Tools? Sure. Lumber? Slow down now.

[Terry Wawro]

Over the years I've noticed that I have no problem coming up with the money to buy tools, but I definitely have trouble opening the old wallet when it comes to buying the more pricey lumber for projects.

For example, the wife wants a new dining table; preferably made of black walnut. I'm fortunate enough to have a separate shop with nice power tools that total several thousand dollars in cost. I've got no problem with that. Yet I'm balking at the thought of spending the close to five hundred dollars on the lumber to make the table.

Need it made out of poplar? No problem, I'll get right on it. Sheet goods for built in bookcases? Let's get it done. Custom piece out of walnut or mahogany? A frugal part of my brain kicks in and says "Woah woah, slow down there Bill Gates. Lets think this through." And it gets put off.

I think a lot of it is my frugal nature. I almost always will wait to buy something till it's on sale. Tools included. The flip side is that lumber never seems to go on sale. So I put it off and over time it just increases in price.

Any fellow woodworkers wrestle with this?

[Michelle Rich]

yes, and no. Furniture is an investment for what could be life. I am still using cherry/walnut/ curly maple furniture I made over 30 yrs ago. Make something you truly love once. And if your wife desires walnut, and the budget can swing it, it seems to be a slam dunk.

[Van Huskey]

I know where you are coming from. Wood is the part of woodworking that I balk at the most, I do still spend good money on good wood though. I don't fully understand it but I think it is a natural inclination, my friends that are not woodworkers don't seem surprised at the cost of machines but showing them a single (gorgeous) wide 10' walnut board and telling them it cost about $150 always seems to floor them.

[Jacob Mac]

Where I get cheap is maximizing yield from a board and not necessarily picking the pieces from the board that will look the best. I have to constantly remind myself to choose for optimum beauty, not yield.

[Peter Christensen]

I'm going to drive 5 1/2 hours to Edmonton to get 4/4 Black Walnut shorts for $6.70 a bf next week and that's with a friends military discount. Does that make you feel a little better?

[Robert Hazelwood]

At least a dining table is something that is will get used daily, and is likely to last and get handed down. If you get really nice wood, I doubt you will remember or care what it cost in 5 years.

[andrew whicker]

Only $500? Must be a 4/4 top

: )

[glenn bradley]

Reality check. I rarely get out of the lumber yard for under $500 and I’m just a hobbyist.

[Jerry Wright]

Quote that I have always liked: "Life is too short to use crappy wood." Same applies to hardware. If you value your time and effort.......

[David Kumm]

I'm lucky in that I have a wholesale distributor who sells to me. Price is close to retail and I buy minimum 100 bd ft increments and store what I don't use. I sometimes overdo the maximizing the yield thing though. Dave

[Brian Henderson]

Reality check. I rarely get out of the lumber yard for under $500 and I’m just a hobbyist.

The only reason that's true of me is because the lumber yard is so far away that I have to buy a LOT of wood to make the trip worthwhile. So I buy for multiple upcoming projects, sometimes as much as a year out, just to make it worth the time and gas to go.

[Ron Citerone]

Working with really nice wood is a real pleasure. With that said, there are opportunities if you have room to store wood. I have bought some really nice green lumber from small sawmills. Air drying walnut and cherry is fairly simple if you do some research.

Craigslist get a bad rap here sometimes, but I have gotten some unbelievable deals on awesome wood there. Look often, good deals go fast. There are many Baby Boomer woodworkers who are getting too old to do woodworking or honestly have passed and their kids are cleaning out their house and really need it gone more than they need the best price.

I got a deal from a house flipper who had to clear out a garage full of rough lumber and I got it for nickels on the dollar.........he needed it gone and I bought it all.

It takes a forward thinking approach of getting lumber at a good price and not lumber for a particular project. Be creative.

[Bruce Page]

Quote that I have always liked: "Life is too short to use crappy wood." Same applies to hardware. If you value your time and effort.......

Along those same lines, if I'm building something that will live in the house and I want to be proud of I will use quality wood and hardware.

[Ron Citerone]

Along those same lines, if I'm building something that will live in the house and I want to be proud of I will use quality wood and hardware.


