just bought 125 bd ft of black cherry ,8 to 12″ wide x 8 to 12′ long x 4/4 for $2.50 cdn a bd ft .
I rough milled it and ended up with mostly 6 to 8′ clear select grade boards.
This wood was kd 8% mc is this a good price or am i just imagining it
If its a great deal i plan on getting a sizable load as it beats my wasted investments in penny stocks ps my cherry supply is up to 200 bd ft and all i need is a project to get started
Replies
"is this a good price or am i just imagining it" Sheesh! Rub it in, why dontcha!? I looked at cherry last week, it was in the $7BF range. Even with my wholesale discount, and waste during your rough milling, it doesn't come close to $2.50.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
not trying to rub it in , its just that no matter what I buy or sell someone tells me they have done much better financially & quality wise .
I found this material listed on LV store bulletin board. Seems some guy has 300 acres that he is harvesting near Algonquin Park and daughter who lives in town about 50 miles away is selling some for him . ps thats 2.50 cdn or about 1.75 US
I was teasing you, D. Sounds like the "someone" is highly gratified by p*ssing contests, LOL. I'm no expert -- haven't bought wood right out of anyone's orchard or field, but US$1.75 sounds pretty darned good. If I weren't on the west coast, I'd join in the fray and try to get some.
Have fun!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
There is a difference between "clear" and "select" grades. I don't think there is a "clear select" grade. But I understand what you mean.
12" wide boards are just getting up into the widths I desire. And I measure the width of the heartwood not the width of the board.
I am sure your price is good for the product you got. I prefer to pay more (much more) for a product that suits the projects I am building.
I have never been unhappy to pay $10/bdft for llumber delivered to my shop.
Hey dude,
I purchased 140 bdft, rough sawn mostly 4/4, but with some 8/4, from my local supplier a few weeks ago. The stuff is beautiful.
Where I am in CA, I don't have too many options, so I paid around $9.00.
Ouch!!!!
Sounds like a great price to me. I'll be buying some cherry this weekend and expect to pay a lot more than that.
I bought cherry recently from a small saw mill in the Golden Horseshoe and paid $6.50 Can for 4/4 - - 6/4 sells at 7.00 and 8/4 at $8.50 - - you got a bargain.
Here in Ohio I can puchase select & better grade 4/4 cherry 4-8" width x 10' lengths for $4.45 per bd.ft. 6-8%mc Thought this was high. Some sap wood but one side is sap free. Every year you get more sap wood than the last order. They claim they are cutting smallet trees.
Good price.
Closest I've seen to it is Steve Wall, $220US for 100bf log run cherry, plus shipping.
Luckily, I can suck up the shipping by driving down to Mayodan from Roanoke, although with fuel prices going up I may well ask Steve to quote shipping the next order, might be cheaper than half a day's time plus an estimated $50+ in fuel for the Suburban.
I pay around $1.65 a bd.ft. for cherry and can sit at the end of the sawmill and select what I want. It's rough and green but if I want 20 inch boards that are perfect I can have them.. If I want curley or whatever else I can have that as well for the same price..
I can get cherry down to 6% MC in about 45 days during the winter here so KD means absolutely nothing to me.
I can also get several hundred bdft. of cherry in less than 1 inch thick boards for $20.00 (whatever I can load in my pickup before the rear bumber sags too much and the front tires paw at the sky..
Frenchy,
Open a business which ships Cherry to California. You'll make a fortune and I'll be your first customer.
Where are you located as there is nothing in your profile.
What method are you using to get the mc down so fast & yet i assume the boards are not twisting or cupping at up to 20" amazing !
Dude,
I live in Minnesota but I buy my wood from Johnson bros in Cannon Falls Minnesota, give them a call, Ask for Connie. You might mention my name if you'd like but remember I don't buy single boards, rather I buy whole bunkers of wood. I know they sell some wood a few pieces at a time but most of what they sell is bought by the next middle man so it's hauled out by the semi load..
I buy most of my cherry during the winter, thus I start with relatively low moisture readings (around 25%) I seal the ends with the wax made for that purpose and put the wood in a spare bedroom.. sticker and strap.. (I use ratcheting straps rather than weight because I have had better luck using them, I don't get the grit in my wood that comes with using cinder blocks etc. and it's an easy way to judge when the wood is nearly dried. (once the straps remain tight you are down to single didget moisture numbers) I run a humidifier and have the hose going into the basement thus little water stands around. Humidity here in Minnesota during the winters is really low. Sometimes I need to open up the doors to the woodroom/bedroom to get moisture up to low single didgets in the rest of the house.. Since the furnace is under the bedroom and there are two heat ducts going into that room and two cold air returns coming out there is a nice airflow naturally.
