I’m in the Air Force, and Uncle Sugar moved me to Germany at the beginning of this summer. I’m stationed at Ramstein AB now. There is a wood shop here, but they don’t have much selection for wood. With the language barrier issues, I haven’t been able to effectively search out hardwood suppliers.
I did go to a different military installation near Stuttgart a few weeks ago and picked up a nice slab of Mahogany (quarter-sawn, even) for something on the order of $4/bf. Walnut, on the other hand is twice as much here.
I stumbled across baltic birch ply (quality stuff, too) at their equivelant of a “big box store” here. They sell it by the square meter, and 18mm is around 16 Euro per. Other than the baltic birch I found (maybe not truly from the baltics) their idea of plywood here is a little different. It appears to be solid core. I don’t even understand how that can be, but that’s what it looks like.
So does anybody out there in Knots-land know what I need to look for in Deutchland to find retailers of good kiln-dried hardwoods?
Replies
Whats your name again?! Try contacting your friendly local German forester (forestoberat) for local sources of wood. The foresters not only plant and maintain the forests, they also sell the timber to local and far-flung Asian mills. If you make a good impression on the the man in loden, he may also invite you to a boar hunt. Waidmansheil! Frenchy
Yep, Frenchy, I need to change my name. I made that one up when I was taking an advanced Russian language class. At the time I thought it translated to "woodworker" in Russian. Turns out it's more of a woodworking machine. Joke's on me! Thanks for the tip on the forester.
Edit: I've changed it. Muzhik loosely translates to "yokel" from Russian. My instructors told me that non-Russians can't use that word. I didn't want to offend them, but it's been part of my e-mail address for 8 years now.
Edited 8/24/2006 2:16 pm ET by Muzhik
I have about the same problem. I work in Mannheim for the military. This past Sunday, I was driving from Bad Dürkheim to Kaiserslautern and I noticed a sign that advertised wood for sale. I don't know if it is firewood or a lumber yard. When I get a chance, I am going to go back and find out but it must be on a work day and I would have to take vacation time. I don't have much vacation time as it is. I will probably go on the next holiday, 4th of Sep.. If I see anything good, I will post it.
Wally Coffman
Wally,
I'm not sure where Bad Dürkheim is located, but I'm living near K-town. I'm on leave all next week. If you can tell me more specifically where you found that sign, I can look into it and report back to you. Meantime, the wood shop I picked up that Mahogany from was at Kelley Barracks near Stuttgart. I haven't contacted them since I went, but they are apparently between suppliers (or were at the time). I'm just hoping to find something closer to home.
I have found one website of a business in Rheinland-Pfalz that looks promising. I tried to call them once with no luck. I'll try them again next week when I'm home during "business hours". Again, I'm pretty sure I'll run into language barrier issues. Their site does have an "English" button on it, but it appears they fed German into a machine translator and posted the results on their site... not that I could do any better.
http://www.tombers-hartholz.de/mainframe.asp?lang=&e1=709
We'll stay in touch.
Scott
Hey,
Too get to Bad Dürkheim, take the autobahn from K-town towards Mannheim. Get off at the Enkenbach/Alsenborn exit, take a right at the bottom of the offramp. Go a few kilometers to the T-intersection and take a left onto B37. Go to Frankenstein where you turn left off of the main road but you will still be on B37. That road takes you directly into Bad Dürkheim, the home of the 1,000,000 liter wine barrel (that houses a restaurant now). Some kilometers before you get to Bad Dürkheim, there will be a sign on the right mentioning the sale of wood. The sign looks like that someone was proud of it when they made the sign and that makes me think that it would not be firewood for sale. I can't say how far out of Bad Dürkheim the sign is, the sign is not very big. If you decide to look for this place, good luck, if I don't hear from you by the 4th I will give it a try.
I go to the woodshop in Mannheim, Dan's Woodshop, it is on Sullivan barracks. Dan has different types of wood, I am going there tonight to work on a piece that my wife wants.Wally Coffman
Wally,
I went to Bad Dürkheim today. Either I missed the sign you are talking about, or it has been taken down. I stopped at a sawmill place just inside of town, Karl Becker, if I remember correctly. I spoke to a gentleman working in the yard. He may or may not have understood the little bit of English I had to use, and he found it humorous that I even asked if he speaks Russian (I hope I didn't insult him). In the broken German I used, and what I got from him is that they only deal in coniferous woods there. No beech or birch. Seems like he told me "keine Laubholzz" or something in that vein. When I asked him where I could get laubholz around here, he said he has no idea. I noticed alot of papermills around there, which also makes me think the market is predominantly softwoods.
I did have more luck locally, though, and with Tombers. I spoke with Markus Tombers himself. He seemed reluctant to sell in smaller quantities, and understandably so. I asked him if he'll accept a VAT form, and he declined. Nonetheless, he sells white beech for 400 Euro/cubic meter (which is roughly 430 board feet), and I'm pretty sure that was for "first quality" which I'm guessing is equivelant to FAS. When I told him I'll be building a workbench, he mentioned that they have lesser grades that sell for less, of course. I didn't get a quote from him on that, because by that point I could tell I was wasting his time, since he knew already that I would be purchasing less than a cubic meter at a time. Nonetheless, he invited me out to pick through what they have.
Locally, I found a cabinet shop no more than 10 minutes from my home in Mackenbach that is willing to order what I need and sell it to me. They're putting together a quote for me. I thank Martin for this. A simple search for Schreineri and Kaiserslautern on google.de got me multiple leads.
That was a small sign and not very apparent.
