Would like your advice on wood

[Biff Johnson]

Today we cleaned out the wood storage loft at the school wood shop to make way for some donated material. We took out all the rough cut stuff, warped, twisted or wood otherwise beyond the students abilities.

We ended up with a 8' pickup with canopy full of very dry, very usable wood. Almost all of it is large pieces, up to 10' in length and some 12" and wider. It is mostly alder, cherry and walnut with some maple, too. It's been in climate controlled storage for 4-10 years. Not visible in the photos is shorter, thick blocks and slabs.

Our plan is to sell it in one lot, delivered locally. All the proceeds go to the wood shop program to purchase much needed supplies. My question to you folks is what do you think a fair asking price would be? I hope the buyer understands it goes to a great cause and will be extra generous! I have no clue how to price this...any advice?

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[Sam Murdoch]

If you can calculate the board footage and sell it all at $ 2.00 per board foot that would make sense & ¢ to a woodworker. Otherwise ask $ 100.00 for the load.
It won't be just any woodworker interested in this lot of orphans + it is outside in a pick up bed in March - not climate controlled anymore.
Sorry not to be more positive :(.

Sam

[Randy Gazda]

Another option is to put it on Craiglist and ask for offers. Or find somewhere that woodworkers gather, woodworkers gild or woodturners club and auction it off.

Just a couple of thougths.

[Biff Johnson]

Thanks for the input, guys. Sam, it is inside...just had to take the picture outside, truck is in the shop now.

$100 seems awfully low...I'm just basing that off what I see for similar boards at Woodcraft, etc.

Should I unload it all and do a better job categorizing and photographing it? While I'm not looking forward to it, I want to get the best value for the school!

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Biff
Post it on Craigslist with good pictures with species of the wood & board footage under heading Hardwood Lumber for, Portland, Eugene and Corvallis. Good cherry @ Crosscut in Portland is going for $6-8 BF or for more 12/4. Tom

[Dan Hahr]

If I read correctly, this is all the "rough cut stuff, warped, twisted or wood otherwise beyond the students abilities". Well the rough cut isn't much of an issue, except that it sometimes hides the defects within. Warped and twisted means not dried properly and means lots of short limited use boards to me. The single boards leaning against the wall may look like interesting boards to some, but to most, useless waste from the middle of a skinny unstable tree. There seems to be very little in the way of uniform, similar boards that would be necessary to build something larger than a small project.

I would offer the owner a $1.00 a board foot for the FAS boards and .50 a bf for the rest, excluding the boards containing pith, large knots, spalted wood, deep gouges, holes, knots, etc.

I think that $100 is a very generous offer based on what you are showing (and describing.)

Just my take, Dan

[Bobby O'Neal]

Have students break it down into useable shorts. Practice hand work and surfacing. Build boxes. Sell boxes. Buy supplies.

[Biff Johnson]

We just don't have enough class time to spend on that and we needed this stuff out of the way.
All I was looking for was a suggestion on where to start on pricing it.

I'm going to unload it all, separate and take pictures. Hopefully we will get more money for it that way.

[Bobby O'Neal]

In that case, I agree that $100 for the lot is generous but you could likely get more if you took the time to separate, measure and grade it all.

[Matt Day]

Based on the pictures I'd likely buy it for $100, because it looks like some of it will take quite a bit of work to mill up from the bow/twist. There might be more value in the better pieces but it's tough to tell.

[Jim Rimmer]

Here's my take on it as a hobbyist. Assuming you or I were in the same area and if I had room for it, I would probably give $200 for the lot and would certainly give $100. I think I could get that much good stock out of it. Professional guys to whom time is money won't be interested but hobbyists will be.

[Greg Portland]

Our plan is to sell it in one lot, delivered locally. All the proceeds go to the wood shop program to purchase much needed supplies. My question to you folks is what do you think a fair asking price would be? I hope the buyer understands it goes to a great cause and will be extra generous! I have no clue how to price this...any advice?
Biff, approximately where are you located (Portland metro?, Eugene?, etc.). Anyway, the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers would be a good place to start. To be blunt, most pro woodworkers would rather just donate cash/tools/time to the school instead of dealing with warped boards. However, carvers, pen turners, and small box makers would be worth tracking down (they don't mind cutting around the 'bad' wood).


I'm going to unload it all, separate and take pictures. Hopefully we will get more money for it that way.I agree, you're going to get the most $$$ that way.

