Would You Buy Wood This Way?

[Mike Shields]

With Denver having a couple options of wood suppliers, I've been going between the two (Austin Hardwoods and F. Paxton) just to see the difference in wood and price.

It's easy to get bummed when you see $8.00 bf for S3S hard maple. Because I can resaw, I at least consider roughsawn to save $$ over the milling cost, which (I'm told) can be 40% higher.

F. Paxton does not allow customers to pick their roughsawn lumber, but Austin does.

Would you buy roughsawn lumber without being able to pick it yourself?

[Don Bullock]

...

Would you buy roughsawn lumber without being able to pick it yourself?

No, that's one reason that I don't buy lumber over the Internet. Grain and color are very important to my designs. I base my projects on the wood that I find. If I don't find what I want on the racks at places like Austins I wait until I do. I realize that this may make my projects more expensive than if I bought roughsawn wood, but it's a price I'm willing to pay.

[Peter Quadarella]

I would and have bought internet roughsawn lumber. It's nice to pick it yourself, but I'm not picky enough yet to make it a requirement.

[Jeff Duncan]

Really depends on what your going to do with it. I usually order several hundred bd. ft. at a time and have it delivered. If I needed just 1 or 2 pieces for a special project I have a dealer I can go to, but it's 45 min each way.

As for $8 a bd. ft. for S3S maple.....:eek: I buy 4/4 roughsawn for less than $4 per bd. ft. Even if I had them mill it up for me it would still be less than $5. That's pretty pricey stuff they're selling you.
good luck,
JeffD

[Jerome Hanby]

Ditto. If I'm building a piece of "real" furniture, then I'm a little pick about what I buy. If it's for a workbench, some other shop furniture, jigs, whatever, then appearance is not that critical to me. Clear, straight, and cheap!

[Tony De Masi]

That does seem high. I just picked up some 8/4 rough sawn for $4.50/bf.

Tony

[Mike Parzych]

I never buy roughsawn "off the top of the pile." But fortunately I'm in an area where I easily have acess to places that allow you to sort. Lots of people aren't though.

When you're far from the growing areas of hardwoods like maple the price goes up. But even so $8 still sounds high but probably because it's S3S.

[Jack Camillo]

Not if I drove to the retailer to get it. That's a first on me.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I don't like to buy anything sight unseen. I've gotten some oak from a supplier that was magnificent stuff and the next time I ordered it was just so-so with a few boards I would call rejects. As far as buying sight unseen roughsawn I really see no difference between that and sight unseen dressed wood. You're at the mercy of the person picking it for you either way.

The trouble with some roughsawn lumber is just that.....it's roughsawn. If it's stored in a bin out of the weather it may be OK, but I've seen some stuff weathered (and not just stacked in the open in the weather) that there was not a clue what it would look like run through a planer with a fresh slick surface.

[Kevin Davis]

It is great living in Colorado:) but outside of all of that dead lodgepole pine:mad:, aspen and the likes, most of the woods are brought in. I have found Paxton's is a little more than Austin's but I like the staff and they have great wood of the month specials. If you have an account at Paxton's, hard maple 4/4 S3S is $5.20 and 8/4 is $7.18, Austin is $3.92 +.50 per b/f to S3S it, $5.82 +.50. It isn't too hard to get an account set-up if you haven't done that.

[Geoff Barry]

You could also check out the Golden Hardwood Emporium, which is in Golden right off of 6. I'm blanking on the name of the guy who runs it, but it's a one-man operation, and he's really helpful. It's been a couple of years since I compared prices, but I started going to him because he was cheaper. Not quite as large scale as the other two, but still has plenty of stock on hand, and it may be worth a trip.

But yes, living in Colorado, reading about hardwood prices in wetter and lower parts of the country will make you very envious . . .

[Jim Becker]

Would you buy roughsawn lumber without being able to pick it yourself?

Nope. And I'd balk if I were not allowed to casually use a block plane to examine color, etc., more closely, either.

[Larry Fox]

Nope, never - I am of the same opinion as Jim on that score. When I go to Hearne for a reasnable size order (anything over a few boards) I take a set of sawhorses and set boards out on them. On most ocassions I go through most of the pile of a particular species looking for what I need. I asked before doing it the first time and have never had anyone say anyting to me other than "good idea".

[Brian W Evans]

I'd have a hard time buying lumber I couldn't see/handle first. Especially at that price, you will be spending a lot of money - they should be more accomodating. I also agree with using a block plane to check color/grain.

I went to Lathrop's in VT today for the first time (thanks to those creekers who recommended it). They not only encouraged me to look through their stuff, they left me there while they all went to lunch for half an hour. For comparison, here's what I paid:

6/4 Curly cherry & curly maple - $6.50
6/4 Ash - $1.70
5/4 Walnut - $5.50

If anyone is interested, I'll post a scan of the price sheet they gave me.