I have on occasion bought some solid brass vintage drawer pulls and cabinet knobs on Ebay that I thought were deals. Usually I end up sucking it up and buy from Horton Brass. If I am going to gain hinges on a flush door on a nice piece I want a really good hinge...........sometimes you gotta pay to play!

[Frank Pratt]

I do like to use good quality wood, hardware & whatever else goes into a project, but do have to talk myself into it. More so than for tools.

[Mike Cutler]

I'm the exact opposite. No reason to have thousands of dollars worth of machines, if you don't have an equal investment in the raw material. Just my philosophy.
Buy lumber when you see it, that appeals to you.
The hard thing is not finding a good deal, but finding quality lumber in my experience.Keep it on hand and don't buy in small quantities, or just enough for a project. If you need 20bd/ft, buy a hundred as long as it's good lumber.
When you're considering buying a small portable building to house your wood "stash", you're beginning to have enough. :eek:

[Jim Becker]

Something I've reiterated a "few times" over the years is that the finishing process for a project starts with material selection...grain, color, quality, consistency. So yes, while it's "painful" to buy the good stuff, it can make a difference between a very nice project result and an outstanding, eye-opening result. I also find quality lumber to be a good "investment" and buy things when there is an opportunity to save money or have access to something really nice, even if I don't have a project for that material. I'm not saying I have piles and piles of stuff, but a good board is a good board and it will eventually "tell" me what it wants to become. I still have two really nice 5/4 wide cherry boards I bought in about 2002 during an annual sale from a larger quantity that I have put to use. I also have an eclectic mix of "exotic" things that a cabinetmaker neighbor gave me years ago that come into play from time to time. While I don't have the same level of income that I had prior to retiring, I'll still not avoid "a good deal" on something that pops my cork... :D

Edit: I forgot to add that I actually bought 30 bd ft of beautiful 8/4 sapele this past weekend while I was at a training class down in VA. The price was right and I know that it will be put to good use at some point, even though I don't have a current project that calls for sapele.

[Ron Citerone]

For those who buy green wood and dry it, after huge weather events, small band saw mill guys often have access to nice logs with no place to store it after milling it. Good time to dig deep and have a long term approach.

As another thought, and then I will stop, I think you have to decide if your are a casual hobbyist or if you got the "Wood Disease." If you got the wood disease and you are fairly young buy wood in quantity when available. I read somewhere that hardwood prices are up 3X the inflation rate since 1980. Buying lumber "futures" is good investing. :cool:

[jordan mccool]

I'm the exact opposite. No reason to have thousands of dollars worth of machines, if you don't have an equal investment in the raw material. Just my philosophy.
Buy lumber when you see it, that appeals to you.
The hard thing is not finding a good deal, but finding quality lumber in my experience.Keep it on hand and don't buy in small quantities, or just enough for a project. If you need 20bd/ft, buy a hundred as long as it's good lumber.
When you're considering buying a small portable building to house your wood "stash", you're beginning to have enough. :eek:


I'm with Mike here. I dont mind spending the money on lumber, the bigger problem is definitely finding nice lumber. Yeah I can get cherry, walnut, etc. But I can never find highly figured wood or "exotics", if I come across any I have no problem opening the wallet.

[Phil Mueller]

I tend to buy what I need for a project. I just don’t have the space to do otherwise, and I’m only doing a couple of major projects per year. I often pay whatever the price is for the wood I want. I’m not experienced in making one type of wood look like another, so I get the real thing. Everytime I’m in a place that sells wood, I will look at whatever is on sale, and perhaps even pick up a great looking board for something down the road. But as someone has already said, I’m not about to put lots of hours into something, to wish I would have spent a bit (maybe even a lot) more on good wood.

[Matt Day]

Maybe cheaper prices would make it easier. Have you looked around for another supplier? I’ve had good luck finding guys with woodmizers who cut lumber as a hobby and sell for very reasonable prices.

[John K Jordan]

For those who buy green wood and dry it, after huge weather events, small band saw mill guys often have access to nice logs with no place to store it after milling it. Good time to dig deep and have a long term approach.

I started buying hardwood from small sawmills back in the mid '70 and put it up to dry. Very inexpensive. I bought just a few boards at a time to dry and after a few years I had an excess. I don't do this anymore since I have my own sawmill now. Now I really have an excess. Dry cherry boards make a nice campfire.

