Replies

1. 
   Len | Nov 17, 2003 07:22am | #1

   Your local lumber yard or construction supply usually carries the basics. HD and Lowes carries them as well but they can be pricey for hardwoods. Not every HD carries the same. Look in the phone book under hardwoods. Call around. I even purchased hardwood over the internet in small quantities..

   Hope this helps.

   Len

2. 
   RANGERP75R | Nov 17, 2003 09:21am | #2

   B B

      Agree with Len. The "box" stores have s4s in red oak, poplar, pine and doug fir. Depending where you are, most hard-wood suppliers carry the exotics plus alder, poplar and some other affordable species if you are are on a budget. My local caters o cabinet shops, but they welcome WW'ers. They just send you down and you can spend the day if you want going through hand picking grain, size, etc.

      They don't care if you only buy 10 bd. ft. or 1000. It's money in their pocket as you did the picking. Most hard-wood suppliers have either s2s or s3s. You will have to surface if you have the tools to do so, but the price is much cheaper than s4s at the "box" stores. The variety is much larger also of course.

   Good luck...

   sarge..jt

   Proud member of the :  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

3. 
   fdampier5 | Nov 17, 2003 06:24pm | #3

   If you are going to do just a project a year or so and don't need much wood the price you pay will have little differance in your hobby.. Heck get it from Homedepot or Lowes, if you want to support the hardwood stores that have the more exotic stuff , get it from them.  The price you pay should be roughly the same no matter where you wind up getting it.. (the exception is the woodworking tool stores who sell a few boards as a sideline, There you will take it in the shorts) 

     However if you are a serious hobbiest check out your local sawmill.  chances are he sells green rough wood for about a 1/3 or less of what you'll buy it for anyplace else..  drying is a piece of cake dpending on... you can do it in as little as a week or as long as a couple of years..  You'll save enough to buy that planner and jointer you've been lusting after..

        Try to buy in bulk.. then if you wind up with too much red oak for example,  you can post a notice at work or on bulletin boards at the grocery store..

     I could  (If I had the time) turn a tidy little profit from the price I pay for wood and what it sells elsewhere and still give people a great deal..

     I've bought black walnut for as little as 17 cents a board foot and cherry for 6 cents a bd.ft.

     the other great thing about buying direct from the sawmill is you get first look at wood as it comes off the mill.. that's where the wonderfull stuff is.. the flames, the crotches, burls and fiddleback maple..   I've gotten some birdseye red oak and other wierd and wonderfull wood just by being there when they sawed it..

       To a lot of mills who's biggest customer is the pallet shops they don't care.. Wood with charcter is downgraded  so they may sell that piece of crotch wood or that burl for the price they get for 3b..  It's not that sawmill operators are stupid, it's that they don't usually have buyers who go around buying up the oddball stuff..   Many mill operators work on razor thin margins and to wait untill someone came by willing to pay a premium for a special piece of wood will eat up the profit..

        For example.. The sawmill I buy from found about a thousand bd.ft. of fiddleback maple.  I bought what I could store but only took two hundred board feet.. I found out later the rest of it went to a pallet mill..

4. 
   BobSmalser | Nov 18, 2003 12:23am | #4

   Ditto Frenchy if you're gonna do a lot of woodworking in the upcoming years.

   http://www.sawmill-exchange.com/index.htm

    

   http://www.mobilemfg.com/

    

   http://www.baileys-online.com/

    

   http://www.woodmizer.com/welcome.html

    

    

   Check the phonebook and the mill manufacturers/sellers for portable sawmillers locally.  The mill builders are happy to provide names of local guys who own their mills.  Local tree service guys will know of them, too. Few advertise.

    

   That and get baileys-online.com's book on "Conversion and Seasoning" and stack, sticker, cover and dry your own.