I am leaving at the end of March so I think I will put any new projects on the back buner. I still have some walnut left and my wife wants a few things that will take up my time until I leave.
Good luck with your wood buying.Wally Coffman
Thanks Wally. I can't say I blame you for putting off any more projects until after your move. Are you heading for the states? I may come up to Dans sometime as well. Do they stock exotics?
Edit: I just got my quote from the local cabinet shop. They're asking 702 Euro for 0.25 m^3... PLUS VAT. That puts it around $1,000 or so with the conversion rate for a little over 100 board feet. Either they're trying to rake me over the coals, or Herr Tombers and I didn't understand one another when he told me it sells for 400 Euro per cubic meter at his enterprise.
Either way, I might just try to contact Kelley Barracks again. I got a price list from them last time I was there, they charge $3.00/board foot (US). I just have to wait until they have some available.
Edited 8/29/2006 2:04 pm ET by Muzhik
Hola! I live in spain ,but u could try at dicktools.com thay can help u for sure ,in spain or france the price is 450 eur for m3 .
Scott,
I looked at the website for tombers-hartholz. They say that they have the normal European woods such as oak, beech, maple, cherry, ash, fir or spruce, pine and lärche (I don't know what that is in english). The place that I told you about probably has about the same stuff.Wally Coffman
OK, that's a start. My first order of business here will be to build a workbench anyway, so I'll be looking at maple, birch, or beech. Stuttgart's shop had some exotics, so when it comes time for special projects, that can be a last resort still. Nonetheless, they must get it from somewhere.
Don't waste your time to built a workbench. For 200-300 Euro you can pick up a used Dieffenbach workbench. Check the local paper for a "Werkbank" or "Hobelbank", maybe check ebay.de
Good luck in Germany, its a beautiful country!!!Martin
Martin,
Vielen Dank für die Hilfe!
Unfortunately, that's about the extent of my German at this point, and I'm sure to hear me say it is to hear me butcher your language. I might pick up a used bench, but ultimately I want to build my own anyway. Nonetheless, it would be nice to have one to work on as I build mine.
Also thanks for the well wishes. I'll be heading to Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen (sp?) next weekend. I've been before, but my wife and kids have not. We're looking forward to it.
Scott
Scott,
While you're down there, stay at the NATO billets in Oberammergau, rather than the hotels in G-P; about the same price, but lots quieter, and truly spectacular scenery. Don't miss Ludwig's little shack at the Linderhof: way too cool. It's worth going through the grotto and the hunting lodge built around the trees, too. (It's only about 10 - 15 km from Oberammergau.)
The woodcarver's shops in Oberammergau have some really cool stuff; the Christmas ornaments are pretty nice, and generally reasonably priced; some of the other stuff is tourist priced......
Have fun!!Tschüß!
Mit freundlichen holzbearbeitungischen Grüßen!
James
Does Mike not work in the Stuttgart shop (on Kelley barracks) anymore?He used to get all sorts of wood and sell it at a good price.And as for building a bench, I bought an ancient Ulmia bench with two 24 inch jointer planes for 100 marks about 8 years ago. I couldn't have bought a vice for that price.Sean
Edited 8/30/2006 12:34 pm ET by sjf
I believe Mike was the name given to me. He wasn't there on the day I got that mahogany slab. They did seem to have a decent variety there. I'm told that he's currently looking for a new supplier, though. The only problem with Stuttgart is that it's two hours away, which isn't really that much of a problem so long as I call ahead and know that they'll have what I need.
I hope to find a deal like you did. As I said, ultimately I want to build my own bench. Call it pride or call it foolishness... it's probably a little of both. But if I could find a good deal on a used bench, it would make sense to pick it up so that I have it to use as I build my own. If I can sell it at little to no loss, great!
Hi WallyLärche is larch
Martin
Thanks, I will have to put that in my dictionary. Even though it is a simple translation, I will probably forget it.
German firms are set up to sell to trades people only, I am a chair/cabinetmaker from New Zealand and have friends in Germany and when I was there 2 years ago I wanted some timber other then pine to make a cabinet.
These firms do not want to sell to any body who do not have there master trade qualification, I got fed-up with these protective rules and told them to get F-t , by the way I do speak German very well.
Hope fully U have more luck
Cheerio Bernhard
You might want to check out the foresmeister south of Kleber Barracks on the east end of Kaiserslautern. Just follw the road south of Kleber about a klick - he has a very traditional looking Bavarian style house on the east side of the road. Take this with a grain of salt - I was stationed at Kleber from 87-90, and last visited in '02.
Another idea is to get with the range control folks at the training areas such as Graf, Hohenfels, or Mannheim (can't for the life of me remember the name of the training area we used there). They work hand in glove with the German forestry folks. They might be able to help you out.
Best of luck, and thank you for your service.
-Tom
Kaiserslautern !!I was stationed there in 1960 or so.. For some reason I miss the place. Nice folks there.. Well, like most places, most folks were really nice to you.
You should not have a problem to purchase some lumber from a local "Schreinerei" or "Schreinermeister" or "Tischlerei". If you know what you are lokking for they are very helpfull.
Martin
Muzhik,
Try Google.de and look for "Sägewerk" (sawmill) or "Holzhandel" (loosely translated as lumber yard) or contact the "Gesamtverband Deutscher Holzhandel" (German timber trade association) at http://www.holzhandel.de/kontakt.cfm?sLang=EN
Chris
Thanks Chris. I'll do that.
I should have posted this thread months ago! I've been banging my head over this for awhile now. Thanks for all the replies.
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