How much do you pay

[Rick Gooden]

I'm in the southern Indiana area and buy between 100 ~ 300 bf of various hardwoods per month. I was wondering what those in St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati (sp), Louisville, and Nashville are paying for select or better cherry, walnut, hard and soft maple, etc. Do you ever use exotics like mahogany, brazillian cherry, paduch, etc. I pay $3.15 for cherry, $4 for walnut, $1.80 for soft maple, and $2 for hard maple. Just curious.

[Bob Hallowell]

I don't live in your target area but I just bought 300bf of 1st hickory for $1.10, 1st red oak is also $1.10 1st hard maple is $1.50 I think 1 cherry was $2.00

Bob

[johnny means]

I am in the Philadelphia PA area and pay twice what you pay?

[Stephen Saar]

I've haven't bought that much lumber, but I've been looking at advantagelumber.com since they have a pretty good selection, but their prices are a good bit above the prices you list. I'll have to see if I can find anything local (Atlanta) that has cheaper prices since apparently their prices aren't all that good.

[Bob Hallowell]

I am in the Philadelphia PA area and pay twice what you pay?

I buy straight from the mill, no middle man.

Bob

[Dave Lehnert]

I was in a Hardwood dealer in Milford, Ohio. (east side of Cincinnati) today and I THINK cherry was just under $5 foot.
The prices you post I would consider good.

What part of Indiana are you in and who is your Hardwood Dealer.
I run to Madison Indiana at times and would love to find so new Hardwood lumber sources.

[johnny means]

I buy straight from the mill, no middle man.

Bob

I buy from a very large wholesaler. Not sure if this area has any real mills (no logging around here).

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Rick,

Early this spring I paid over over $270 for 23 bf of 5/4 and 8/4 cherry. Hardwoods are hard to come by out here.

[Wayne Sparkman]

In St. Louis [actually outside a bit], $1.80/bf for fas cherry. $2.50/bf for bookmatched cherry. May have a gloat to share on some walnut that I will look at tomorrow evening.

I'm learning to start looking for mini-mills for better deals as well as for more obscure native hardwoods. Would love to find some apple.

[Vic Damone]

A pricelist for domestic woods from a dealer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

http://macbeath.com/products/lumber/domestics.html

[Prashun Patel]

I am in the Philadelphia PA area and pay twice what you pay?

I'm in the Central Jersey area and suffer the same problem, Johnny. I found a good source in Northern NJ for round $4.00/bf Cherry rough.

I've had some luck cruising Craigslist; in fact, some of the best buys appear to be in the Philly area. Too far for me.

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/tls/1342532705.html
http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/mat/1320781890.html

[Jerome Hanby]

I am in the Philadelphia PA area and pay twice what you pay?

Alabama here, and closer to 3x! But I don't buy in nearly those quantities.

[Bob Hallowell]

A pricelist for domestic woods from a dealer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

http://macbeath.com/products/lumber/domestics.html

WOW! how do you guys afford to work wood.

[Neal Clayton]

you have to consider that's san francisco, though. none/very little of that stuff is native to that area, except the fir, which in high quality form just like SYP is dwindling.

there are people here who saw red oak from bandsaw mills as a weekend hobby, it's everywhere. same goes for the red cedar that they sell for 6.50, which we use in lieu of home depot studs sometimes, even, because of its local abundance.

[Dan Gill]

I've heard that some of the best QSWO comes from Indiana. You might check your local prices on that. It's about $3.50 - $4 a b/f here in the DFW area.

[Brent Leonard]

On the western edge of the "midwest" (Topeka)

Hard maple $2.80
cherry $3.80+
all rough and you have to do alot of pile diving to find the good stuff.
I buy from a local saw mill

S2S-1E, where every board is perfect is double those prices.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

You guys make me sick. Nothing but pine is less than 6 bucks a foot in the middle of the ocean.

[Bob Hallowell]

You guys make me sick. Nothing but pine is less than 6 bucks a foot in the middle of the ocean.

yea but you have koa and other woods we dream of.

