Where to purchase less than 3/4 hardwoods

[Brian Eaton]

Lately I’ve been enjoying making small boxes but the task of resawing thicker material into 1/2” and thinner stock is not the most fun and, as I’m still pretty new to woodworking, somewhat wasteful.

I use primarily hand tools and only have a drill press and miter saw. There is no band saw in the near future for me (though I’m saving up for one) so I wonder if anyone might be able to recommend businesses in addition to Rockler who might sell Hardwoods in thinner selections.

I found Ocooch Hardwoods by chance on a google search and may give them a try but just want to know if anyone else had other suggestions. Thanks!

[Tom Bender]

Where are you?

[Brian Eaton]

Dallas, Tx

[Brian W Evans]

Woodcraft sells lumber 1/16" thick, up to a couple of inches. The board foot price is very high but since you're only buying small quantities it might not bother you. They have at least a couple of dozen species on their site.

[Nick Decker]

There's a hardwood store near me (Kansas City) that sells a variety of hardwoods in 1/2", 1/4", even 1/8" thicknesses. Problem is, you're gonna pay for the milling of the stock to get it to that thickness, so it makes sense to save up for a planer and/or bandsaw. Been there, done that.

[lowell holmes]

I use a thickness planer to make thin boards out of thick boards. It works great.

[Steve Jenkins]

Call Hardwood Lumber Company on Goodnight lane. They have a horizontal resaw. Don’t know what they would charge but they are really nice folks. Or give me a call. I need to resaw a little bit of oak for a project and may be able to help you out

[Brian Eaton]

Steve, thanks for the tip. If I remember correctly Hardwood Lumber charged quite a bit to resaw. I don’t have any lumber needs at the moment, just asking in general, but thanks for the offer to help!

[Jim Becker]

Brian, while there are places like Woodcraft that will sell material that is "thinner", you pay dearly for it. Nature of the beast. I make my own for that reason as well as to insure quality.

[Mike Henderson]

My local hardwood supplier (Austin Hardwoods) has some of the species in 1/2". But they charge the same price as 4/4. If you do enough with thinner stock you should get a bandsaw - or a good friend who has a bandsaw - and saw your own.

For stock that's not too wide, maybe up to 6" or 7", I have a narrow table saw blade and I resaw it on my table saw. I have to make a cut on one side, then turn it over and finish the cut from the other side. The blade I have is a Tenryu 2mm blade - about 1/16". I cut a bit fat and then put it through my drum sander to make sure it's flat and of equal thickness. But it comes off the blade pretty good.

Mike

[Martin Wasner]

My local hardwood supplier (Austin Hardwoods) has some of the species in 1/2". But they charge the same price as 4/4.

Because it was likely sawn as 4/4 then thicknessed down to whatever

[roger wiegand]

As noted, it's available but not cost effective. With a good blade and attention to details of setup almost any bandsaw can resaw thicker stock to give you 1/2 or 3/8 (or thinner) material with minimal waste. I like the wood slicer blades from Highland Hardware, but others here have reported great success with many other blades. Your stock needs to be perfect to get two 1/2" boards out of 5/4 stock, but three out of 8/4 usually works. It doesn't take long to recoup the cost of a small used bandsaw (like a 14" Delta) with money saved by DIY resawing. The saw marks can be removed with a plane or a drum sander if you have one. You can also do it on a planer, but the cuts tend to be heavier and it's hard to maintain thickness. I like bookmatched door panels so do this kind of resawing all the time. For organ pipework and other instrument work it's essential to be able to make thin stock to any needed dimension.

[Ralph Okonieski]

Wall Lumber provides lumber thinner than 3/4. They ship it as well. I have ordered from them numerous times and have been very satisfied.

no affiliation with them, jus a happy customer.

walllumber dot com

[johnny means]

Shame you're not in our neck of the woods. We can't throw stuff like that away fast enough.

[Brian Eaton]

I’ll check them out!