Cheap hardwood lumber Northern California/ A journey to build All my furniture

[John Strong]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a new(ish) woodworker, with the good fortune of a small shop in my parents garage stocked with my grandfather's, father's and now my tools. I'm on a mission to build out the furniture essentials for a new apartment, that I will be moving into at the beginning of March. I've put aside a solid chuck of money, so that I can build with as much hardwood as possible. With a dinning table, coffee table, couch, living room relaxing chair, dresser, and several large picture frames, I've got a long cutlist. Most everything will be done in white oak.

Is anyone familiar with a good supplier of inexpensive white oak in the San Fransisco bay area or elsewhere in NorCal? I'm currently using More Newton Quality Hardwood in San Leandro and their prices seem to be pretty good + the deliver free next day (Which is great since I have a small SUV with no trailer hitch.) That being said, I think oak is just substantially more expensive over here on the west coast.

I've attached some photos of my recent progress below! (Couldn't figure out how to imbed, so I put them on imagr)

https://imgur.com/a/RRcpD8t

[Jim Becker]

All of that between now and March is pretty ambitious, especially for a new woodworker! I suggest you prioritize what's most important on your list.

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Well, I don’t know about cheap, but Moore-Newton has excellent quality and are a pleasure to do business with. Other sources for white oak and other hardwoods are MacBeath in Berkeley, Beronio in San Francisco and South City Lumber in South San Francisco. But I doubt you’ll consider any of them to be cheap. I don’t know anything about their delivery services, as I’ve always picked up my own lumber. It looks like you have a decently equipped shop, so if you’ve got a jointer and a planer, MacBeath has a good selection of rough cut lumber that should save you a chunk of change. Good luck.

[Alex Zeller]

One of the places I buy hardwood from told me that white oak is priced high right now because in Japan whisky has spiked in popularity. They are bidding up the price of oak to make barrels so they can make bourbon. How true it is, I don't know. Unless your heart is set on white oak you probably can save money with a different species of hardwood.

[John Strong]

Haha I know. (My first project a night table took my a solid several months of tinkering after work) I've got some Ikea furniture sitting in the shed from my college house which should fill in the gaps. But with the pandemic, I haven't particularly been seeing friends and have no problem with 14 hour days (how I punched out a few pieces of furniture pretty quickly for family members.)

[John Strong]

I've got a weird thing for white oak, but I have noticed (at least with the quotes I've gotten from Moore Newton) I can save a little bit by going ash. I was thinking of making the boxes on my drawers out of ash.. but might do poplar depending which is cheaper.

+ Also the kitchen table comes first!

[John Strong]

Well, I don’t know about cheap, but Moore-Newton has excellent quality and are a pleasure to do business with. Other sources for white oak and other hardwoods are MacBeath in Berkeley, Beronio in San Francisco and South City Lumber in South San Francisco. But I doubt you’ll consider any of them to be cheap. I don’t know anything about their delivery services, as I’ve always picked up my own lumber. It looks like you have a decently equipped shop, so if you’ve got a jointer and a planer, MacBeath has a good selection of rough cut lumber that should save you a chunk of change. Good luck.

I'll definitely check out Macbeth's prices. Our jointer is an old 4 inch attachment to a Shopsmith. We've recently decommissioned it because something keeps causing the speed control knob to come loose and occasionally jam itself. (ie not safe.) That being said, I've had pretty good luck face jointing using a 13 inch planer and a sled. It just takes me longer.

A lot of people online seem to be scoring crazy deals on rough cut lumber thats 1/2 or 1/4 the cost of s3s. I haven't been finding that to be the case? Maybe they're from places closer to where the trees are cut and milled/ have a generally less inflated cost of all goods.

I'm assuming anything close to these prices from North Carolina would be impossible to find: http://www.quartersawnoak.com/index.php?app=cms&ns=display&ref=Pricing

[David Bassett]

... save a little bit by going ash. ...

In the last FWW Podcast they mentioned there is a glut of Ash as the dead trees are harvested and it is dirt cheap (back there.) Seems like you should save a lot, but maybe getting it across the country is expensive.

I'm not an oak guy, but if White Oak is high because of whiskey could you use e.g. Red Oak?

[Wes Grass]

Check out Aura Hardwoods in San Jose. I don't know about white Oak, but I've bought a bit of Cherry from them and got out the door way cheaper than I was expecting.

[John Strong]

I'm not an oak guy

Out of curiosity, whats your hardwood of choice?

[David Bassett]

Out of curiosity, whats your hardwood of choice?

If you force me to pick, I suppose I'd say Cherry. But I've probably used more Maple cumulatively.

I'm not making furniture, so don't need as much at a time. Also I'm maybe advanced beginner and dabble in whatever technique seems interesting at the moment. In this area I mourn Southern Lumber. I've been told they were terribly over priced, but they had an incredible selection of wood types out in racks that I could just browse until I found what was recommended for the project I was trying or looked interesting in my mental picture, grab it, and pay for it. (And I'm pretty sure they offered competitive discounts to less "retail" customers.)

(For those out of this area,) the 3rd (or 4th?) generation owner woke up one day, realized he'd literally spent his entire life at the business and that the land it was on (just at the edge of San Jose's ever growing downtown) was worth more than the entire business, so he decided to shutdown and sell.

One place you might check out is Gobal Wood Source in Campbell. They seem to specialize in exotic woods as well as guitar blanks. I've felt out of my league on my visits. They have had a series of slabs on their Instagram recently, which they have milled from non-typical local trees. A place to at least keep in mind.