Bob

[Kyle Iwamoto]

yea but you have koa and other woods we dream of.

Bob


But it's not free. Koa is not free anyways..... We can get other free wood.

[James Reichman]

I don't live in your target area but I just bought 300bf of 1st hickory for $1.10, 1st red oak is also $1.10 1st hard maple is $1.50 I think 1 cherry was $2.00

Bob
Bob can you PM me with the mill contact #. I would be willing to take a ride for those prices.
Thanks
James

[Danny Hamsley]

I've haven't bought that much lumber, but I've been looking at advantagelumber.com since they have a pretty good selection, but their prices are a good bit above the prices you list. I'll have to see if I can find anything local (Atlanta) that has cheaper prices since apparently their prices aren't all that good.

Stephen,

I am just south of you in Perry, Ga and I have many species for sale at fair prices. E-mail me or respond here so we can talk if you need wood.

[Larry Frank]

I have been getting my hardwood from Hickory and Oak Sawmill in Michigan. You can check their website for prices. One thing that I notice is that there is some variation in grading and measuring. I will purchase from a place that gives me good value for the grade that I am purchasing.

[Chris Tsutsui]

Yeah Koa is nice. About 5 years ago in the big island, I bought a local branded Koa Ukelele as a souvenir because the grain looked so unique and it wasn't your average factory made instrument. (set me back 250 though)

Anyways, Austin Hardwoods prices hardwoods similar to other lumber yards in Southern California.

Hard Maple is close to $5/BF while a nice tiger, birds eye, or curly maple can be as high as $12-$15/BF.

Beech and Mahogany are priced almost identical to maple. The only decent step down in price is when you get poplar which will be $2-3/BF. Price is more expensive for the larger boards.

You know 5 years ago I was able to get a 1/2" sheet of MDF for $13.40, while now I have to spend like $20 per sheet... 5 years ago Maple was $4.49 for 8/4 and $4.18 for 5/4 and that's contractor's pricing. (I am looking at an old receipt)

Anyone know a Mill in southern california? I can imagine there should be one perhaps next to Disneyland or Staples Center that I don't know about.

[Wayne Sparkman]

A pricelist for domestic woods from a dealer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

http://macbeath.com/products/lumber/domestics.html

Did you note that those quoted lumber packs were 48 inch lengths.
The implication was that longer lengths would cost even more per bf.

[David Keller NC]

Generally speaking, I pay about $14-19 a b.f. for mahogany, about $10 for tiger maple, about $9 for cherry, and about the same ($9) for walnut, in 100 up to 400 b.f. quantities.

But there's a caveat - these come in widths of up to 37" for the mahogany, up to 22" for the walnut/cherry, and in matched flitches (including the mahogany). Most is highly figured. I'm in NC, most of the walnut's local, the maple/cherry and mahogany are from PA.

[whit richardson]

See I was just asking local Indy guys about better lumber places. If you are in Indiana the most popular is Frank Miller Lumber near Richmond. They actually will deliver but you have to take what the send you. I hear it's good. Outside of Indy a friend found Schimd Lumber, very good prices even for FAS quality.

Those of us in the Midwest are blessed because so many hardwoods are grown and harvested in our area. So you can find small mills or local lumber companies that have a wide range of prices. As for QSWO heck all the Amish Furniture companies in In, OH, Il all use it so there are tons of sources for it. I found a Perdue Prof running a small operation on the side that will do a whole tree for pretty cheap if you can handle the volume.

On the down side you have to enjoy watching corn and soybeans grow or harvested as your local landscape. (Very flat in many parts here)

[Doug Klann]

You looking for rough sawn? If so try biddergy.com. It is an online auction house that is a subsidiary company to the one I work for (Yes I am a bit biased) but they have been selling some great lumber cheap. Mostly Red Oak, Cherry and Walnut but if you pay attention you can get some great deals. I have some beautiful walnut that I got for roughly $0.70 a board foot.