JKJ

[Patrick Walsh]

Man I have the opposite problem. Like real real bad....

I think I’m addicted to buying lumber. When I first started Woodworking I purchased tools with a fever. Now that I have basic level of Woodworking competence and have come to understand there is a zillion ways to skin a cat I’m less inclined to spend on another tool as I generally have everything I need to make anything I want. Sure I want this tool and that tool but I don’t really need them.

Now lumber, man I just can’t pass up quality stock. It’s real problem for me I spend crazy amounts of money on lumber annually. I used to buy a couple boards of this or that at a time when I found that special group of boards as the price made me cringe and I just couldn’t clear that $300-800 hurtle. Now when I find something special I do everything I can to buy as much as availible that I can afford. Namely I tend to obsess when I find something I know in 20 years when I’m retired I probably will not be able to find, and if I if I can find it it will be so expensive buying it will not be a option.

As others have said there is nothing like working with quality stock. I recently started a project comprised of Wenge, Ceylon or satinwood “no imitation” waterfall bubinga and ebony. I plow through soft maple and sheet stock at work without any thought or respect for that it’s a tree and a natural resource valuable if for no other reason than what I just stated and even though I’m sure farm raised not infinite.

However when working with the above material “not soft maple and sheet stock” I find I slow way way down in every aspect and truely connect with not only my work much deeper but I actually connect with the material and thus the whole thing is just a beautiful experience I feel so very lucky to part of that I could not be having if not for wonderful wonderful trees.

[Dan Baginski]

I was at Paxton lumber on Tuesday. Two sheets of ash plywood and 15 board feet of ash 8/4 and 5/4 cost me $320. I glanced at the walnut and 8/4 was $16 something a board foot. Ouch. The ash was only $6 and change. The ash plywood sheets were $120 a piece

[Julie Moriarty]

Terry, for the longest time I considered red oak to be the pinnacle of woods because anything more expensive seemed a waste of money. Then I found a real hardwood store and something came over me. I lost my mind. Reason went right out the door. I could feel my heart race as looked around at row after row of gorgeous woods. I also lost over $500 that day but found a new love. And every time I'm surrounded by interesting hardwoods I still get that high and I have to take something home.

[Frederick Skelly]

I share your problem Terry.
Nothing wrong with poplar. Nothing at all.
But I do love mahogany. :)

[Cary Falk]

I always have a problem spending money on wood. I used to make everything out of oak. Now most of the stuff I make are made out of maple. I never understood why wood is so expensive, it grows on trees.

[kevin nee]

I have always loved figure, never afraid to cut the center out of a board for a draw front.
Next year I turn 70. No time to use junk wood, now that I am in the fourth quarter.
Birdseye Maple is my first choice.
Go for the Walnut, when my wife is HAPPY things go better around here.

[Drey Ray]

Funny I was arguing with my wife that the next project must be out of walnut ... she argued why so expensive go with maple.
So it can be the other way around ... ;)

[Ben Rivel]

OP I hear ya and Im pretty much the same way. Only way I have found to work "past" it is to remember that the only reason I bought all those tools WAS to work with wood. Of all kinds. And like so many other hobbies, the consumables are expensive but it's money that must be spent to enjoy the hobby. It's a means to an end. I also only buy what I need per project. I do not have the room to store too much wood that I dont have immediate plans for. So that helps keep down the amount I spend on it I suppose.

[John Sincerbeaux]

Well, today here on the Big Island, I just paid $250/bf for 8/4 quarter sawn premium curly Koa. Fedexed it home (Texas).
Ouch!

[Roger Marty]

I started out cheap and built my first several pieces out of flat-sawn red oak. I regret it. My time and efforts are too valuable to use cheap wood. Now I choose cherry, mahagony, walnut, or exotics for everything I do.

[Ben Zara]

Well chosen lumber is what sets us apart from IKEA.

[Derek Cohen]

It takes the same time and effort to build a great design from cheap and boring wood, and wood chosen with care that has great figure. Which would you want to keep?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[glenn bradley]

The only reason that's true of me is because the lumber yard is so far away that I have to buy a LOT of wood to make the trip worthwhile. So I buy for multiple upcoming projects, sometimes as much as a year out, just to make it worth the time and gas to go.