[alex grams]

Good point on the block plane Jim. It would be interesting to see what the places around here feel on doing that. (though i really need to get some hand planes :( )

[C Scott McDonald]

Mike,

I have been to both of those places and you forget them

For everyday hardwoods head up to Fort Collins and go to Sears-Trostel lumber.

http://www.sears-trostel.com

All their lumber is in racks and you pick through them to your hearts content. All they ask is you put the piles back together neatly. They will gladly cut boards to fit in you car or truck free of charge. The people there are very friendly and many have been there for years and years. The prices are WAY better then Paxtons and Austins. 4/4 hard maple was a little over 4 bucks I think.

For the fancy "its costs how much????" wood road trip down to Gardner CO and visit Collectors Speciality Woods.

http://www.cswoods.com

Between the two all your lumber needs are covered in Colorado.

Good Luck,
Scott

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Absolutely not and that goes for ANY wood, even PT Pine for a deck. I've stopped going to two places bcause they stopped us from picking our own.

[fRED mCnEILL]

At 8 bucks a foot I wouldn't buy ANY lumber, period. Surely there must be a number of small sawmills in your area. Most areas of the country have at least one. I live on the west coast of Canada and lumber is plentiful but it is mostly softwoods. Yet there is a local sawyer who specializes in hardwoods like Western maple, cherry oak etc. And its most $1 per foot.It used to be up to $2 but the market has softened.

Other than decorative boxes how the heck can you afford to build anything substantial at $8 per foot.

Check Woodmizers website. They list sawmills using their saws.

Fred Mc.

[Geoff Barry]

I forgot to mention that there is a guy in Boulder County who mills all of the county's waste trees. The lumber is better if you're looking for some thick slabs, or for a natural edge, because he doesn't mill the trees into bpoards, but just into slices. If you want to make more traditional furniture, you'd have a fair amount of waste, but he has some interesting wood - TC Woods, on Arapahoe just east of 287.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I have decided that I will do this as well. As soon as I sell the company, I'm getting a Woodmizer. Besides cutting my own furniture wood [rustic cedar of course] I'll be able to mill other folks lumber too. This will probably start me another new side business, but it's all good.

[Rod Sheridan]

I purchased 100 BF of red oak, from a sawmill I deal with frequently, sight unseen.

The oak was pre-bundled into 100 BF lots, for $1 per BF.

I've used most of it now, and certainly received good value for my money.

It all depends upon the price, and the reputation of the supplier.

Normally at the above mill, I search through the indoor stacks, with a small plane looking for what I want. Then I clean up after myself. After years of dealing with the same mill, they don't even check the van, just ask me what I've purchased and write up the bill.

Regards, Rod.

[John Thompson]

Like others... got to see it.. got to pick through it and got to be able to plane a small sample or you have little to go on rough even if you can pick. I take a pin type moisture meter also just for fun. :)

Sarge..

[Peter Quinn]

If I can't pick it, I can't use it. Do they allow you to reject what they have picked for you? If not, and that's your only option, ouch.

My local yard does not allow you to pick through the plywood, but it is stored well with a sacrificial sheet and weight on top, you just can't dig through the pile. Hardwood however you are free to sort and dig as needed, but you must restack the pile when finished.

[Bill Keehn]

I wouldn't at that price. I can't see a good reason for them not to let you pick.

Around here in the Orlando area there are only a couple of options for hardwoods that I know of. My local exotic hardwood dealer (Amazon Exotic Hardwoods) sells Hard Maple for $6.50/bdft rough for 4-quarter and $10/bdft rough for 12-quarter, so the price you are getting doesn't sound too bad to me. I don't even know what S2S or S3S would cost, but definitely more. You have to pick through the wood yourself because there is nobody to do it for you.

If I could buy 8-quarter rough sawn for $4.50/bdft like Tony did, I'd buy it sight unseen as long as the company had a good reputation. I'm sure I'd come out ahead.

Last year I bought 300 board feet of 5 1/2 wide 3/4" unfinished Bloodwood flooring from lumber liquidators for $2.80 a board foot (wood gloat). They didn't let me pick and I understood why after I saw what they had to do. It was all stacked on forklift pallets and banded together. The two guys loading my truck were pulling from the top of the pile and counting square feet. On the upside of that however, they gave me about 20% more than I paid for because a lot of the tongues and grooves were broken from the banding.

Now before you ask, no.. I didn't use it as flooring. I was actually going to laminate a lot of it into a bench top. After I trimmed all the tongues and grooves off and squared it up, it looked too nice for that so I changed my mind. Now I'm thinking about other uses for it.

-Bill.