Sometimes there can be some confusion on the origin of African Mahogany hardwood and also on the various properties of the lumber produced from specific origins. The key takeaway is that each region of the world that grows African Mahogany can result in unique characteristics for the lumber even if it is of the same species. For example: Ivory Coast: Tends to be a darker and heavier MahoganyGhana: Lightweight and light-colored MahoganyCongo: Medium color and…
Tuesday, 12 November 2019 14:13
Tip for More Productive Meetings
Meetings aren’t supposed to be fun, but they should be productive. Unfortunately, meetings are often viewed by many as a waste of time. At American Lumber, make every effort to ensure there’s a good reason behind every meeting that is scheduled and that those who participate come away with a vision of happens going forward. At the same time, we understand the importance of making the best use of our time so that meetings can…