“Live Edge” lumber prices

[Matt Day]

Maybe it’s just me, but has this whole live edge stuff gone a little nuts? There must be 30 people within a 50 mile radius of me (in Indiana which is anything but high density) selling, if not specializing in, live edge on Facebook marketplace. I just saw an ad asking $20/bdft for walnut. Seriously?! Guessing this fad is around the country, but are these prices common?

[Matt Schrum]

Those prices area bit higher than what I am seeing-- but I'm still seeing prices for live edge sometimes at or over what S4S prices are for the same wood. Everyone apparently has some Pinterest project for a table or mantle they want to make. I can't tell you how many non-woodworking friends have asked me about how to make an epoxy river table (another fad I am looking forward to fading).

[Jim Becker]

Like anything that becomes very popular, there is going to be a marketplace that takes advantage. And unfortunately, there are a lot of folks who offer slabs that are mediocre (or worse) for premium prices...because they can. And people buy them because they don't know the difference. I love natural edge stuff which shouldn't be unexpected given I live only a few miles from the Nakashima compound and consider Georage a "mental mentor" in my approach to woodworking, even on non-natural edge projects. But I'll not buy overpriced, less than worthy material and have had to have "the talk" with at least one client who provides his own material about why quality and proper drying is important.

[Jon Grider]

I understand a premium on thick lumber and the challenges of drying it, but to charge more to leave the bark and sap on which is common in my area is ridiculous. The sawmill saves time from slr the wane and yet charges more for not doing so? I'll be glad when the live edge thing is over. There was another thread on this a couple of months ago.

[Frank Pratt]

I just can't believe some of the crap I see that's being hawked as live edge slabs for utterly ridiculous prices. Stuff that if you trimmed the live edges off couldn't be sold for anything better than firewood. And people just eat this sh1t up.

[Matt Day]

I know. Instead of responding to these people who are listing $20/bdft I posted here to vent.

[Bradley Gray]

I used a lot of live edge 25 years ago. I bought logs and hired a wood miser mill, set up my own kiln.

Then sawyers discounted the board footage since they didn't have to edge anything.

I've moved on to other work - too old to handle the big slabs and too cheap to pay for them.

[glenn bradley]

I have nothing against slab furniture. Unless it is a piece you visit as opposed to live with, things like slabs and zebra wood can be overdone quite easily. A little goes a long way. I felt like the recent revival of slab tables was like the 'distressed' and 'palletwood' revivals but it, like the others, has gone on and on.


And unfortunately, there are a lot of folks who offer slabs that are mediocre (or worse) for premium prices...because they can.

I try to think that people selling junk for premium prices are just ignorant but I think you may have made the more correct statement ;-)


I know. Instead of responding to these people who are listing $20/bdft I posted here to vent.

Well done. As always we should speak loud and clear with our wallets. Patronize the good guys and leave the bad guys alone.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I sell live edge wood by the width inside the bark on the small side, and round down to a whole board foot. Since many of the pieces taper I try to find the average width. My prices are $1 to 1.50 a board foot for live or square edge, but I only have limited species, basically hickory, ash and maple and sometimes elm or red oak. This wood is fresh cut or partially air dried. Some of the pieces I cut are from logs that are curved so much that if I edged them there would be nothing left and lots of grain runout, but I get someone occasionally who wants to make a headboard or a curved bench and likes those pieces. I figure I get a lot more value out of them by selling them for $1 a board foot than cutting them up for firewood, as we have plenty of other firewood potential around the place. It's not my problem if I wouldn't like the things people make out of the wood, as long as they're happy with it and pay the price to buy it.

[roger wiegand]

I visited a nice Amish sawmill operation in northern Ohio last summer. They used to make a lot of pallets, but now they sell slabs to the English city folk as well. A whole lot of slices of trees that would have been of questionable quality for pallet construction, as well as some really nice ones, priced accordingly. As I was walking around looking at stuff with the owner (they also stock some pretty nice local cherry/walnut/maple sawn as regular boards) I said to him-- 'So you charge quite a bit extra for not cutting the edges off.' -- he smiled, and said "Yup, great isn't it."

[Matt Day]

If it was northeast Ohio, east of Cleveland, I used to live there. Likely walked the same lumber yards.

[John TenEyck]

It's not $20/bf around here but it's generally in the $6 - 12 range, depending upon the species. I have no problem with people charging whatever they can get for their product, but what I dislike is that many of them are selling green or "been drying for months" wood without telling unsuspecting customers that it's going to be a year or three before they can do anything with the slab. Of course, most folks who buy these slabs have no clue that it does need to be dry or how long it takes to dry. I sell KD slabs and lumber. I charge more for slabs than most lumber because people are willing to pay for it. Why would I charge less? It's true that many slabs would be worth nothing more than firewood if you ripped the edges off. And that's precisely why I don't.

