Furniture is a major secondary wood using industry in New York. Indeed, the state is one of the top 5 producers of wood furniture in the country, both for residential and office use. Furniture manufacturing has a long history in the state with Jamestown in Chautauqua county being the historical center of the early furniture industry. Today there are still many firms in this area but competition is keen from more modern mills in lower cost regions such as South Carolina. For example, in western New York, the furniture industry obtains 45 percent of its lumber and dimension stock from within New York state.
Wooden pallets are a second major industry in the state.
The wooden pallet industry is important also in that much of the lumber used in pallet manufacture is low quality and thus locally produced from the forests in the state. A recently growing industry is hardwood dimension. Here lumber purchased from a sawmill is resawn, surfaced, possible shaped somewhat and often glued up into panels or special-size stock. The hardwood dimension firm can very rapidly fill orders for furniture plants, cabinet manufacturers and others. This then frees these firms from having to purchase and handle rough lumber and permits greater specialization.