Need advice on a wood buy - thickness issues.

[John Keeton]

I have an opportunity to buy about 4000 bd ft walnut and cherry that has been air dried several years. It reads 9-10%, but it measures from 15/16 to 1" thick. Most of it appears relatively flat, but I am concerned that I would have difficulty getting 3/4" out of it. There are some wide boards - 12", but most of it is 7-8". Price is right - $1/ft. It is stickered with like wood, but seeing what it looks like is difficult. From what I can tell, it is at least #1 common. What are the thoughts? I would probably sell most of the cherry to try to net out much of the walnut. It is about 3/4 walnut.

[Jeff Hallam]

The price certainly is right, even if you get 1/2" or 5/8" out of it. No one says your projects have to be 3/4". I'm thinking you could use it for boxes or smaller projects. That thickness would be very usable as a ship lapped back for a bookcase or hutch.

[Eiji Fuller]

You should be able to get 3/4 easy. If you are careful in your surfacing you could probably get 13/16. As you said it is relatively flat.

Also only surface what you need for one project at a time and leave the rest stacked. If you layout what you need on the rough boards you can cut them a few inches long then surface them. Shorter boards will be easier to get the most thickness.

Hope that helps.
Eiji

[Greg Cuetara]

John,
Not sure I quite understand. Typical 4/4 starts out at 1" thick and is then planed down to 3/4". If the boards have cupped or are twisted quite a bit then yes you will have difficulty getting 3/4" out of it but you would have difficulty if you bought 4/4 from a supplier and it was cupped or twisted. I bought about 100 bd.ft. of cherry at 7/8" thick and had no problem getting solid 3/4" wood out of it.

And one last thing...where is this wood because I know others around here would jump at the opportunity for walnut and cherry at $1 / bd.ft....lol....congrats on the gloat but we do want to see some pictures...

[John Keeton]

Jeff, I guess I should have added that my woodworking interest lies mainly in casework, so 3/4" is, for the most part, the minimum thickness for my needs. Also, this is wood that would be stored for many future projects as I am a hobbiest, and do not do this for a living - yet. I would like to retire a few years down the road and be more active with woodworking.

This wood has been outside, although largely covered. It has some checking, both on the ends, and on some of the more exposed surfaces.

Greg, in this area, the customary milling is 9/8" green, with final thickness in excess of 1". This would was, at the owner's admission, cut too thin. Were the price not what it is, my interest would not be as great as I have made bad purchases before with wood that was too thin, too much sapwood, etc. It is so difficult buying stacked and stickered wood because it is truly a "pig in a poke."

I may drive by today and take a couple of pics to post for inspection before others comment. Still undecided on whether to take this risk. It is a "take all" deal, and that is a lot of wood for a guy that builds a couple of projects a year - not to mention a lot of money!!

[David DeCristoforo]

Personally, I would not buy $4,000 worth of wood without looking it over first. A buck a foot is cheap (maybe even if it's firewood) but it's still four grand. If the guy would not let me inspect the boards first, I would pass. However, assuming that this wood is decent enough for you to want to buy it, you should not have any trouble getting 3/4 out of it. If it is so badly twisted and cupped that you cant mill a 1" thick piece down to 3/4", you should be able to see that easily by looking at the ends. I would want to dig into the stack a bit to see just what I was buying. As long as you are willing to re-stack the wood, I don't see any reason the guy would object.

[John Keeton]

David, I appreciate your comments. Your experience is invaluable. The fellow would have no objection to me looking through the wood, and I could do that to a degree, but it is A LOT OF wood. It was cut from more than one tree and is stacked pretty high. I am going to post a pic later this evening of the stacks. One of the things I am concerned about is the amount of surface checking on some of the more exposed boards and the ends. There will be some waste. I will follow up later this evening with a pic or two so maybe everyone could have a better idea. Thanks again.

[David DeCristoforo]

4,000 BF is indeed a lot of wood. But you don't need to go through it all. Just dig into the pile a few "layers" deep and see what you get. Some surface and end checking is to be expected. And at a buck a BF, you can be pretty forgiving. But you want to make sure you are getting some useable wood. If you figure around six bucks a foot for cherry or walnut, you could buy around seven hundred BF of top quality material for four grand.

[Wade Lippman]

Jeff, I guess I should have added that my woodworking interest lies mainly in casework, so 3/4" is, for the most part, the minimum thickness for my needs.

I just made a perfectly nice china cabinet out of 5/8" cherry. I bought the wood at an auction and couldn't get it to 3/4" Not a big deal.

[John Keeton]

Well, here are the pics - pretty rough stacks. The smaller stack has been sitting in that location for 15 years - long enough for some of it to be stolen. I figured it at 1500 bd ft. It actually metered higher in moisture content than the second bunch. I think mostly because it was not covered well.