John

[Jim Becker]

"Truly wide" live edge can logically command a higher board foot rate, but there's some very sad looking, not so wide material all over the place that folks selling seem to feel it's made of gold.

[Frank Pratt]

I should qualify my previous comments. I have no problem whatsoever with lumber sellers charging as much as they can get for live edge slabs. It's the ignorant dopes that are clamoring to pay huge prices for third rate firewood that bother me.

[Jim Becker]

True, dat, Frank...true, dat.

[John TenEyck]

I should qualify my previous comments. I have no problem whatsoever with lumber sellers charging as much as they can get for live edge slabs. It's the ignorant dopes that are clamoring to pay huge prices for third rate firewood that bother me.

Why would you care what someone else pays for something? Those "ignorant dopes" might have similar thoughts about the vehicle you drive or the house you live in.

John

[johnny means]

"Live edge" isn't a type of lumber, it's a term describing a style of furniture. I agree most of the stuff being sold out their by these "puppy mills" is pure junk, or at best side planks. On the bright side, those of us still around in twenty years will have access to lots of unrefined walnut boads when all this junk hits the curb.

[William Chain]

Sure it’s a type of lumber. It’s the type sold to the uninitiated for dramatically shameful prices. I don’t begrudge the Amish folk or whoever for taking advantage. Hard currency is hard currency. Pity is the achievements and work/style of giants in this field as discussed in this thread are unfortunately diluted or diminished by the current fad. When one can get “live edge” shelf kits at the borgs, it’s jumped the shark. Saw an aisle festooned with the stuff. Just shook my head and kept moving.

[Jim Matthews]

I just can't believe some of the crap I see that's being hawked as live edge slabs for utterly ridiculous prices. Stuff that if you trimmed the live edges off couldn't be sold for anything better than firewood. And people just eat this sh1t up.

I went to a great deal of trouble learning to make a properly dressed edge. I feel much the same way about this "approach" as I did regarding "Shabby chic", and jigsaw silhouettes leaning against trees.

[Prashun Patel]

Anecdotally, I hear few stories of novices who buy overpriced slabs, and more about novices who come into some free lumber because their neighbor cut up a huge tree. So they have a slab of something that needs to be dried and processed. Half the time they want to make a “cookie slice” table.

[Jon Grider]

Why would you care what someone else pays for something? Those "ignorant dopes" might have similar thoughts about the vehicle you drive or the house you live in.

John

The price they pay for ugly lumber influences the price I have to pay for better lumber in a negative way.

[Jim Becker]

There's a difference between often poor quality but expensive natural/live edge material scattered along the road and well executed live/natural edge furniture. The latter is a style that some folks appreciate with one of the most notable makers and "wood philosophers", George Nakashima being revered. But it's not for everyone. A lot of the buyers and sellers of the former are not necessarily woodworkers like the majority of folks here at SMC. I personally don't buy stuff from along the road. I have a client who does and I've had to "school" him about things like moisture content, wood movement and so forth when he's buying for furniture. It matters less for small things like charcuterie boards where the gnarly stuff he chooses is thinner and generally drier.

[james manutes]

Interesting thing I recently saw , " vacuum kiln dried " roubo bench kits sold by Matt Cremona . The process got 6 - 7 inch blanks down to 7% moisture level in a week , which would have taken years normally . He is just getting going with it but he is moving them all so far . His main focus had been slabs / live edge , which continues . But something new to me I hadn't seen , thought it was neat .

[David Utterback]

Interesting thing I recently saw , " vacuum kiln dried " roubo bench kits sold by Matt Cremona . The process got 6 - 7 inch blanks down to 7% moisture level in a week , which would have taken years normally . He is just getting going with it but he is moving them all so far . His main focus had been slabs / live edge , which continues . But something new to me I hadn't seen , thought it was neat .

New to me but I wonder if the internal stresses are stabilized sufficiently. Time will tell, I guess.

[Rod Sheridan]

Yes, that seems typical.

My youngest daughter almost had a stroke when she saw the trailer load of wane that I had cut off of boards when milling some logs.

She thought I had thrown out the valuable part.....Rod

[james manutes]

Matt shows in a video the blanks are in a "press" during the drying process , so they come out straight and flat . Time will tell , indeed .

[Frank Pratt]

Why would you care what someone else pays for something? Those "ignorant dopes" might have similar thoughts about the vehicle you drive or the house you live in.

John

Because they are the ones that are driving lumber prices way up, which is great for the guys selling, not so much for the guys buying.

