Source for hardwood

Jim Fitzgerald · Aug 29, 2006

I've used these people for some of the Walnut that I need for my 8x20. Great service the prices are in line and the quality is very good. they have lots of thin stock available and if you need something special they will mill it for you and not charge an arm and a leg for it. The company is Ken Craft Co Inc. in Toledo Ohio. Their web address is www.kencraftcompany.com. Tonia and Tracy are nice people care about quality and are genuinely nice to deal with. Check them out if you need some wood.

Jim

greyhoundman · Aug 29, 2006

I can second Jim's recommendation. I've purchased from them many times. They also have a very good selection of exotics for those standout trim pieces.

Allen Friday · Aug 29, 2006

My source for walnut is a little different. I walk through the timber on my farm, select a good walnut tree, cut it down, paint the cut ends and let it sit for a year. I then take it to a local saw mill. The boards get stacked on lathe in a barn for 10 to 20 years and presto, they are ready to use. I have wood harvested in 1980, 1992 and 1995 stacked in the barn. And no, it is not for sale.

Reinhold · Aug 29, 2006

If you're in the Pacific Northwest, don't overlook Crosscut Hardwoods in Seattle, Portland, and Eugene. They have the best "candy store" for wood nuts and other folks who just can't resist fine woods.

Dead Link Removed

I'm with Barry and established tradition; cherry is my wood of choice for cameras. According to my handbook on cabinet making, cherry is noted for it's stability, warp resistance, check resistance, split resistance, shock resistance, and high bending strength. (But, I like walnut too...)

Reinhold

Colin Graham · Aug 29, 2006

Cherry is the perfect hardwood. But my it's getting expensive. Close to $8 a board foot now at Edensaw Hardwoods. Apparently the Chinese are buying up the domestic hardwoods along with the steel and copper.

Jim Fitzgerald · Aug 29, 2006

Allen Friday said:
My source for walnut is a little different. I walk through the timber on my farm, select a good walnut tree, cut it down, paint the cut ends and let it sit for a year. I then take it to a local saw mill. The boards get stacked on lathe in a barn for 10 to 20 years and presto, they are ready to use. I have wood harvested in 1980, 1992 and 1995 stacked in the barn. And no, it is not for sale.

Allen, It must be very rewarding to see the wood from start to finish. I'm by the beach in California and I plan on harvesting my local sand pile if any one is interrested. Don't they use sand for polishing glass? If I sell a few hundred tons maybe I can pay for a holder or two for the 8x20! Seriously, I love Walnut and it would be nice to have it in my backyard.

Jim

Photographica · Aug 29, 2006

Allen Friday said:
My source for walnut is a little different. I walk through the timber on my farm, select a good walnut tree, cut it down, paint the cut ends and let it sit for a year. I then take it to a local saw mill. The boards get stacked on lathe in a barn for 10 to 20 years and presto, they are ready to use. I have wood harvested in 1980, 1992 and 1995 stacked in the barn. And no, it is not for sale.

If you live in the US Midwest, there is a gold mine of very old wood in the barns of many farmers. I've attended several farm auctions and there is often a pile of wood in the barn that goes for a few dollars (or less). Those piles contain black walnut, oak (red and white), cherry, poplar, hazelnut, osage orange and many other kinds for pennies per board foot. There, the secret is out....

Bill Riley

epatsellis · Aug 30, 2006

$8 a BD FT??? gee, I just bought about 100 bdft of quarter sawn cherry for alot less than that, dried to 8%, milled to spec. (planed top and bottom)

erie

Dan Dozer · Aug 30, 2006

I've been buying my Makore on Ebay from jholden420. Typical cost is about $7 per board that is about 6" x 72" rough sawn and with shipping comes to about $22 (around $7/bd. ft.).

