So this past weekend, I got a rental car and visited my dad's barn. I found a 66" piece of white maple, I think. It is 18" wide with bark and 2" thick. Bowed (curved across the width) and checked (cracking at the ends). I chose it bc it was almost the perfect size and I wouldn't be wasting much (this was a big old tree!). It would be a bright white yellow in contrast to the steel blue turned golden orange metal. And most notably, it was more manageable than the other pieces of wood. It is more than I can carry — my mom and I managed to hoist it out of the barn by a rope using a beam in the barn as a kind of pully. My friend Meret suggested a woodworker – Patrick in Brooklyn. Patrick has a 48" belt sander and a laser cutter. I'm excited to see it cleaned up. 