I'm with you. There are yards closer but, where I choose to shop (quality, staff, prices) is 1-1/2 hours one way. Like you, I don't just pick up a board or two when I go that far. ;-)


Quote that I have always liked: "Life is too short to use crappy wood." Same applies to hardware. If you value your time and effort.......


Well chosen lumber is what sets us apart from IKEA.

Something I've posted before . . . Choose your parts carefully out of your material. Do not let the "factory edge" dictate your parts.

Examples of good choices and bad choices --

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[Julie Moriarty]

Well, today here on the Big Island, I just paid $250/bf for 8/4 quarter sawn premium curly Koa. Fedexed it home (Texas).
Ouch!

Wow! It's gone up quite a bit since I last bought it, about 5 years ago. I think it was around $100 then. Hope you have some razor sharp tools. That stuff is gnarly! Even after honing a new edge on a block plane and skewing it, the koa still chipped.

[Patrick Kane]

Agree with the OP, but its one of the reasons i buy in bulk. One, my wholesaler demands i buy hundreds of board feet at a time or i can take my business elsewhere, AND i typically pounce on CL deals for a thousand or so bdft where the seller just wants it gone and doesnt want to split up the lot. I track what i spend to the T when building stuff for sale, but i spend several grand a few times a year and then dont think about it. This way for personal projects i just walk up to my racks and take what i need without having a transaction in the middle of that process. The last time i specifically purchased lumber for a project is when i purchased just enough for two morris chairs and ottomans. I think it was like $700+ in wood. The WHOLE project i kept thinking, "ouch, ouch, ouch". Boy, was i dumb! The damn leather upholstery was four times that amount!

Anyways, lesson for me is to buy a lot at once when good deals present themselves, and then forget what you paid. And what everyone said about the time and skill invested. I could have dyed maple or oak a walnut tone for my king bed, but then i would spend the next 10,20, 30 years with a tinge of disappointment. I look at that bed every day and admire the beauty of walnut. Now, i did construct all of the hidden support structure for the bed out of dirt cheap ash i purchased out of a barn. Be cheap and save where it doesnt matter, but dont cheat yourself where it counts.

[Brian Nguyen]

Oh man, I wish I have your frugal problem when it comes to wood. I'm currently addicted to finding and buying really rough lumber just to see if the boards have hidden surprises like curls and birdseyes. So now, the garage is currently filled with random boards for no reason other than for me to take a hand plane to them late at night. Pretty sure crack cocaine is less expensive than this addiction.

[Chris Hachet]

Reality check. I rarely get out of the lumber yard for under $500 and I’m just a hobbyist.

Ohhh...yes....I have spent plenty on Lumber through the years.

[Martin Wasner]

I threaten towards the end of every year that next year will be the year I keep track of all of the material that goes through the shop.

I keep track of all of the orders for hardware, (mostly because putting it into a spreadsheet makes rattling numbers off over the phone easier), but I just don't bother with lumber and sheet stock.

Maybe next year.

[Andrew Joiner]

I'm a bit like the OP.
I was a pro for years and bought lumber wholesale. The jobs paid for the lumber. I'd select out and keep all the figured or special stock for "the future". Whether it was for me or a special customer I didn't know, but it was too nice for "run of the mill"(literally) work! I paid wholesale and had a collection of special stock that grew bigger every year. This was in the 70's before it was common to charge more for wide or figured stock.

When I retired I still had a garage full of special lumber. I started hobby woodworking and built a house and shop 2000 miles away from that special lumber. By now internet dealers had pics of figured boards at premium prices. I was spoiled, why would anyone pay that? That's like going from high speed internet to a slower speed!

I found some nice lumber at fair prices for my own hobby use. I got lucky on some finds and was gifted some nice wood by a friend. Funny, as it was so far to haul it, I sold all my special boards from 2000 miles away for less than I paid for it!

[Terry Wawro]

OP here. Thanks for the replies. It's good to find out that I'm not alone in my frugal ways. It's also good to find out that others are out there buying it up by the truckload.

I don't think I'm going to be buying several hundred board feet at a time but it gave me the nudge I needed. In the meantime, time to start checking craigslist for those bargains that many of you posted about. Thanks again.

