# Reasonable Wood Prices



## patcollins (Jul 22, 2010)

What are some reasonable prices/board foot for: Red Oak, Cherry, Hard Maple, Mahogny. Walnut and Popular?

I just paid $3.50 for maple and $5.70 for Walnut getting some wood through work.


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## zonkers (Aug 18, 2010)

$5.70 for Walnut is a good deal in SC. I have paid up to $7.50 for ¾ S1S. I just bought a bunch of ¾ x 4.5" select Walnut T&G flooring, guaranteed no yellow sap wood for $6.49 a square foot. This is a deal in these parts!


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## sandhill (Aug 28, 2007)

I have 300 BFT of 8/4 cherry for $4.15 a bft if anyone needs some. Just PM me.


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

Pat, a great deal of the price is dependent upon the area where you are located. Here are several responses to the same question that was posted about two weeks ago.

FYI, on my last lumber buying trip I spent some time just talking wood with my supplier. He told me a story about selling several thousand bf of cherry to one of his client's who was moving to Arizona and wanted to make all the trim/doors in the house that he was building. It seems that cherry is hard to come by there and, what is available, costs an arm and a leg. To make a long story short he paid the freight to ship the lumber to Arizona, used about half the load to make his trim with while selling the rest to local woodworkers. *And* ended up making a profit on the deal.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

In Denver, CO, both those prices you mentioned are better than average. It depends on what board thickness you're talking about, as well as if it's rough, or dimensioned lumber. I did pick up some 8/4 hard maple a couple of weeks ago and they sold me the dimensioned stuff for what the rough stuff would've been. The 8/4 was really like 1-3/4" milled. I think I paid about $4-something/BF. Walnut is a different story. It seems to have gone up quite a bit within the last 4-months or so.

I just picked up some S3S mahogany about 6-weeks ago for $3.15/BF for 4/4 stock. I felt that was a pretty good price. It's a lighter-weight mahogany than, say, African Mahogany though and doesn't really possess any of the wavy/curly grain you can find in African Mahogany.

One of our local suppliers (Paxton Lumber) puts certain wood on sale from month-to-month and I try to buy during these times. Of course, if I need something for a project, I'll go ahead and buy a little at regular price, but I do try to stock-up for the future during the sales. This is how and why I have a lumber rack full of wood in the basement. That's OK with me though because then I have choices.

I would completely agree with the above comment that pricing is regionally specific. We don't have an abundance of the wood you're asking about locally, so it's shipped in from other regions of the country.


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## Lochlainn1066 (Oct 18, 2010)

Your prices seem in line for our local specialty wood store.

Depending on where you live, you might check out local sawmills and kilns. They might not sell small orders but may know who will. It's always cheaper the further back "to the tree" you go. (That's why I'm building my own mill.)


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## Chiefk (Jan 28, 2008)

I agree with Nate, I buy from the specialty stores only as a last resort. I seek out local sawmills with kilns. A lot of times the sawmills are fairly small, but usually have the domestic woods I need. When I first moved to TN, I knew of no places that sold wood. But by searching Craigslist, Newspaper classifies, and word of mouth, I have several places that range in distance of 5 miles to 50 miles from my home to get wood. I takes a little time and effort, but I believe if you look around you too can find the wood you need at better a price. pkennedy


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## canadianchips (Mar 12, 2010)

I think the price I pay depends on *what* I am going to use it for and *when.* I buy hardwoods a at auction sales, I never pay more than 1/4 of its value at store.(Some of it generally is not usable, may have no need for it at the moment,etc)
When I am working on project and need specific piece and know how much material I need, local supplier has good stuff, I will pay their higher prices. 
To me, its about convienience and opportunity costs.


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## bent (May 9, 2008)

candianchips is exactly right.

i mainly get my wood from estate sales. if you have the storage space to keep a running inventory of material, this is the way to go. i don't think i've ever paid over $.50/bdft at an auction. 2 days ago, i bought about 800 ft of 6/4 walnut for $200 and 1000 ft of 4/4 cherry for $55. that's not to say you got ripped off at the price you paid, because it was right in line with market price (for my area anyway). but you can get better deals if you can handle the space/storage issue, and have the patience to wait for a deal to come along.


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## Gator (May 2, 2008)

I just bought 130 bd ft of cherry and it was a mixture of 4/4 - 6/4 & 8/4 
The 4/4 = $6.50
6/4 = $7.50
8/4 = $9.00

This is about average for southwestern Ontario - Canada.

I must watch the papers more for auctions .. that is a great idea..

I wish I lived in Florida Sandhill..

Gator


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## Lochlainn1066 (Oct 18, 2010)

I once saw 100-200 bdft of 8/4 walnut go at an auction for $25. I had just arrived and wasn't able to get a bid in. Surely someone was gloating that day!


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## cabs4less (Nov 2, 2010)

im in alabama and i pay 2.25 13/16 s3s bf for red oak and 3.00 for maple


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## patcollins (Jul 22, 2010)

This was in Maryland, I only bought 8bf of maple and 4 bf of walnut at the wood hobby shop on a military base.


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## Millo (Jan 19, 2010)

Just curious, can anyone tell me if this is a good deal at ~$7 a BF shipped?:

http://www.bellforestproducts.com/curly-red-leaf-maple-project-pack/?utm_source=lumberjocks&utm_medium=emag&utm_campaign=Curly%2BBlowout


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## JasonIndy (Dec 29, 2008)

Around here that's a bargain. Curly maple goes for about $12/bf rough. I've never bought online, though. I imagine part of the discount is in not getting to buy the specific sizes or pieces for particular projects.


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## Millo (Jan 19, 2010)

Thanks, that helps.

I'm just trying to get an idea of what to expect from various sources, for budget-planning purposes, etc. Tomorrow I'll call 3 local lumberyards for their typical prices on hardwoods and sheet goods I'd expect to be using in the future.


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## ajosephg (Aug 25, 2008)

I've found that you can't accurately compare prices without comparing quality. For example I've bought cherry and walnut from a low of $4.00 to a high of $5.60, and at the end of the day, the higher price was a better deal because of less sap wood, less twisting, cupping, and etc.


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## DonH (Sep 8, 2010)

I agree with Joe - I rarely buy "just wood" as I look for exceptional figure and colour and pay whatever has to be paid to get it. The way I look at it the effort for making a piece with plain wood vs the exceptional is about the same (OK maybe a little more to deal with grain issues) but the results are night and day and that for me defines the real requirement.

In short, forget the price and get those exceptional boards that justify your exceptional committment to the craft.


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## JonathanG (Jan 18, 2010)

DonH and Joe,

Both well said. I hand select all my boards, spending time digging through the pile, seeking the exceptional boards out, whether it be for grain, or color, or just a nice, straight board.

One of the first times I purchased hardwood from a lumber supply store, I ended up getting the "rustic walnut". It was definitely cheaper than the regular walnut, but had extra knots and lots of sapwood. I dug through the entire pile and looked at every single piece, front and back, before pulling out maybe 30-board feet of walnut. I still have a few pieces of it left. Several of them have a really interesting flow between the heartwood and sapwood, while the others would be perfect for aprons or drawer fronts, as they have excellent flowing figure from the branch locations, but no questionable knots.

In my opinion, it is definitely worth my time because it all starts with the wood. If you've got subpar wood, you're not going to be able to turn out something spectacular. The wood is the base of the project, the starting point, so why not stack the deck in your favor? Sure, you can disguise junk, but at the end of the day, that only goes so far.


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## Millo (Jan 19, 2010)

definitely, things to consider…


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