How much to take off of 6/4 lumber, when planing?

[dirk martin]

I ordered some 6/4 lumber from a local Amish sawmill.
It's now been cut, and delivered to my dryer.
Should be coming out of his kiln any day now.
He also offers surfacing of dried stock.

I bit off more than I can chew, so I'll be selling some of this. I simply ordered too much.
How much should I ask him to plane off, such that I can truly sell it as 6/4 ?
He told me he'll plane it down to whatever I want....

[Jim Wheeler]

Six quarter, eight quarter, etc. refers to the thickness of lumber as measured green and in the rough or unplaned state. Hardwoods used to be sawn a bit fat so that often the rough, dry thickness was at least nominal and sometimes even a bit more. At any rate after the wood has been surfaced it is always less than nominal thickness. Finished thickness will depend on length and width, straightness etc. It will also depend on whether the wood is fully surfaced s2s or just skip-planed enough to straighten it. And it will also depend on whether you want the wood to all be thicknessed to the same dimension or are willing to accept random thicknesses.

If you want it all fully finished, s2s and all to the same thickness, then you should be able to get at least one and a quarter inch thickness out of it unless it is badly warped. If it were me, I'd tell him to leave it as thick as possible and take off only as much as needed to straighten the boards.

Jim

He who welds steel with flaming pine cones may accomplish anything!​

[Kent A Bathurst]

Six quarter, eight quarter, etc. refers to the thickness of lumber as measured green and in the rough or unplaned state. ​


Ummmm...I think, actually, that it refers to the dimension of dried rough lumber [meaning, not surfaced / planed]. 5/4 dried is 1.25" +/-; 6/4 is 1.5; etc.

I [almost] never buy surfaced / planed, because I want it the full rough dimension [1.25, 1.50, etc] so I can joint and plane it myself. I don't want the 6/4 planed down to a finished 1.25", nor the 5/4 planed down to 1.00", nor the 4/4 planed down to 0.75"......

The [almost] is super high-end specialty like curly maple, where the supplier gets it dead smooth, and dead flat, and ready to go - that way I don't have to worry about tearout on stuff of that $$$ level.

If you want to sell it, it needs to be dried and at the 6/4 or 8/4 dimension. That is how the industry works.

[Cody Colston]

I assume that since you bought rough-sawn stock, you have the capability to thickness it. I wouldn't do anything to it after it is dried because the buyer may want a different dimension than what you decide on. Leave it as-is and offer it as 6/4. If the buyer wants something thinner, offer to plane it for a fee.