[Paul Johnstone]

If you could sort it out, I agree that would help.
Most hobbyists aren't going to want to buy a mixed lot.
Just to give you a comparison.. There's a sawmiller in our area that periodically has mixed species lots of 100 boardfeet, he charges $60.
This is mainly extra stuff he has hauled to his house to sell and he doesn't want to drive it back to storage. Nice stuff.. but how many people want 100 board feet of mixed species? Not many. Add to the fact that your stuff is considered rejects by you.
It's just not very attractive.. I think $100 is about right.
If you inventoried it by piece .. 20 board feet of alder. pieces measure X .. then you might be able to ask for more.

You are definitely selling it for a worthy cause, but the cold reality is that people probably won't pay extra to support the school.

[Biff Johnson]

Ok, you guys made me use my brain and my brawn today!

Unloaded the whole mess into a trailer where it is easier to view. By my very conservative calculations there is 221 BF, mostly of alder and cherry. There are some really thick planks (8/4) that I believe is oak. I didn't count any of the rough "hobby wood" pieces shown against the barn door in my calculations. Soooo...after seeing this and knowing it is going for a good cause do you think I have more than $100 worth? I value your input so please let me know what you
think. For reference, the trailer is 5x10'.226507226508226509226510226511

[Bobby O'Neal]

Interesting. For that much, I'd bump my thoughts up to $200. Under $1/bf for dried cherry and alder sounds good. Did you grade it out? Even ungraded I'd say $200 is very reasonable.

[Sam Murdoch]

There are some nice projects in that pile but lots of kindling too. The 8/4 oak might be worth most of the 1st $100.00. The rest could yield some good useful stock, but if I this was not be sold to help out the school I would stop at $100.00. As a school benefit I think you could ask and get the $200.00.
Good luck with it.

Sam

[Biff Johnson]

I didn't grade it....I was thinking in my untrained mind that $200 would be a good number...plus delivery and unloading by budding woodworkers is negotiable. That should be worth something!:)

[Jim Matthews]

I don't know what Craigslist produces for buyers in your area - we have mostly bottom feeders answering our adverts.

The idea is to clear shop space and generate some revenue, is that correct?
List 200 bf, $2 per board foot, discount for the lot. If someone shows with cash and will cart it all away, anything over $100 is gravy.

This is rough stock, and someone will need to put in time to get it usable.
On the plus side, some of it is quite long, which is better than 200 bf of shorts.

jim
the other coast

[Biff Johnson]

I am in Eugene and belong to the Guild. I posted an ad on their forum but there is no means to post photos yet.

[Zach Callum]

Another option is to put it on Craiglist and ask for offers. Or find somewhere that woodworkers gather, woodworkers gild or woodturners club and auction it off.

Just a couple of thougths.


Auction it off.

[Dan Hahr]

I don't see much cherry. It all looks very light to me. I don't see any lumber that looks like it would grade FAS. A lot of it looks very un-usable in full size boards. I would never pay for wood of that quality. I buy a lot of "used" wood, that is, wood that someone bought and never used, then needed to get rid of it. The most I'd pay for cherry that is not perfect is about 2.00/bf. Oak in that condition can be bought for .30/bf.

No offense, but none of it looks like anything that someone would take a chance on for $100. I might figure out how much a similar size load of firewood sells for and ask something near that.

Just to be fair, and to explain my negative opinion, I am always looking for good lumber and I have spent the time to make sure that my time and money is well spent. If someone wanted 200 bf of #2 lumber, I would think they could obtain twice the useable wood for about $1.00 bf and have much less worries about whether it was going to twist, warp, split, etc. over time...

My time is worth much more than a little extra scrap lumber. That said, if you were close to me, I'd make you a fair offer, but it wouldn't be much over $50 unless there are some really clear, figured pieces in that pile.
Dan

[Biff Johnson]

Thanks Dan, for your, uh, input. Have to pass on your $50 offer though.

As they say on the radio, have a positive day!


I don't see much cherry. It all looks very light to me. I don't see any lumber that looks like it would grade FAS. A lot of it looks very un-usable in full size boards. I would never pay for wood of that quality. I buy a lot of "used" wood, that is, wood that someone bought and never used, then needed to get rid of it. The most I'd pay for cherry that is not perfect is about 2.00/bf. Oak in that condition can be bought for .30/bf.

No offense, but none of it looks like anything that someone would take a chance on for $100. I might figure out how much a similar size load of firewood sells for and ask something near that.

Just to be fair, and to explain my negative opinion, I am always looking for good lumber and I have spent the time to make sure that my time and money is well spent. If someone wanted 200 bf of #2 lumber, I would think they could obtain twice the useable wood for about $1.00 bf and have much less worries about whether it was going to twist, warp, split, etc. over time...

