Hi all,
I am an Intermediate wood worker in Denver, CO who has only had access to Lowest and Home Depot wood thus far(yuck!)
1.) Are there are any, reasonable prices online vendors that you all work with?
I tried to buy 10 pieces of 60 in by 5.5 by 3/4 cherry and they wanted like 400.oo.
2.) Is this what I can expect for prices on finer woods everywhere?
3.) Any catalogues you guys use that have wood for a lot less money? Or, is there another way to acquire this wood?
Note: I don’t even really need dimensional and perfect wood, I have a jointer and planer on the way so I could prep it myself.
Thanks so much! 🙂
Replies
CG,
The specs you provided are for ~23 board feet of cherry (assuming it has been milled from 4/4). The price for cherry varies a bit depending on the quality, figure and where you are located. I'm in Pennsylvania which is arguably the cherry capital of the known world. For high quality heart wood cherry, I'd probably pay $4.50 to $5.50/bf, or about $120 in total. Cherry can be more expensive out west. Local sawyers in the east will sometimes have cherry for considerably less.
The big box stores generally charge at least twice what you might pay at a sawyer for unmilled stock. Selection is limited, and the wood is milled, which means you cannot do a final milling without taking a real hit on thickness. I'm sure you must have some local hardwood dealers or sawyers in your area. You can buy on the internet, but shipping can be costly... so I would try locally first. A good hardwood dealer can order pretty much anything you want from cherry to wenge...
Good luck,
Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
Thanks! Any good place to use for a guide on dimensios? For instance, I am kindof confused about the terms likelinear, BF, etc. Is there a simple breakdown of how these boards are meassured?
It's pretty easy to get confused and for me the only way to figure it out was to go to a dealer and look. Most of them will be pretty helpful if you tell them you are new and trying to figure out what is going on. I have an Austin hardwood dealer here inthe Dallas Fort worth area and when I went in and told them I wanted to buy some wood (in this case, I wanted some walnut for a small box I wanted to make for my wife). They told me to go out where the wood is stored, look around, and get, "one of the guys" to figure up what I wanted.
The guy at the counter also asked me what kind of walnut I wanted....I didn't know there were different types, but he explained the difference by basically saying that one kind was fairly clear while the other kind had a lot of knots.
I looked at the boards, picked five (yea, I know, that small box became a lot more, but I really liked the way the wood looked and could think of several other projects ...so...... the worker laid the boards side by side, measured the width and length (they were about one inch thick) and handed me a paper to take inside showing how many board feet I bought.
In this case I wound up with fifty board feet....a lot more than I went for, but had walnut for all sorts of projects for some time.
Looking at what made up fifty board feet helped a lot in figuring out what that meant. You can get the definitions of basically one square foot one inch thick but looking at actual boards and having someone tell you what that means seemed to make a difference.
I did get a tape and the formula for calculating the board feet and double checked to be sure I wasnt being take for a ride since it was clear I didn't know what I was doing.
I also learned that 4/4 or in English, four quarters was four one fourth inch segments or one inch. Don't ask me why but buying lumber in the rough is figured in quarter inch segments. So, eight quarters is two inches, six quarters is an inch and a half, etc.
Not too long ago I needed to turn a number of dividers and decided to use ash. I called and asked if they had ash and the guy asked how much I needed. I told him I wanted a number of two by two sections about twelve inches long and he asked if I could do it with eight quarter thickness boards. I said yes and got a twelve inch wide, two inch thick and sixteen foot long board. It took me a week to have the heart to cut it up to use for the project I had. I just couldn't stand to take a board that nice and cut it up. And, he charged me a little less than two dollars a board foot.
I am going through some of the "trials and tribulations" of a new woodworker to try to let you know that you can do the same. Just find a dealer and go in, ask questions, don't be afraid to let them know you are new and let it be a fun experience. I enjoy going to Austin and looking at all the different types of wood they have, and in the process, am learing about what different woods look like, what they cost, and how much trouble I can get in when my wife finds out how much I spent. (I am so glad that I finished the keepsake box with her name inlayed in the top before she found out about the walnut!
It has been my experience that most of the folks involved in wood are really teriffic people who are more than happy to help a newcomer.
