Barclay Blocks - How to Make Blocks: "People sometimes ask, 'How can I make my own set of blocks?' A serviceable set of blocks can be made at home by a practiced woodworker from SPF stock available at the local lumber store. Here's how.

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The way to make blocks is simple: carefully make about 150 linear feet of the four sizes of S4S molding and chop it into blocks of the requisite length.

If you value your fingers, forget the idea of using all that lovely scrap you've been saving.

Buy about nine 2 by 4 by 8's and about four 1 by 4 by 8's from the lumber store. Shop for lumber that is as straight as possible and relatively free of knots. Fir is the hardest of these woods, Spruce is the lightest. Northern White Pine is available in some areas, Lodgepole Pine in others. Southern Yellow Pine is very good if it is reasonably free from pitch inclusions. Western Red Cedar and its cousins are not good. They are too light and tend to splinter.

Needless to say, you shouldn't buy treated lumber unless the kids have become a bother. Be cautious about imported lumber. European Beech and Birch is supposed to be checked for radioactivity left over from Chernobyl, but who knows? Rubberwood is universally soaked in Boric Acid which is potentially hazardous to young children.

Regular construction lumber is usually very wet even if it says 'kiln dried.' If blocks are made out of it the blocks will shrink - not uniformly, but more in some directions than in others. For t"