[Jim Becker]

You will do yourself well by just "keeping yourself aware" of what comes available and taking advantage of that when you are financially able. You never know what you might "step in"... :) :D

[Warren Lake]

Years ago a guy at a big company spoke of the old guy I respected the most and said he could make a silk purse out of a sows ear. I let it go as its a hogwash statement by an ignorant person.

Labeling a material as nice or not is a waste of time as there is so much variation that some can be nice while other not so. While Red oak isnt the nicest if you have access to the best and can pick you can make good looking stuff. If you dont there is some damn ugly oak around. Its a whole subject material. Saddly so much is geared to volume. I was always lucky and cultivated a relationship with companies or even had them come to me to buy from them. Then calls we have three lifts of birsdeye, two are top and one is not. You can pick all you want first from them, the first two are this price and the third one which will have some brown in there is this price. So I bought ahead of time and set it aside. I also had specific repeat work and people that allowed me to go through lifts to get the best.

The worst was then a salesman would leave and it would be starting again,"im sorry we dont do that here" One owner was there one day instead at his Villa in the Bahamas, I show up to a new salesman and he said "you are breaking in another one" Ive got pretty mouthy with them in the past and if they really cared about the material then they would care it was used in the best way. Bottom line is its just money to them even the ones that say they care. Ive asked some of them how many trees have you planted and got zero. Meanwhile transport trucks full are loaded and ready to go out across the country for deliveries. Ive likely planted 600 seedlings or so and thats 600 more than them. Buying material is one of the hardest if not the hardest aspect of this trade, if you know and pay attention and lay things out a certain way the stakes go well up and at times it can be pretty frustrating. If you are someone who cares and knows you are still buying a material that is not static from someone whos focus is dollars.

[Josko Catipovic]

I always have a problem spending money on wood. I used to make everything out of oak. Now most of the stuff I make are made out of maple. I never understood why wood is so expensive, it grows on trees.
I thought firewood was expensive until I cut and split two cords on my own.

[marty fretheim]

Buying in bulk definitely saves money. The two main lumber yards I use have a significant price break at 500 BF. I build "Stickley" style furniture and use QS white oak exclusively. They also have monthly specials on various lumber. They put a big cart stacked with on sale lumber right by the cash register. Needless to say I have lumber and no idea what I'm gonna use it for. But its fun to have it and and the price aint gonna get cheaper. If you have room to store it I say "Go Big".

396350 396351

Marty

[Darcy Warner]

I probably have 20k BF of lumber hanging around.

[Stan Calow]

I am just a hobbyist with a big pile of interesting wood in the basement. I've decided too late that maybe the right strategy is to just buy wood when you have a specific project in mind, and just enough for that project. Every now and then I'll go to an estate sale or auction where I'll see an accumulation of good wood for sale for pennies, and I don't want that to be me.

[David Helm]

I know where you are coming from. Wood is the part of woodworking that I balk at the most, I do still spend good money on good wood though. I don't fully understand it but I think it is a natural inclination, my friends that are not woodworkers don't seem surprised at the cost of machines but showing them a single (gorgeous) wide 10' walnut board and telling them it cost about $150 always seems to floor them.

. . . and it should be the other way around. Machines, once bought, last a long time. Wood, on the other hand, comes from a living being and, over time, gets rarer and thus more expensive. The days of cheap wood are gone forever.

[Patrick Walsh]

I agree with David.

But then again I can convince myself “this is a once in a lifetime opportunity” about just about anything when I want it lol.

I do agree though that lumber is finite and we are passing away our natural resources “me being guilty” with my exotic lumber fetus and that in my life much of this stuff I won’t be able to get at some point and surely not afford.

We are already there with bubinga suddenly if I say wanted a slab with two live edges to make a large dining table out of. Pretty much $5-8k right now. In another twenty when you find one my guess is I’d never be able to justify it if I can’t justify $5-8K now.

Bellow is one of three pieces of bubinga I recently purchased. The one on the bottom believe it or not is even better than this one.

396374

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[Van Huskey]

. . . and it should be the other way around. Machines, once bought, last a long time. Wood, on the other hand, comes from a living being and, over time, gets rarer and thus more expensive. The days of cheap wood are gone forever.