I recently made a trip to Tennessee to a saw mill and bought two thousand board feet of red oak at ninety three cents a board foot. Had to borrow a trailer to haul it and can now give you a pretty good idea of what two thousand board feet of lumber looks like. The guy at the sawmill wasn't quite as helpful as the folks at Austin, but then he had a pretty big operation going on and my purchase was really a small deal for him....but I am now using some of the most beatuiful red oak I have ever seen in remodeling my house.
Sorry, I did not mean this to be so long winded, but really wanted to let you know that I think the best way to learn is by jumping in with both feet. You may have to buy a minimum amount (two board minimum, that sort of thing) but the prices you will pay for the rough lumber will be much less. If you get lumber that has been planed on all four sides (top bottom and both edges) the price is a little more, but you can use what you buy without having the work of cleaning it up. In your part of the world I'll bet you will be able to find several different suppliers. woodfinder.com is a good place to go on the internet to find local suppliers. I strongly recommend a subscription to several different woodworking magazines, my favorite is fine wood working, but several others are out there that will give you a lot of good information.
There are also several internet sales places, e-bay has hundreds of listings for all kinds of wood and I have bought several really nice pieces there. I have not found anything in the mail order area that I thought was a really good deal, but several have fifty or one hundred board foot packages that should give you a lot to work with.
Don't forget that you can use pine. The local big box store here has 2x4's for a dollar eighty for a 96 inch long board. These can be sliced in half, or even thinner if you have a band saw. I recently saw a really beautiful dresser made from this material.
Finally, I built my first work bench, several projects, and a lot of jigs with free wood.....
There is a BMW motorcycle dealer close by and the wooden crates that these things are shipped in have some really nice lumber in them. The dealership throws them away and gave me permission to take all I wanted. The nails those things are put together with are awful...They did not make them to come apart. But with some work you can have a stack of usable wood with the only cost being the time and energy to pull the nails.
OK I've gone way longer than I intended......have a good time learning and don't be afraid to ask questions. I'll bet there is a woodworker close by that would be more than happy to advise and mentor....This forum is also a teriffic place to learn.
Wow! Thanks for taking your time to provide me with all that great information. I appreciate it! Its people like you that make forums rock :)
Best,Corbin
If you're interested in purchasing a significant amount of highly figured cherry, walnut, maple or mahogany and are willing to buy it sight unseen (e.g., internet buying), there is no better place to call than Irion Lumber company in Pennsylvania.
They have a 200 b.f. minimum shipment (can be mixed species), but Lou Irion is one of the best (and pickiest) in the business when it comes to matching cherry from one log, providing exceptionally wide boards if you need them, and charging a reasonable rate for ultra-premium wood. It will be considerably cheaper than $16/b.f. for small-size cherry that was cited in the other post. One really nice service they do is providing a "set" of boards appropriate for a specific project - for a new england highboy, for example. The set will consist of appropriate width boards for the outside case, appropriate thickness and grain orientation boards for the cabriole legs, and a set of matched drawer fronts - this beats the heck out of going to 2 or 3 suppliers trying to find all of the different sizes you need for a piece of furniture like this, to say nothing of getting a color match in cherry from different suppliers.
The wood will arrive by common carrier (i.e., a trucking company), so you generally have to go to the terminal and pick it up if you don't want to pay a local delivery charge.
I've bought nearly 2000 b.f. from them in the past, and will buy more from them when I need it.
What do you pay in shipping charges for a 200 to 300 bd ft package,and how far do you have it shipped from Irion?
Edited 5/24/2008 9:41 pm by tazzer
hey, that reminds me. CS Woods (Collector Specialty) is in southern Colorado. They make several trips to Denver, each month. They advertise in FWW. The delivery charge is inexpensive if you are in the Denver area. Call'em and check them out!
Impossible to say - depends on where you are. Irion ships by common carrier (i.e., truck freight companies) - UPS and Fed Ex are not equipped to deal with 14 foot long packages that may weigh as much as half a ton.
Irion is in Pennsylvania, I'm in Raleigh, NC, and my last shipment was by Con-Way about a year and a half ago. Shipping was about $350 on approximately 5000 lbs. of mahogany and curly maple. Of course, that was in the days of $2.50 diesel, so it might be considerably more now.