Harrigan · Aug 30, 2006

If you get involved in your local wood turning group you'll gain access to alot of good wood for cheap. Many people have mills and cut their own wood and turners usually dont use the straight grain wood so its available. I never pay more than 2-3 BF for cherry, walnut whatever. The problem being the wood is usually 10-12% air dry and requires finish drying before making precision pieces. The benefit is air dry walnut retains its natural color where as kiln dry walnut is flat and shows no character. I have about 200-300 Bf of cherry I paid nothing for it. I have 300 bf of walnut paid 1.50 bf. really.

I do cringe when I see the prices charged for thin stock. If you need a thin board I have a precision laguna bandsaw capable of slicing veneer and could slice for you, but this is not my buisness so I cant do it all the time.

Colin Graham · Aug 30, 2006

epatsellis said:
$8 a BD FT??? gee, I just bought about 100 bdft of quarter sawn cherry for alot less than that, dried to 8%, milled to spec. (planed top and bottom)

erie

Thanks for rubbing it in! Everything is too damn expensive out here on the olympic pennisula... And I have to drive an hour and a half to get to Edensaw!

Allen Friday · Aug 30, 2006

Photographica said:
If you live in the US Midwest, there is a gold mine of very old wood in the barns of many farmers. I've attended several farm auctions and there is often a pile of wood in the barn that goes for a few dollars (or less). Those piles contain black walnut, oak (red and white), cherry, poplar, hazelnut, osage orange and many other kinds for pennies per board foot. There, the secret is out....

Bill Riley

Ten years ago, I remodeled and added onto my 1960s era ranch style house. I have always loved wood floors and wanted to replace the shag carpet with wood. My wife and I spent the summer ripping pine and fir flooring out of abandoned farm houses. I have to be careful--my wife weilds a mean crowbar. Some of the floors were covered 8" deep in old plaster, dirt, coon dropings, etc.

We got enough flooring to do the entire upstairs of the house. I planed it down, scraped out the grooves and cleaned the tounges. When the first coat of poly hit the floor, the patina of 100 year old wood popped. The old wood is much richer than that which you can buy today.

We also salvaged window and door moldings and the 2x8 floor joists from the old houses. I built a table out of the floor joists for our dining room. Total cost for flooring, moldings and joists, $0. But, a lot of sweat equity. The rest of the joists are stored in a barn for future projects.

barryjyoung · Aug 31, 2006

OK,,,my mouth is watering...where does one buy this inexpensive quartersawn cherry? I have been using plain sawn hit and miss cherry that I get for less than $4, but the yard where I buy it seems to have math problems which always seems to work in their favor. For example, the last hit and miss board I bought was 1 inch thick, 6 inches wide and 144 inches long. By my calculations, that is exactly 6 board feet. The board was marked 8bf and they would not believe me that it was only 6. I really wanted this particular board because the grain pattern was tight and straight as a Nebraska road. So I paid them even though I know they were lying. I am now looking for an honest lumber yard who carry quartersawn cherry. Thank you in advance.

epatsellis said:
$8 a BD FT??? gee, I just bought about 100 bdft of quarter sawn cherry for alot less than that, dried to 8%, milled to spec. (planed top and bottom)

erie

Jim Fitzgerald · Aug 31, 2006

Thanks for everone's input. I think it is nice to share resources on hardwoods. Some of us have it in their back yards and some of us have to buy on line or locally. I know that for my needs and due to my limited shop I have to buy thin stock that is milled to finish thicknesses. I can then tool it to the size I need. Keep the sources coming. I think we could all use it.

Jim

Colin Graham · Sep 2, 2006

Hi Barry-
Are you going to Compton Lumber? I'd drive to Seattle for $4 a boardfoot, even if they were a bit creative with their math. I checked the Crosscut website Dead Link Removed and it's showing their 4/4 cherry at 8.95 a bdft. (and the quartersawn at 11.95!) Thanks.

phfitz · Sep 2, 2006

Hi there,

Barry and Colin, there is a commercial hardwood company in Pacific, WA. I forget the name but will be in that area and check it out. Personally I have found some trully stellar boards on ebay and have never had a problem with any dealer. The shipping is a killer but I won't tolerate someone overcharging me 34% and laughing in my face.

Good luck with it.