I agree the problem is wood was too cheap for too long like most natural resources wood was very cheap to exploit for a long time then the rarety spikes the price.

[Van Huskey]

I agree with David.

But then again I can convince myself “this is a once in a lifetime opportunity” about just about anything when I want it lol.



For the price as well as conservation I have been moving to using more and more shop cut and commercial veneer. While it won't replace slabs I get 5-6 times the yield from a board when using veneer.

[Patrick Walsh]

I’m all about conservation,

Well as much as a guy that’s obsessed with exotic lumber can be. I’m vegan, very green minded, recycle everything try my best to not buy much in packages go through stints trying to grow most of my food yada yada. Point I’m trying to make is I do feel repsoible to mind out resources and fairly guilty about my lumber problem.

I really am drawn to solid wood construction as I’m pretty into the joinery aspect of the craft. I’m not much into dowels screws glue “even though I use plenty of glue” so I’m not so drawn to veneer work. I do some veneer work time to time at work but that’s about it.

I do see pieces here and there that are veneered and I am really really drawn to them from a acetic perspective. I’m sure at some point I’ll tire of the work I do in solid wood and need a new challenge and find myself knee deep in veneered work. I should probably save all this crazy expensive lumber I buy for that work lol and stick to ash, walnut, cherry and like for what I’m doing now.


c
For the price as well as conservation I have been moving to using more and more shop cut and commercial veneer. While it won't replace slabs I get 5-6 times the yield from a board when using veneer.

[Warren Lake]

plant some trees we should all be doing that. Wood is not expensive for what it is and hasnt gone up proportionally to other things in the time ive been doing this to most other things. We should be planting trees, The old guy had walnut trees on his property he had grown from a nut. The old guy that taught him would go into the forest and pick a tree well ahead of time for some project he was going to do. Different time and they had lots of good material aging and drying for years in their shops, not all they needed but lots was there.

We put all kinds of crap into the ground, the bags from the blue berries on my morning gruel wont dissolve for 3000 years if that. Meanwhile they jump and up and down for an etest on our cars.

[Van Huskey]

Point I’m trying to make is I do feel repsoible to mind out resources and fairly guilty about my lumber problem.

I really am drawn to solid wood construction as I’m pretty into the joinery aspect of the craft.
c

The thing that turned me around on veneer was the work of Craig Thibodeau. https://ctfinefurniture.com/portfolio/ That coupled with the amazing raw veneer that is available made me rethink using solid wood only. Solid wood construction certainly has its place but the thoughtful and strategic use of veneer can stretch the yield of very special wood significantly.

[Patrick Walsh]

Van,

Thanks for sharing the link.

At first glance I though “nah this is not my thing” then something caught my interest and I found myself kinda floored.

As I said at some point I bet I get the bug.

Beautiful very very creative work.


The thing that turned me around on veneer was the work of Craig Thibodeau. https://ctfinefurniture.com/portfolio/ That coupled with the amazing raw veneer that is available made me rethink using solid wood only. Solid wood construction certainly has its place but the thoughtful and strategic use of veneer can stretch the yield of very special wood significantly.

[Van Huskey]

Patrick,

When you feel like you want to nurse the "bug" spend some time looking through the raw veneers on a site like https://www.veneersupplies.com/ and start thinking about what large panels/tops would look like in some of the highly figured veneers.

Initially, there is a feeling of "I'm cheating" but will likely subside.

[Matt Mattingley]

I feel you’re pain but I recognize it from a different perspective.

I’m mainly a metalhead with a love for woodworking. There is two sides to the coin Price/availability but they usually go hand-in-hand.

Brazilian dark walnut is absolutely beautiful. It is one of the hardest woods, hardest to manufacture and it’s rare. If you compare this to Pine which you can drop in your own backyard… I guess Pine grows on trees in a way... and you can almost work it with a butter knife.

This would be comparable to tungsten carbide to mild steel. Almost everybody is willing to pay $40 a pound for tungsten carbide for blade tooth and... scrap them without even thinking scrap price is worth over five dollars a pound (without blinking an eye to tip their tooth cutting applications).

From an electrical perspectives why use silver or gold contacts... when aluminum is pretty damn good? So is mild steel.

I would usually reserve the saying for customers… There is Walmart & IKEA… Why did you come to me?

