Many of us have collected wood over the years. Our collections consist of small and sometime large pieces of highly figured wood, or wood with unusual grain or color. These pieces of wood need the right project that will justify the beauty of that these boards contain. Pieces of wood of this type often remain in our collection for many years. Each board has its own story of how it came to our shop. Some woodworkers have large wood collections which they find so valuable that no object they can think of is worthy to be made of any of the wood that they have saved for many years. These special wood pieces are examined and admired frequently. The usual approach in furniture making is to decide on what to build then acquire the wood. For those pieces of wood which we have saved for years, we need to reflect on what we can build from these precious boards, a more difficult task than to find the wood for something we want to make. When we use a special board from our wood collection for a furniture project, often that piece of furniture becomes a treasured object, one that may become a family heirloom. We all hope that most of the furniture we make will become heirlooms - but only time will tell.