Buying hardwood

[jeff oldham]

Does anyone know of a good place to buy hardwood blocks...like 6x6 or 8x8 for bowls online..

[John Keeton]

Jeff, shipping on turning blanks can be prohibitive. You live in a forested state and there should be plenty of sawmills around. A quick search revealed this one - https://www.ncsawmill.com/prices/ which is a little over an hour from you.

I have found that for domestic species, small local sawmills are a great source. While they don’t always maintain a full inventory, if you stay in touch with them you can usually get what you want. Even buying green stock and prepping it into blanks for air drying is worthwhile.

Just a thought.

[JohnC Lucas]

Very hard to buy or impossible to buy dry wood in that size. Buy from these people. You will be pleased. It's green wood and you will need to learn to turn green wood, but that's a good thing. https://twotreeboyz.wordpress.com/

[Eugene Dixon]

Jeff,
Jump onto the NCWoodworking forum and check out some of the sawyers who are touted on the site. Lot of good info on the forum. I'll be in the booth at the AAW in Raleigh. Stop by and say hello.

[Keith Outten]

I'm working on a deal to offer some very high end exotic pen and turning blanks here at The Creek. They will most likely be pretty expensive but the guy I have been talking to says he wants to deplete his stock and is willing to offer his blanks at a discount. He has millions of dollars in inventory and most of it are on the endangered species list purchased before the ban many years ago. If these blanks are popular he will most likely start offering his blanks directly to everyone and become a sponsor here. The initial shipment is a donation to help me make money to support The Creek.

The first shipment of pen blanks is already on its way to my shop.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

There are amazing places to scrounge for wood. 6x6 and 8x8 are not that unusual to find, it you know where to look OTH, if you fancy kiln dried planed on all sides, you will pay through the nose. Small sawmills are ideal, furniture factories often give away their cut offs and seconds., municipal lots where trees and branches are dumped off. Tree surgeons will steer you toward some good stuff for a couple 6 packs. Cruise the by ways after a storm looking for downed trees. Orchards push over and rid themselves of spent trees during the winter. You will need to learn what species you like turning and be able to identify them by bark, etc. Even parks department employees can often help you out. Watch for notices of freebies on line. I posted walnut here a year or so ago. My turning club gets notices of free wood for the taking at least every month. When I travel down your way, I keep an eye out for woods I can't get here. Got a huge piece of cuban mahogany years ago from a road crew in Palm beach. They were cutting it up and I stopped and asked. Gave them a few cold sodas for loading it in the truck.

[Reed Gray]

There are a lot of bandsaw mills around. That would be a good source, and some times they can be found on Craigslist. The arborists would be another place to ask around for sources of bandsaw mill people.

robo hippy

[Wally Wenzel]

Try Johnson wood products i north east Iowa.Good people and good wood and fair prices. Wally

[John K Jordan]

There are a lot of bandsaw mills around. That would be a good source, and some times they can be found on Craigslist. The arborists would be another place to ask around for sources of bandsaw mill people.

robo hippy

Anyone looking for local hardwoods can check the Woodmizer web site - they keep a listing of sawmills, including individuals with a sawmill who are willing to saw for others.
https://woodmizer.com/us/Services/Find-a-Local-Sawyer, enter your state.

Before I got my own sawmill I found one that way. He had a huge stock of air-dried lumber at incredibly good prices.

Also try Woodfinder: http://www.woodfinder.com/

JKJ

[robert baccus]

What is dry wood?? In the south railroad tie mills are a good source as well as "Mizer mills. Way down south here hurricanes are great providers--you yankees should benefit from our your blizzards which are popular this year.

[Rodney Walker]

Jeff I don't know your situation but if you're physically able to cut your own wood you should look at investing in a chainsaw. I bought a cheap refurbished one off Ebay for around $100 about two years ago. It's still going strong and it more than paid for itself the first year I had it.
I know in my area people are always advertising free wood on Craig's List.
Rodney

[David Castonguay]

Find someone who heats with wood. They will have lots of logs that can be picked over. Frequently, firewood is oak, maple or ash that has started spalting....great source for cheap wood to experiment on for green wood turning.

In Vermont I feed two wood stoves so finding good turning wood in the 8 cord log truck load that I buy each year is an easy and cheap source of wood to experiment with. I recently found a 14" white birch log that was not only spalting, but had flame grain! SCORE!

[Richard Casey]

Jeff, look up Asheville hardware and Cormark International, both about 3 hours drive up the mountain from you. I usually get good blanks from both of them to bring back down under.
Rgds,
Richard.

[John K Jordan]

Jeff, look up Asheville hardware and Cormark International, both about 3 hours drive up the mountain from you. I usually get good blanks from both of them to bring back down under.
Rgds,
Richard.

Richard, I'll also check those out the next time I get to Asheville! I must have passed within a stone's throw of Asheville Hardware just a few days ago.

Did you ever find some quilted maple 3x3? I'm still looking. The closest I've come was some expensive quilted 8/4 and I was pretty excited until turning it exposed severe honeycombing. Ack.

Did you ever turn madrone? One of my new favorite woods. I have a highly figured piece with your name on it.

JKJ

[Alex Zeller]

I've never bought from this guy, nor do I know him. But I have seen his Craig's list posts a few times.
https://westernmass.craigslist.org/fod/d/huntington-bowl-blanks-and-wood-for/6810514250.html

[Michael Mills]

I don't know if you have a chainsaw or if you only want dry.
If you have a chainsaw keep an eye on Craigslist under the "free stuff" category. I just checked Greensboro and there are 18 listings for "fire wood".
Also check with tree removal companies, trimmers for power lines, even firewood suppliers. If you check Craigslist under All you get the firewood sellers as well (total 57 listings); homeowners usually use the Free Stuff category.

[ELY WALTON]

Does anyone know of a good place to buy hardwood blocks...like 6x6 or 8x8 for bowls online..

Hi Jeff! I live in Troutman and often visit Wall Lumber in Mayodan, NC - http://www.walllumber.com . It is a very scenic drive to the north from you - less than an hour or so... I picked up some ambrosia maple blocks last time I was there and this goblet popped out!

Ely
403436

[William McAloney]

Does anyone know of a good place to buy hardwood blocks...like 6x6 or 8x8 for bowls online..

I have purchased from Bell Forest Products, in Michigan. Reasonable pricing for high quality domestic and exotic blanks in many sizes.

[Al Wasser]

Get hold of MIke Smith at Century Tree Turnings. He is in the Raleigh area and has very good wood at reasonable prices

[John Keeton]

I have bought a LOT of wood from Mike Smith over the years. He even spent a couple nights at our place a few years ago. Nice fellow.