[Jacob Mac]

The thing that turned me around on veneer was the work of Craig Thibodeau. https://ctfinefurniture.com/portfolio/ That coupled with the amazing raw veneer that is available made me rethink using solid wood only. Solid wood construction certainly has its place but the thoughtful and strategic use of veneer can stretch the yield of very special wood significantly.


His inlay is fantastic.

[Van Huskey]

His inlay is fantastic.

He has done a lot of articles for Fine Woodworking and just released a veneering book which I should have on Monday and it looks to be excellent. A MUST HAVE book on veneering is Scott Grove's book Advanced Veneering and Alternative Techniques. Some of Scott's techniques and results will blow your mind and see things in sheets of veneer you would never have seen before... well at least it did for me.

I do wish Craig would do a book on puzzle chests and locks. I love how he incorporates them into amazing fine furniture and completely avoids any cheesy or gimmicky feel.

[Mike Cutler]

Brazilian dark walnut is absolutely beautiful. It is one of the hardest woods, hardest to manufacture and it’s rare. If you compare this to Pine which you can drop in your own backyard… I guess Pine grows on trees in a way... and you can almost work it with a butter knife.

Matt
One of the things I find interesting, based on mentioning it in your sentence, is just how hard it is here in New England to find straight, clear, pine. It's like hens teeth for some reason. It's also not cheap here.
I have a shop full of exotics collected over the past thirty that I seriously doubt I could afford to replace at todays lumber prices, but you'll not find one straight clear grain pine board amongst it.

[Jim Andrew]

I know I am in the minority here, but am a farmer who likes to do woodworking. Always liked walnut as a material, looks so rich finished. When I retired, I bought a bandmill so I did not have to buy lumber. Amazing amount of hard work to cut trees down, take to the mill and cut up into lumber, stack in a shed to dry. Quit my building business, as had hurt my back and building was just no fun anymore, and I took on a sawmill? But have not bought anything but plywood since. I don't worry much about scrap as it works great to heat the shop.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

For an heirloom project, don't get chintzy of the cost of the wood. Shop around sure. An acquaintance lived a few miles away and grew up on a nice 18 acre place with a very old colonial era stone home. The floors were shot. He cut oak and walnut on their property, had it specially milled, then kiln dried and then milled into tongue and groove flooring. He replaced the old flooring with the custom milled lumber that came from trees that had been right in front of the house and out in the wood lot. . Red oak flooring with two black walnut pegs placed at the end of each piece of flooring, so it looks like an old pegged floor. It is smooth as glass and so beautiful. He figures it cost him some where about $6 a square foot for the floor and it was his trees.
I am a turner. and I hate paying for wood. I use mostly freebie stuff from the cut offs pile at the saw mill. I still have to stack it and let it dry.

[Dave Sabo]

McDonalds has hundreds of thousands of $ in equipment at a store but uses cheap raw material.

Asian Factory of the week making Pinterest’s futniture piece of the moment has millions in equipment and uses cheap raw material.

If if you buy a high performance car are you gonna balk at the premium gas it requires ?

How’d you feel if the airline you took last time put off brand el cheapo fuel in that 50million dollar jet you flew ?


It’s perspective really. Some third world craftsman make very nice stuff with primitive tooling and I make crappy stuff sometimes with 6 figures worth of the top of the line kit and very nice wood and hardware. People can do and justify just about anything given the will.

If you’re happy with or can only afford poplar or pine , use that. But don’t let a feeling stand in your way of using something you really like.

[Carl Beckett]

I make crappy stuff sometimes with 6 figures worth of the top of the line kit and very nice wood and hardware.


I can do this.

Much of what I make comes from rough cut lumber I picked up off CL. Some of it is top of the line. Most of it requires some real work and finess to get it useable. And most of the time I actually prefer the finished product if some defects and character. Wabi Sabi.

Every now and then I will make something from premier lumber. But these arent always my favorite pieces.