[Doug Klann]

I have made several purchases from Hickory and Oak. Good prices. If you can get to his shop and look through his stock you can find some great lumber. Did find a few boards in my last purchase that were 4/4 on one end and tapered to a bit thinner on the other. Still highly recommend.

[Ben Abate]

I don't live in your target area but I just bought 300bf of 1st hickory for $1.10, 1st red oak is also $1.10 1st hard maple is $1.50 I think 1 cherry was $2.00

Bob



Bob,
I don't live too far from you only about an hour so for those prices that would be worth my drive. Could you let us folks that live in western Pa. where you can acquire wood that cheap. I'm sure you are talking about kiln dried lumber of course. I"m sort of familiar with the Dubois area.

thanks
Ben

[Bob Hallowell]

Bob,
I don't live too far from you only about an hour so for those prices that would be worth my drive. Could you let us folks that live in western Pa. where you can acquire wood that cheap. I'm sure you are talking about kiln dried lumber of course. I"m sort of familiar with the Dubois area.

thanks
Ben

No problem Ben, I have allreadt answered several pm's about it. They should give me some free wood for advertising:D

Rorabaugh Lumber Co

Burnside, PA 15721

(814) 845

[John M Bailey]

My latest purchase was 600 foot of red oak at 45 cents a foot.
I have walnut on the way for 70 cents.

[Ben Abate]

Thanks Bob,

I googled there location and they aren't really that far. I might jump on the motorcycle and go check them out. That's a nice ride thru that area, lots of good rodes. I would love to make a large purchase but the storage shed is full. But at those kind of prices I might be able to make some room somewhere. Is this there regular pricing?

thanks again
Ben

[Todd Hoppe]

My source:

http://theworkbench.com/pdf/current.pdf

[Kevin Barnett]

I'd say those prices pretty much mimic very low retail prices for rough sawn kiln dried boards. S4S will be something like $3.00 for oak, $6.00 for cherry, and $7.00 for walnut around STL or KC.

If you order hundreds of boards feet per month, they may be a little higher than what I'd expect, but not much.

As for me, I scour the local mills. The real bargains are at places that occassionally get logs that are better than what they typically market. They'll saw them up and just put them out for someone to drive by and buy. Right now, green FAS level wide (10")red oak can be had for $0.85/bft. Cherry and walnut are a little more. Do some searching next time you're in the country and stop by a mill. You may be surprised. I usually give a hard look at the lumber for infestation since this isn't kilned material. If in doubt, don't buy.

[Ben Abate]

Kevin,

You buy wood for an amazing price. I have probably 10 sawers names that I check with when I'm buying wood. I usually buy cherry in larger quantities like 500 bf at a time and I have never seen it that cheap. You're a lucky guy to be able to get those prices. I used to have a guy that would sell to me for $ 2.00 but that was 4-5 years ago and then he found the internet and raised all his prices and then priced himself out of business. That's one thing about living in Western Pa. There are a lot of saw mills and small sawers around but there are a lot of consumers and resalers also. I think I read once that 60-70 percent of the cherry consumed and sold in the US comes from a 50 mile radius of Cane Pa. which is about 100 miles north of Pittsburgh.

take care
Ben

[Ben Abate]

Well Bob,

I made out to the lumber dealer you recommended and you were right. A good bunch of fellows. That Rodger is a really nice guy, I guess he and brother Bob own the saw mill and wow the lumber they have on stock. His prices are a bit higher than you quoted but they are still very good. I paid $ 1.20 per/BF for FAS poplar 6/4. I thought that was a good price. Really nice stuff.

He gave me one of his price sheets. The Cherry is the highest price. $ 3.00 per/bf/FAS. but it goes down pretty well from there. I appreciate you turning me on to these guys....

thanks
Ben












I don't live in your target area but I just bought 300bf of 1st hickory for $1.10, 1st red oak is also $1.10 1st hard maple is $1.50 I think 1 cherry was $2.00

Bob