My time is worth much more than a little extra scrap lumber. That said, if you were close to me, I'd make you a fair offer, but it wouldn't be much over $50 unless there are some really clear, figured pieces in that pile.
Dan

[Michael Mayo]

Thanks Dan, for your, uh, input. Have to pass on your $50 offer though.

As they say on the radio, have a positive day!

No need to get testy Biff. You asked for honest opinions and Dan gave you his. It is a great cause you are championing for but the grim reality is you are going to have a hard time making the kind of cash you were hoping for selling that wood. It sucks because wood is expensive to purchase but that wood is usually wood that needs very little milling to start making things out of it. Sounds to me like if you can get someone to bite for $100-200 you should take the money and run. I think that the CL idea is probably your best bet and hope for a less than knowledgeable buyer.

[Biff Johnson]

Not testy at all, just didn't like the inferences that were dropped pretty heavily. I appreciate valuable input. I may not have the vast knowledge of some of the folks here but show me where you can buy an entire trailer full of hardwoods, even rough stuff, for $50?

Nobody likes their time wasted, least of all me!

[Royce Meritt]

I think we need to "BACK THE TROLLY UP" a bit. Some of us seem to be getting a bit defensive.

Mr. Johnson, I'm going to try to provide you with a bit of prospective. Earlier in this thread you mentioned looking at WOODCRAFTS prices. This is not meant to be a bash of Woodcraft. They are nice stores and do their job well. However, their niche, in the lumber market is to sell one or 2 boards to a hobbiest for a small project or to finish a project and I ran a little short on Cherry lumber. I went to their site and did a little calculating. They are selling cherry for almost $15 a board foot. I don't know anyone who would pay that price for cherry unless it was an emergency or they only needed a very small amount so that it wouldn't be worth the trouble to drive somewhere else or pay shipping charges.

Also, keep in mind that Woodcraft sells wood that is surfaced on all four sides and would be considered FAS grade. The wood you have is in the rough and has a fair amount of defects. I'm not sure some of it would even grade out at #2. Out of the 200+ board feet you have I doubt there is even 100 BF of USABLE material. I doubt anyone is going to pay more than $1 per board foot for lumber they have to work that hard at to yield such a small percentage of usable lumber. Not trying to sound like some sort of big shot, but I rarely pay more than $2 a board foot for rough lumber and it would have to be a lot better quality than what you are offering for me to pay that.

I know you wanted to hear good news from all of us. Unfortunately this simply isn't going to be the windfall for your program that you wanted it to be. The quality just isn't there for this to be a money maker for you and the kids. It pains me to say this because I am a teacher as well. I understand the trouble with budgets and trying to do the best for your students as possible. Unfortunately, it just isn't going to happen here.

[Biff Johnson]

Thanks for everyone's input. Sold today for $200. The guy was pumped to have it and didn't even try to haggle on price, although I did comp delivery since it was relatively close. He said he figured he could use about 3/4 of it and the rest would go into his fireplace to heat his shop!

[Royce Meritt]

Excellent! Glad it worked out for you and more importantly for your students!

[Greg Portland]

Thanks for everyone's input. Sold today for $200. The guy was pumped to have it and didn't even try to haggle on price, although I did comp delivery since it was relatively close. He said he figured he could use about 3/4 of it and the rest would go into his fireplace to heat his shop!
I think this was a good price for both parties. For people reading, the cost of Cherry in Oregon is $5+ a bf and ~$8 for walnut. This is the local dealer price for FAS, not the "sawyer is trying to get rid of it" price.

[Thomas Canfield]

It was not mentioned, but the wide boards could be cut down to large disks for turning plates and plattersand utilize boards that may be cupped, twisted, or waney and otherwise hard to use until cut down to shorter or narrower sections. I have done that with some cheap boards in the past and also for leftover material to clear the stash.

[Tom Walz]

Biff,

Did you get my check, the woodburning kit and the old braces?

I also emailed you some fundraising info other groups are using.

I am glad things are going better. How about some pictures?

Is there a market for Burl wood? What about Madrona and Myrtlewood.

Tom

[Biff Johnson]

Hi Tom!

Your package showed today! Of course the candy was a big hit!:) Most the kids were gone for a field trip and basketball game so we are going to present the braces next class. We thought we would cover some of the "primitive" tools we have like the handplanes and draw knife as well. I'll stop by the office and make sure the check made it.

The saws also arrived back from sharpening from Jerrimy. What a fantastic job they did...I've never seen a saw shop with such attention to detail, right down to the engraving of the clients name on the blades.

I liked the fundraising ideas you sent. The try square looks like a great project they can treasure for a long time.