Hardwood prices

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178
I guess I'm getting very old. I used to buy hardwood measured in board-feet. The other day I looked at hardwood in a catalog and they now sell hardwood by the inch. Just my two cents worth.

DKT
 
Reputable lumber yards and sawmills still sell lumber by the board foot - it's only the high-priced mail-order catalog places that sell by the inch---I guess they think they are fooling someone. And if you sit down and figure out the price, you will be paying about twice the going rate at a sawmill/lumber yard for the same lumber.

Just another way to shaft the woodworking community.

Nancy
 
As Nancy said, most if not all yards sell by the board foot. Some give you the choice of rough, skip planed (or hit & miss), and S2S. I prefer rough if I can get it, not always possible out in the desert. :doh:

I've never purchased wood through a catalog vendor, I'd always assumed that the price reflected the level of dressing and their intended market. Isn't it usually listed as "project wood" or some such? Guess I figured it was geared towards customers without the equipment required for flattening, surfacing, and thicknessing, but still wanted to make a little box or something. :huh:
 
The Borg's fault !

When I started doing this for $ the only place I knew to get red oak was the borg. Trick is they sell " dimensioned " peices. In order to facilitate mail order ( or on line ) most outfits sell it as the same. You pay BUNCHES for smeone else to cut and smooth the peices. I finaly wandered into a hardwood lumber company just for laughs and drool over a room of hardwood. Got talking and found not only did they sell by the board foot (a formula I STILL can't get through my GI mind ) the wood is pretty well smooth and ready to go, not to mention less than half the cost as " dimensiond " from the Borg. I get " 5/4 " boards even if I'm going to have it milled down to 3/8ths and its STILL half the cost. If an outfit doesn't sell by the board foot I figure I'm paying WAY to much. Go looking for a place that does. You just can't go wrong. Sorry for running on but it was one of those blinding moments in my life !
 
...Got talking and found not only did they sell by the board foot (a formula I STILL can't get through my GI mind ) the wood is pretty well smooth and ready to go, not to mention less than half the cost as " dimensiond " from the Borg. I get " 5/4 " boards even if I'm going to have it milled down to 3/8ths and its STILL half the cost. ...

For a board that is one inch thick or less, a board foot is a square foot. For a board that is more than 4/4, say 5/4, then multiply the square feet by 5/4 (or whatever the thickness). See "How to buy Hardwood" at www.solowoodworker.com/woodworking/buyhardwood.html

I no longer like rough cut lumber, since I have to at least skip plane it to see the color, grain, sapwood, etc. before I can select my boards.

The lumber yard where I get most of my wood today caters largely to the cabinet shops, so practically everything is s2s to 13/16 or 7/8, which gives me the chance to do the final planing to eliminate dings, etc.

I think you will find 4/4 lumber ample to get to 3/4 or less, which will save you about 20% or more over buying 5/4
 
Formula is Length (in inches) X Width (in inches) X Thickness (in inch incruments) Devided by 144 .

L x W x T /144 = BdFt

As a rule, all measurements are in Whole Inches unless otherwise designated.
 
LUV to do it !

:rofl:but I think ship'n back and forth brings it back up to the Borg $ ! No, they plane it down then run it through one of those monster Time-Saver sanders ( drool ! ). 8 bucks a board and I'm happy.
 
'Clean up' is subjective... I've seen some absolute crap rough 4/4 material that was twisted so badly you'd never get it flat in your home shop and end up with 13/16... but when they shoot it through the double face planer, it comes out 'BORG' 3/4".
 
Just curious what prices are elsewhere? Below is the price sheet for one of my suppliers. I mostly buy the white oak #1 ($1.75 bd ft) and red oak #1 ($1.90 bd ft) which has a few knots, but far and few between and still better quality than the borg store. Have to do the planing since it is planed once on each side and sawed straight on one edge.
 

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Darren, when we were in West Tennessee at the end of August, we bought 4/4 red oak for $1.00 b/f, FAS, and hard maple for $2.05 b/f---direct from the sawmill. I'm sure that those prices won't hold for a lumber yard in KC, but that was the wholesale price plus $.05 at the time.

Nancy
 
WOW ! . . .

I must be paying a lot to have the Red Oak trucked into El Paso. Happened to have my ticket from the other day here in my shop jacket. $ 2.99 b/f. And its STILL cheaper than The BORG !
 
Another reason why I almost always watch the auction listings locally. Last month at an auction, I got 175 b/f of good walnut at $0.50 per b/f. Also got four 4X4 36" long cherry post, tweleve 2 1/2 X 2 1/2 36" long cherry post as well as some cherry boards in various sizes for $10.00.
 
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