If you're interested, give Irion a call. They're very nice to talk to, and would be a whole lot better than I at knowing what a reasonable freight charge is for their products. They will -sometimes- make an exception and ship a small amount of lumber broken down into suitable lengths by UPS, generally because a customer has messed up and ruined a board out of set that he needs to complete a project.
Thank you for the kind words. Sorry to take so long to respond....just too many things to do and not enough time.....you probably know the story.
I can tell you are very enthusiastic about woodworking. That alone will carry you a long way if you are working on projects. Every piece you make should be the best you can do at that time. That can be difficult for the average person who has become accustomed to getting something done, no matter what, so they can go on to the next project. The thing is, that each piece is a learning experience and you will keep getting better and better. I don't think I have ever met or heard of anyone who thinks that they have achieved the best that can be done in woodworking.
You will do well...don't forget to enjoy what you do. That is really the reason for working with wood, along with the joy that you give to others with the items you make. What a great craft!
God bless!!
John
CG,A board foot of lumber is a board that is 12" long, 12" wide and 1" (or 4/4) thick. In essence, it is a volume of wood: 144 cubic inches. In this era of calculators, the easiest and most accurate way to figure a bf is to multiply length times width times thickness (all measured in inches) and divide by 144.So a board 87" by 7" by 6/4 is 87x7x1.5 = 913.5 cu in, divided by 144 = 6.3 bfIn your original example, assuming that 3/4 milled would be 4/4 unmilled, a board 60"x5.5"x4/4=330 cu in; divided by 144 is 2.3 bf. For 10 boards that's 23 bf. At $400, that's $17.39/bf (ouch!).Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
I live in Denver, Co. Look at Austin Hardwoods, Paxton and Centennial Hardwoods. All are local suppliers. expect to pay about $3.50 to $4.50ish a BF. Personally, i like Austin HW (santa fe and Mississippi) http://austinhardwoods.com/
Edited 5/22/2008 12:32 am ET by Tbagn
Others have pointed you to local sources. You can also refer to http://www.woodweb.com & http://www.woodfinder.com. Both of those sites offer a way to connect with providers. Good luck on the hunt.
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
My calculations indicate that your quote for cherry was $16 per bd ft. That is very high, even for the Denver area. Paxton's and Austin Hardwood will be less expensive, but still pricey. Woodcraft and Rockler carry hardwoods also, so you could call them. My preferred choice for reasonably priced cherry is Sears Trostel in Ft. Collins. But the drive is expensive if you only need a little wood. For the amount of wood you need, try Paxton's or Austin Hardwoods.
Good luck, Tom.
Man, I love these forums because I too had all these same questions that you have about getting "good wood" and I had to turn to the net also. Watching David Marks made me realize that wood can really make a project so I set out on the same quest you are doing.
Let's talk about the BDFT thing real quick. I simply say this. If you want your piece to be 3/4 or less then get 4/4. 1 inch thick get 5/4. If you want to resaw or bookmatch then you go 6/4 or higher (prefably 8/4). The calculation for the BDFT was already given and if you are familiar with Microsoft Excel I have created a handy little BDFT calculator that you can even plug in price and it will tell you what you need to order.
In terms of buying off the net, use woodfinder.com or the other wood site that was given. In terms of shipping, when you call the company see how they ship (UPS, DHL, FEDEX) and then go to that courier's website and do a shipping calculator. Be very careful because there are shipping restrictions and you will find a few little odd things. For instance, if my internet supplier puts my length down as >59" the shipping is about 6 dollars more. Also, I don't know if you can ship 23 bdft via the services I mentioned above so if you can't try this. Go to your yellow pages and lookup hardwood and you may get a bunch of cabinet makers or something like that. Call them and tell them you need some wood and if you get a nice one they will simply put your order in with one of theirs and you just buy directly off of them. I have to use this method to get in 4x8 sheets of plywood in with hardwood faces such as mahogany.
I use http://www.crlumber.com and the guy there Chad is GREAT, but it is in OH so I don't know if shipping would be in your favor. Also checkout http://www.hearnehardwoods.com they sometimes have what they call UPS bundles so they are designed to be able to be shipped via UPS.
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