What I find makes the bigger difference is the 'design'. To me, just because I made it myself out of premier wood doesnt make it heirloom if the proportions are wrong, or the design is boring. And I am not that good at it to make spectacular designs each piece. But that is just an excuse to try again.... which feeds the project pipeline :)

[Jon Endres]

For several years I owned portable sawmills. First a Logosol, then a Wood-Mizer. I cut the timber frame for my house with the Wood-Mizer and everything that wasn't beams got cut into boards. I've built a stash over the past 10-12 years that is estimated 12,000 to 14,000 board feet in total. About a third is pine, a third is cherry and the rest is mostly hardwoods native to my area. I have enough wood to last quite a few years of my future retirement, and I'm a hoarder too so nothing is wasted. I take interesting pieces out of my firewood pile and save them for turning. I have even purchased lumber just for its' own sake - not as a future project but because the board was really interesting to me.

As for quality - I would much rather build and own a piece of furniture for which I cut my own lumber, than go buy a more expensive or exotic species for the same piece. I have some straight-up crap in my house that has that kind of sentimental value to me.

[Aaron carter]

the reason you feel that way is because you know the tool will last a lifetime and seen as an investment but as soon as you are done with a project that you spent a lot of money for materials it is gone. Woodworkers like building things and the process is more enjoyable than the result. The fact is that I cannot afford $600 worth of lumber every other month for my projects. Even though some may justify that have a beautiful piece of furniture that will last a lifetime, now I am broke and can't build anything because I can't afford the material. All I want to do is be in my shop... building things...

Also if you look online at hand made furniture, I look at that stuff and say I could not buy the lumber to build that for less than what they are asking...

I refuse to pay $6 a board foot for anything. I live in northern Minnesota where we have trees up the wazoo and white oak goes for $8 a board foot. I refuse to pay those prices on principle. I look online and purchase lots that come up every once in a while and have about 1000 board foot on hand. That being said I have also realized that the quality of material makes all the difference in the world in your projects. I am saving for a sawmill now... It really is the only option... Even though there are wood hoarders that have 1000's of board feet and could build everyday for the rest of their life and never run out they will only sell for $6 a board foot...

[Curt Harms]

I was at Paxton lumber on Tuesday. Two sheets of ash plywood and 15 board feet of ash 8/4 and 5/4 cost me $320. I glanced at the walnut and 8/4 was $16 something a board foot. Ouch. The ash was only $6 and change. The ash plywood sheets were $120 a piece

Yow. Last time I was in a local sawmill they had rough 8"+ wide clear air dried ash for $1.25 per b.f.

[Bill Dindner]

I usually make smaller projects, so the cost of wood isn’t that relevant to me. But when I priced out a dining table that I made for my home, I made some changes. It’s 9ft and 45” wide, made it out of 8/4 Sapele, was considering Walnut, but I would cost about $1,000 more, love the table and glad I went with sapele.

its not a zero sum game, it’s not pine/polar or Ebony.

[Brian Nguyen]

Now that I've thought about it, maybe you guys are hesitant on paying money for wood because you look out the windows and see a crap ton of trees.
Maybe if there are table saws and bandsaws and Festool Kapex on the ground or dangling everywhere, you'd feel the same way as you currently do with a slab of walnut.

[Roger Feeley]

This is a bit tangential but the problem I have with buying 'just enough' lumber for a project is the pressure not to make a mistake. That just sucks the fun out of it for me. Worse, I know I can afford extra. It's just sort of baked into me not to have scrap left over. I have to force myself to buy extra. I also have to force myself into the mindset to just plunge ahead thinking, "It's just lumber".

[Brian Henderson]

I always have about 10% extra on hand just in case, "just enough" is what I need plus 10%.

[Terry Wawro]

the reason you feel that way is because you know the tool will last a lifetime and seen as an investment but as soon as you are done with a project that you spent a lot of money for materials it is gone. Woodworkers like building things and the process is more enjoyable than the result. The fact is that I cannot afford $600 worth of lumber every other month for my projects. Even though some may justify that have a beautiful piece of furniture that will last a lifetime, now I am broke and can't build anything because I can't afford the material. All I want to do is be in my shop... building things...

Yup. This pretty much sums up the way my brain works.

[Zac wingert]

Before I go to buy wood, I plan for what I need to complete my current project. I estimate the BF needed and and buy roughly %150 for tolerance of error.

When end I actually buy wood, various factors come into play and if its almost like I panic. I end up spending three times as much as I calculated . Simple project, no need to fancy, ok. I go to the wood place and bam, spent a boatload of money.