John Bartley · Sep 2, 2006

A good and also cheap source for hardwood is right in front of most of our noses. Don't laugh now, but shipping pallets often contain woods that would be very expensive if bought as "hardwood" in a store. The trick is to "see" the wood and then get it off the pallet rails without damaging it.

cheers

Curt · Sep 2, 2006

Don't forget to dumpster dive around cabinet shops. Several years ago, at least five, I found two long brown boards sticking out of a dumpster. They are three inches thick by about twelve inches wide and each nearly eight feet long. Now I don't know what was going on with them or why or who tossed them out but I can say that it was someones big mistake. They turned out to be Honduran Mahogany and the best I have seen. They are in my shop and I intend to make cameras out of them. I don't think in a lifetime I will ever have such a find. Now days I can't dumpster dive anymore. I used to find all the oak and cherry I needed at the local cabinet shop. The owner lived across the intersection from my house and if he saw me at the bin in back of the shop he would come out with all sorts of goodies. He knocked on my door one day and had an arm load of Gum wood. Oh the good old days. I still have not figured out what to make out of the Gum.

Jim Fitzgerald · Sep 2, 2006

Curt & John, great tips! I know imported Tile and stone comes in on Mahogany pallets sometimes. Most of the local pallets I've seen are Oak. Good ideas guys. Thanks.

Jim

Curt · Sep 2, 2006

Jim get a metal detector if you are going to use used wood because of the staples and nails that sometimes appear when you are running the wood through your good blades. Also watch for mold and bugs etc. in some of the pallets. Oak is used in some of the pallets but be selective in your choice and remember that they don't use cabinet grade hardwoods in pallets. It is the ultimate in recycling though. Check out the cabinets shops if any are in your area, they often toss out what are scraps to them not to us. Some have boxes and I have had to compete with wood stove owners for the good stuff. It's harder in the fall when the wood stove owners come out in droves to get starters.

mgb74 · Sep 3, 2006

We have new, custom cherry cabinets in our kitchen. I'd have to believe that, as Curt suggests, there are lots of 6" wide stock under 12" long that are leftover.

Also, I just saw in a circular that Rockler has their cherry for $5 a bf.

Claire Senft · Sep 3, 2006

Wherever you are located do not ignore the trees in your area.

Robert Hall · Sep 3, 2006

Claire Senft said:
Wherever you are located do not ignore the trees in your area.

How does one cut Sage Brush?

Greg_E · Sep 10, 2006

Jim Fitzgerald said:
I've used these people for some of the Walnut that I need for my 8x20. Great service the prices are in line and the quality is very good. they have lots of thin stock available and if you need something special they will mill it for you and not charge an arm and a leg for it. The company is Ken Craft Co Inc. in Toledo Ohio. Their web address is www.kencraftcompany.com. Tonia and Tracy are nice people care about quality and are genuinely nice to deal with. Check them out if you need some wood.

Jim

I sent them an email about something that I think I need. Looking for some 1 inch square hardwood to use for building a tripod. Also need some 1/4 inch square for the guide rails. Hopefully they can help me out with some somewhat finished lumber. I don't have the tools to plane it down or anything like that, so just cutting out for the guide rails is going to be difficult.

Jim Fitzgerald · Sep 10, 2006

Greg_E said:
I sent them an email about something that I think I need. Looking for some 1 inch square hardwood to use for building a tripod. Also need some 1/4 inch square for the guide rails. Hopefully they can help me out with some somewhat finished lumber. I don't have the tools to plane it down or anything like that, so just cutting out for the guide rails is going to be difficult.

Greg E, tell them I sent you and they will take good care of you. I told them I would refer fellow APUGers to them as a courtesy because I found them a pleasure to deal with.Their thin stock is milled with a very fine finish because they use a special blade. I don't know much about the process but all of the Walnut I purchased from them was top notch. Ask Tonia to have Tracy cut the material to your spec's and I'm sure they will take care of you.

Stay Focused....or Soft Focused!!!

Jim

Source for hardwood

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