Also Aura, already mentioned, is highly recommended for Baltic Birch plywood. (Prolific TechShop (RIP) laser cutter users would buy in bulk and cut it down in the wood shop for their projects.) It definitely is a know what you want go to the service desk and request it type place though. I *guess* it isn't a lot different than Moore Newton in that respect. I don't know what they regularly stock either. Sorry.

[Richard Coers]

Transportation is a big issue with hardwoods in Ca isn't it? I was thinking live oak is about the only local species of oak. Rift sawn ash can be really nice and understated in furniture. Perfect if you like Danish Modern style. Vertical grain fir is also a great choice on the west coast. At least it used to be, no idea what that prices are like these days.

[Scott Winners]

Shipping is an enormous component of wood procurement. I burn 6-8 cords annually. If I can get even two stove loads free from my next door neighbor I will have that split and stacked before I even think about driving ten miles for a "free" cord that has to be loaded into my truck, driven home, blah blah.

I think big leaf and quilted maple are both gorgeous. I _think_ they grow on the west coast. Probably soft maples as maples go.

Another way to look at it, what are the two or three hards woods you can get plentifully and cheaply where you are? Which one of those do you like? There is indeed a glut of Ash back east and in the midwest right now, it has always been great firewood, now it is great plentiful cheap firewood, but you would still be looking at transportation cost even if you bought a train car load for personal use.

[Jim Matthews]

https://www.woodfinder.com/search.php

https://sacramento.craigslist.org/mat/d/richmond-reclaimed-wood-hardwood-rustic/7223249002.html

Happy hunting!

[Steve Rozmiarek]

If you are trying to get the absolute lowest price possible, you can look into the neighboring states. Here it sometimes saves quite a bit to buy something in Wyoming or South Dakota rather than the tax heavy state of NE. Of course you have to drive, so that's part of the calculation. I'd guess San Francisco area materials carry a pretty hefty premium built in to cover the taxes. Often it's not worth the hassle of traveling for a better price though.

[Curt Harms]

Access for plentiful and reasonably priced hardwood is a benefit of living east of the Rockies. I haven't use much ash but what little I used was flat sawn and the grain was pretty pronounced with quite a bit of cathedral pattern. That may have just been the rough boards I selected. Richard suggested rift sawn which should help with that. I found it okay to work with, a little tearout planing and jointing with a straight knife combo machine but not bad.

On the other side of the coin, we had an alder entertainment center that I wanted to add to. I could buy cherry for less than alder in eastern Pennsylvania.

[Jim Becker]

Curt, rift-sawn ash is really nice. So is rift-sawn white oak. And walnut. And cherry. LOL I'm actually a fan of rift sawn material.

[Dave Mills]

Also keep in mind that Aura, at least the one up here in Sacramento, keeps the vast amounts of its hardwood in stacks in the warehouse, not in the small display up front. For example they have S3S white oak up front, but everything to rough in back where you'd never know it. You need to ask them for pricing and to forklift up a stack of it if you want some.

Home Depot rents trucks for $20 for the first 80 minutes...

[Ray Newman]

Is White Brothers on Tidewater in Oakland still in business?

Before I moved from Castro Valley in 2001, Whites Bros. was my main choice for hardwood lumber and hardwood plyw'd.

[George Mathew]

I used to buy lumber from Southern Lumber (they closed down few years back).

The prices were high so moved to Global woods.
They had a large store in San Jose. Now they moved to Campbell.

Now a days, I buy my lumber from MacBeath Hardwood in Berkley.

[Bob Hinden]

My main source of hardwood is MacBeath Hardwood in Berkley. Great selection. I have them cut it to lengths that will fit in my car with the seats folded down.

[John Strong]

If I can get a really good deal on 4inch strips of rift sawn oak, should I pull trigger? Feels like with the straight grain, I could glue up panels where its hard to distinguish the joints.

[John Strong]

Curt, rift-sawn ash is really nice. So is rift-sawn white oak. And walnut. And cherry. LOL I'm actually a fan of rift sawn material.

If I can get a really good deal on 4inch strips of rift sawn oak, should I pull trigger? Feels like with the straight grain, I could glue up panels where its hard to distinguish the joints.

[Jim Matthews]

Try a small batch, first.

No sense laying in stores of material you don't care to use.

[Jim Becker]

If I can get a really good deal on 4inch strips of rift sawn oak, should I pull trigger? Feels like with the straight grain, I could glue up panels where its hard to distinguish the joints.

It's only a good deal if you like it and will use it as Mr. Matthews suggests. But yes, laying up panels with rift sawn can very often help make joints less visible. The negative to the material you mention is the 4" width. That makes for a LOT of glue joints if you are making panels. But a lot of rift material comes from being ripped off the edges of wider boards because that provides more overall yield from the tree than cutting the log specifically for rift.

[Ira Matheny]

Aura hardwoods is a supplier to many wood sellers, lumber yards, and many processor/manufactures of cabinet, furniture and similar.
They sell to walk in customers. you walk thru building, push their cart, load your purchases and take to a sales counter near the front. If you want to look a a skid on material, get a fork lift to dig it out and place it somewhere so that you can inspect.
NO SERVICES.
If you want shorts, buy what they have and use your own tools to cut/haul.
Prices many times are 10%/20% or even more than most lumber yard prices.