I've found that the outer 1/2 of the wood will read single didgets inside of 30 days and at that point I turn off the dehumidifier and let the wood reach stability for the next two weeks.. Once I get a 8 to9% moisture reading I just leave the doors open and the whole board quickly drops into that 7% or less reading..
Just to be carefull I will unsticker at that point and stack all the wood with a new load on top to repeat the process. I think the addition of that next batch of green wood keeps the cherry from case hardening..
Dude said: "its just that no matter what I buy or sell someone tells me they have done much better financially & quality wise"
And "someone" would be .............. drum rollllllllllllll............... FRENCHY!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Forest Girl,
I'm not so sure.. I live here in the middle of flyoverland. Northern flyoverland. Cold flyoverland.. if you add trucking to my prices and professional kiln drying I think some of the other prices quoted here are pretty decent..
I ... can sit at the end of the sawmill and select what I want. .... if I want 20 inch boards that are perfect I can have them.. If I want curley ... same price..
You lead an unsual life there. Notice how others are surprised?
There are actually some small lumber mills near me. The offerings aren't as good as what you are talking about, but things are much cheaper than from the downstream suppliers.
Cleveland Ed,
You have to think like a sawmill that mills several million board feet a year. They actually can't sort out the curley from the straight grain since there is never enough of it to make a bunker and then they'd have to find a buyer for that odd lot of curley.. Same with fiddleback mapple. they tried for well over a year to sell a 1000 bdft. and when they still hadn't found a buyer and the wood was all black they were happy to get 10cents a bd.ft. from me..
Part of it too is the fact that I've been buying for years from them and often have bought a case or two of beer or on saturday mornings I buy a few dozen rolls and milk for them. In addition they get regular updates of my work in progress, They are more like personal friends than a place to shop. In fact Connies grandson got hernia lifting timbers That I couldn't and at the time he was only 15 or so..
Another part of it is the fact that I tend to buy what they don't have a market for.. I bought black walnut when they couldn't get rid of it and they were happy to get 17 cents a bd.ft. since that's what the pallet mills were paying for any hardwood at the time.. I bought 5/4 black ash for 15 cents when the buyer who requested it canceled and it sat around too long..
THe really great part of it is my close ties with the wood, when I first ordered timbers for my timberframe they told me which farmer* was selling the timber and I got to go there and watch it cut down.. I was able to count the rings in the base and determine that some of the trees were well over 200 years old with one tree over 270 years old.. (old growth indeed!)
I know exactly where all my Tamarack trees came from and those of you with IBM equipment made in Rochester Minnesota have a connection with those trees as well!
I selected which logs to be milled for me and they were kept to the full length while the rest was sawn into 8"9" lengths.. I sat at the end of the awmill and watched as my timbers were sawn and then carefully stacked them up to dry for several years prior to starting on this timberframe.. (at the time I paid only 30 cents a bd.ft. for white oak(and could have had black walnut for the same) even then cherry was 65 cents...
* the reason he was selling is his wife needed care for her cancer and that's the only way he could see how to pay for it..
Frenchy,
A classic example of how to cultivate a resource! These type of relationships don't have casually, and don't happen overnight. But, as you have demonstrated, they are well worth effort. Sure is a lot more fun than ordering online, isn't it! While I have never been as deeply integrated into the work flow at the mill as you have, I have often purchased directly from there and loved every minute of it. There is something very special about working wood from a tree that you have "known" while it was still a tree and not a log or lumber.
I salute your success!Woody
I am "Woody", whose real name is Woody, not "woody", whose real name is Ken. I am so confused...
I used to live in Buffalo, NY before Boston and now I wish I still did!!! It would be worth the drive. Good find!
-Art K.
Art,
If you take a ride up route 1A in Maine you might be surprised what you'll find. A couple of years ago I went wandering while my daughter spent a couple of hours shopping at the outlets....lots of guys slicing woods of all types in the woods...the green prices were quite reasonable.
Thanks. My girlfriend was just talking about going to the outlets. Nothing would make me more happy than going along (sure), but trolling for lumber sounds much better. Thanks again!
-Art K
I used to live in Buffalo, NY before Boston and now I wish I still did!!!
A serious question for you. Did you like Buffalo? I've considered moving there. Kind of a compromise location near my Toronto girlfriend. I love Toronto, but am wary of what I see of Buffalo.
In my area that would be stealing. First and seconds, 4/4 goes $8.00. I don't have pricing for select but imagine it would go at least $6.00 bf for 4/4
mike
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