MitD VI: The Undiscovered Creature (Please Read the First Post)

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Same here! But in my case, it's the assumption that the "default" wood of choice for a crate would be oak that got my fightin' blood up, as someone who's been running a carpentry-heavy business for over a decade.

I have also noticed over the years that it's interesting to see which wood the crates and pallets are made from, depending on where they're from. We have several suppliers in Texas, their crates are always in Southern pine. One California supplier sends us pallets made out of redwood. Around here pallets are pretty much always spruce.

Using hardwood for a crate struck me as... let's say, definitely nonstandard.

You know, I could've used this expert opinion when I was trying to pick a wood from the bloody list (seriously, check it out, there is way too many for a non-expert like me).

In the end, I think I made the correct choice by examining both the harder and the softer version, and let the arguments use the type most convenient, but it would still be nice to hear these things in advance.

Now, I still feel we are projecting too many modern values on this slightly different circumstances. Modern crates are placed in standard shipping containers, as are pallets, and the rest of the time they'd likely be in warehouses, so weather is not as much concern these days as it is minimising weight. Back in the day, cheap wood would be used for inside furniture, but anything that was meant to last in the elements would probably need a hardier wood. On the other hand, those tend to be slower growing trees, so they'd be expensive enough I can see a circus cutting costs by using substandard cages and have the animals living in leaky cages.

Grey Wolf