My use of the word "ignorant" was referring to the lack of knowledge about lumber qualities, drying, movement, etc. Not meant as a derogatory term. However, "dope" was meant to be derogatory because so often the projects built with these planks show a desire to make something that is trendy, yet using none of the methods that will yield a quality product.

[andrew whicker]

As with most things, it's more nuanced than "the customer is a dope" and "hey, if they can charge it and get away w/ it, more power to them". I don't idolize people that can sell something to a new user at an over priced rate. That's lame.

All of us buyers buy stuff we know nothing about. We expect the seller to be fair and to explain the product / service and pricing. I don't know where this infatuation came from to idolize people that knowingly take advantage from others came from, but I'm well over it. It seems that many of our American population think that way. Odd to me, because my immediate reaction is disgust. I find it very strange that people make money off the backs of the ignorant and congratulate themselves.

[John TenEyck]

]Because they are the ones that are driving lumber prices way up,[/COLOR] which is great for the guys selling, not so much for the guys buying.

My use of the word "ignorant" was referring to the lack of knowledge about lumber qualities, drying, movement, etc. Not meant as a derogatory term. However, "dope" was meant to be derogatory because so often the projects built with these planks show a desire to make something that is trendy, yet using none of the methods that will yield a quality product.


I haven't seen that in my area. Lumber for the most part is cheap. Poplar is less than $2, soft maple maybe $2.50, hard maple and red oak in the $3 range, white oak is around $4 and $5 for QS. These prices have not changed much in 5 years which covers the live edge fad.

As far as being a "dope" most of us started not knowing much, so I guess I was a dope, too, in the beginning. But who am I to criticize someone who wants to buy a piece of live edge wood to put some shelves on their wall as a design statement, or a slab to make a coffee table. The fact that they are willing to buy a piece of wood and try to turn it into something of value to them, even if only as a fashion trend, is to be commended in my book. It's not an insult to Nakashima or anyone who makes "real furniture" any more than it is for you or me to tackle a home plumbing project rather than hiring a "real" plumber. Some will fail and some will succeed, and some may go on to become more accomplished woodworkers. Who knows, some might even join SMC and ask for advise when they decide to build a Philadelphia highboy in a few years. We should be helping people that want to use wood, not criticizing them for their lack of knowledge.

John

[Zachary Hoyt]

I would like it if more people would do a little research on wood drying, what a board foot is, and so forth before they came to buy lumber from me. I figure if they're online they must have access to that information, and sometimes I get tired of trying to explain this stuff. Especially since I am far from being an expert myself.

[Brian W Evans]

The price they pay for ugly lumber influences the price I have to pay for better lumber in a negative way.

Exactly. Several sellers on CL near me who run sawmills have stopped selling lumber and are now selling slabs. I used to be able to find good deals pretty regularly but I've seen nothing in almost a year.

Not begrudging anyone their profits, or questioning anyone's taste, but it does affect me.

[Jim Becker]

Interesting thing I recently saw , " vacuum kiln dried " roubo bench kits sold by Matt Cremona . The process got 6 - 7 inch blanks down to 7% moisture level in a week , which would have taken years normally . He is just getting going with it but he is moving them all so far . His main focus had been slabs / live edge , which continues . But something new to me I hadn't seen , thought it was neat .

The method that Matt is leveraging isn't just beneficial for the thicker stuff. You may have noticed he sometimes takes some very thin slices off those huge logs to be used as door skins, etc., and those dry perfectly flat in the vacuum kiln his friend owns because of the way that pressure is applied. It's a very kewel (and fast) process...

[Lloyd McKinlay]

As with most things, it's more nuanced than "the customer is a dope" and "hey, if they can charge it and get away w/ it, more power to them". I don't idolize people that can sell something to a new user at an over priced rate. That's lame.

All of us buyers buy stuff we know nothing about. We expect the seller to be fair and to explain the product / service and pricing. I don't know where this infatuation came from to idolize people that knowingly take advantage from others came from, but I'm well over it. It seems that many of our American population think that way. Odd to me, because my immediate reaction is disgust. I find it very strange that people make money off the backs of the ignorant and congratulate themselves.

Fully agree.

[John TenEyck]

I would like it if more people would do a little research on wood drying, what a board foot is, and so forth before they came to buy lumber from me. I figure if they're online they must have access to that information, and sometimes I get tired of trying to explain this stuff. Especially since I am far from being an expert myself.

That means you are dealing with consumers and not woodworkers. They have no clue about board feet, moisture content, etc., until you educate them. I don't have that problem with the people who buy lumber from me, but I did with the folks buying slabs until I made it simple for them. I only sell kiln dried wood and I point out why that's important in my ad, and I sell by the piece, not by the board foot. People understand and appreciate knowing what the price is before deciding whether or not to come and look at a slab.

John