The second bunch has been sitting for 5+ years. The stack farthest toward the back is cherry, the rest is walnut. I figured the cherry at a little over 1100', and the walnut at a little over 1700. There are some missing boards in some layers, so I netted a 4000' number for a guesstimate.

And Wade, you are probably right on the 5/8". It seems to have just been that standard, but I am sure there are thousands of nice pieces done with thinner stock.

David, I did pull a couple of boards here and there and the ones I saw were easily #1 common.

So, does this change anyone's mind?

[Joe Jensen]

I always leave the lumber rough, and then cut the lengths and rough widths I need. then I joint the face, and plane to thickness. A board that moves across it's entire length would likely not yield 3/4", but if the lenghts are often 4ft or less you should be fine...joe

[Johnny Kleso]

Put a straight edge on it and check the lenght and width..

Also consider how long your finished boards need to be..

IE: dont check 12' when you only need 4' straight..

[David DeCristoforo]

Well, from looking at the pics, that's pretty carelessly stored wood. I would expect to see around 50% waste there. For me this is a "crap shoot". On one hand it's a lot of wood. On the other hand, it's not been properly stored and is (from what you have stated) not "the best" grade to begin with. Is this four grand burning a hole in your pocket? If not, I would not be too excited about this "deal".

[steve reeves]

Well, from looking at the pics, that's pretty carelessly stored wood. I would expect to see around 50% waste there. For me this is a "crap shoot". On one hand it's a lot of wood. On the other hand, it's not been properly stored and is (from what you have stated) not "the best" grade to begin with. Is this four grand burning a hole in your pocket? If not, I would not be too excited about this "deal".


Ditto... I wouldn't let the "it's only a dollar a bd ft" keep running around in my head. You've been able to inspect it, we haven't but from the pictures it looks like a lot of wood for sure... however if you end up spending days and how ever many hours of machine time trying to get usable lumber out of it I'd have to factor that into it also. Perhaps your time has little value or you get "value" out of doing this sort of thing. some folks do and that's fine.

I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut that this seller has already contacted every cabinet shop he could find about buying this stuff and everyone of them have passed on it. Which of course doesn't mean it isn't worth what he's asking, only that they didn't want to invest the time in culling it.

And as another poster mentioned... you could buy a lot of "choice" lumber for that money and not have the storage, transportation and culling issues with it.

But again, none of us have seen it.... tough to give a good opinion.

[Peter Quinn]

Air dried wood 15 yrs to the weather, I'd be worried about bugs, particularly with the cherry but also with the walnut. That's a free meal and a nice home to many species of unwanted pests. And you probably won't find them hanging out as much in the first few layers as the middle. Proceed with caution there.

[John Keeton]

You guys don't know how much I appreciate the input. I am going to pass on the buy. I have actually known about this wood for a few years, but the guy wasn't interested in selling at the time. I had not seen the wood in 3 or 4 years and asked him about it recently. I don't think he has actively tried to sell it.

He runs a tree service, and has a portable mill. Wish we could have come together then because the wood was in much better shape.

It would have taken a lot of effort to haul, restack, etc. and Peter's comment about bugs really got me thinking. I would have put it in my barn loft, but don't need to introduce any unwanted visitors to my barn! That could be an expensive mistake.

Since posting the thread, I have done some checking and although I don't care for kiln dried walnut, I can buy #1 common walnut for $2.05 and #1 cherry for $2.70. Other than the grading loss (knots, etc.) I wouldn't have any waste, and it is full 9/8".

Thanks again - I did get "starry eyed" over the price, but you guys brought me back to reality.

[John Downey]

I always leave the lumber rough, and then cut the lengths and rough widths I need. then I joint the face, and plane to thickness. A board that moves across it's entire length would likely not yield 3/4", but if the lenghts are often 4ft or less you should be fine...joe

Exactly. I'd have absolutely no concerns on this stuff at the specified thickness, just not that hard to get 3/4" or even 13/16" from a 1" rough board if you rough cut your pieces and flatten from there.

[Lee Hingle]

I'D PASS! Spend your $4000 on 700 bf of premium lumber and let someone else take this. Personally, I would not go more than about $1000 on this. David is right, that was carelessly stacked. I'd bet that the lumber in the inside/bottom of those piles is not as straight as you might believe.

Good luck,
Lee

[David DeCristoforo]

"...carelessly stacked..."

Actually, just to be clear, I did not say it was "carelessly stacked". I said it was "carelessly stored". In fact the stacking does not look bad. the boards are stickered and banded and are stacked on timbers. Unfortunately, the timbers are sitting right on the ground and the wood is not protected from the weather except with some bits of tin tossed on top of the piles. With this wood having been left like this for 15 years, it is unlikely to be very useable. Had these stacks been stored out of the weather with some sort of vapor barrier between them and the ground, the prognosis might be much better.