# How much to offer on old cherry planks? Update.



## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

I was talking with someone local a couple months ago about hand planes and he mentioned that he had some cherry planks sitting in the top floor of his barn that were 150ish years old, most are about 20' long, 22-24" wide and 1-3/4 thick. He mentioned that he wanted to make something with them but found the wood too hard/dense for his tools, he even showed me a piece and it was way heavier then any cherry I've seen at the mill but did look like rough sawn cherry. Fast forward to today and I asked if he wanted to sell any of it, he told me he had to unbury it and if I can come back next week I can take a look and maybe make a reasonable offer. What would you offer?


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## ShaneA (Apr 15, 2011)

One plank could be 70bf. Holy smokes! That is one big stick… Tough to say on value. $2 a bf doesnt seem unreasonable to me. Good luck.


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## ArlinEastman (May 22, 2011)

I know something like that old old wood goes for $3.50 to $7.00 a board foot. It looks like a once in a life time find.

Arlin


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

That's quite a tease. I'd have to buy at least one plank just for bragging rights : )


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Check the quality of the wood. If there is white powder piles on the planks then it is infested with powder post bettles. They can be nasty if you get them into your shop. I use Tim-Bor and make a liquid and spray the wood. It seems to kill them I soak both sides of the plank and then put it away for a year to kill the little buggers.

The price is degraded if they are present. They love maple and oak.


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## davidroberts (Nov 8, 2008)

I absolutely lve cherry wood, I mean drooling, slobering, gitty, love. That said, the fact that the boards are extra looooong and extra wiiiiiiiiide will bump up the price, maybe considerable. I see a lot of folks selling basically cutoff for $3 to $4 a board foot. These days 4/4 cherry starts around $5.50 to $6.50/bf it seems, and 8/4 rough cherry lumber is around $7.50, usually 8 to 12 inches wide, maybe up to 14", but 20", 22", 2 feet wide at 7/4 rough lumber, man you could add at last a couple of $$$ per board foot, $10/bf maybe. Depending on the board, i.e. curly, good figure, color, a special board could see $15/bf. Of course that is retail, but even at say 50% off retail, which would be a rare gift, $5 to $7/bf. Like Arlin "once in a lifetime find".


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

I agree that if these boards check out nice it is a once in a lifetime find, I'm just hoping it's a find I can afford. Obviously I'm going to try lowballing a little but I also have no desire to rip someone off. Thanks for the answers, I'll have to see what I can get and hope for at least one board. I would be cool to have just one to make a head and foot board out of for my bedroom set.


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## SteviePete (May 10, 2009)

I have made these deals several times before. I now Curb My Enthusiasm. I would try to be there to "Help" the guy uncover them. Like Karson above-check for insect damage. Bring an ice pick to check for various rot. Note checks and cracks. Measure some boards-length for BF estimates. Note how it was stacked, stickered? Check thickness on four corners, tapered boards will change your attitude about "buy of a lifetime." Don't fall in love before the first date (you may have already). Mediocre lumber is so no matter how cheap it is. Set in your mind what the maximum you will pay per BF. Fill your pockets with Benjamins. Enough to pay cash for the whole pile. Ask the owner what he wants for the whole pile-dsfGreen American Cash today, I load (bring Brother-in-law size 23 neck, 5 3/4 hat size to help.) See if he has other wood to bundle with it. Solve his storage problem for him.

I don't give a number until I'm sure of the wood and the buyer. Make sure you negotiate with the owner of the lumber-sons, daughters and friends will waste your time getting to the real price. If he starts talking about retail price of cherry at Woodcraft or other lumber yard-you are in trouble. Buy one board and go home. Better buys will come along. If the price is close to what you want to pay ie $2.00bf or less for the pile-just say sold if everything else is good to excellent on the whole pile. (I generally can get softwoods at $300/1000 and hardwoods at $750/1000 bf.) Lowballing only gets the old fellers hurt or angry. Buy a little and leave your name and address-tell him where you need to be to take the whole pile. (Way below his asking. Closer to the wholesale prices for this grade (it has some defects and you think it is 2common for example. A little less than my prices above.) Some guys don't like to see the buyer walk away. But Don't Sell Out.
If you go home with one board-make something out of it right away-figure just how good it is. I do go back if I find something special.
You have no idea how it was harvested, processed and stored for a century and a half. Moisture is the worst, bird ******************** next. Culls, bark edge, wane, twist and curve only mean lots more work for you. Buyer be ware.

Good luck. If you take any of this to heart. You will need to have a way to present such "Buys of a Lifetime" to SWMBO. Its not just the money-its space, you time, and spiders. Hope you enjoy the hunt and get a few laughs. spj


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

*"(bring Brother-in-law size 23 neck, 5 3/4 hat size to help.)"* LMAO !!!


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

Stevie, thanks for all the info, it will really help. I'm going is a little skeptical expecting that in 150 years something must have happened to some of it, just hoping to get enough to make a bed and dresser if it is in good enough shape. I'll settle for rustic but not rotted or punky. 
Karson, thanks for the info on the powder post beetles, don't want any of those in my shop.


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

Brother-in-law my a$$. That sounds like my first WIFE. (Just jokin'.)
Bill


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## jusfine (May 22, 2010)

It should be dry by now…

Good Luck!


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

I think that $2.00/BF is too low for cherry lumber that is wide, thick, and good grade unless the guy just wants to get rid of it and is not interested in what it is worth. I sell cherry lumber and get around $3.00/BF for good grade air dried. 8/4 stock is more like $4.50. Good luck. I bet there will be some exceptional wood that you will find once you dig out the stack.


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## LeeBarker (Aug 6, 2010)

I like Steve's insights. I got into some of wood described that way (but not as old) and I'd never seen so many knots in cherry! I was not very usable. And how often, outside of moulding or boat work, do you need anything over 10' long? Oh, sometimes. Maybe 12. So the length to me doesn't automatically declare itself a premium.

Kindly,

Lee


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

Lee, good point on the length, although it may be good for some if the wood it good I'll have to slice it in half to get it home, let alone into the shop.


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## SteveMI (May 19, 2009)

I had a neighbor offer up a wood stash of Cherry, Elm, Walnut and Cedar. When we went to unstack it the situation Karson and Steviepete mentioned was evident. Some of the stickers had compressed and those planks were a vermin paradise. Other boards hadn't been seal properly on the ends which cased cracks over 3 feet down the grain. A water leak soaked one corner with the wood being mush. None of it was useful. If it wasn't managed at least minimally, then you may be disappointed.

Steve.


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## fussy (Jan 18, 2010)

OK Russ, what happened? Send pictures of the wondrous find but try not to drool all over it. Hopeit's as wonderful as it sounds. Some good advice up there. Remember Andy Rooney: he had a couple boards about like these, just not as long. He enjoyed just looking at them When asked what he would make of them, he replied: "They don't make cherry like this anymore. I take great pleasure in just looking at them. Now why the hell would I want to ruin that by making something out of them?" That's a paraphrase, not a direct quote. But it's close.

Steve


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

Unfortunately it has only been three days and I'm still stuck waiting till Sat to see them. I spoke to the owner on the phone late last night after he unburied them and he was off on the lengths, they're about 11ft long which is more reasonable. He did say that the narrowest was 20" most are about 22" or wider and all are thicker. This is where I really hate waiting.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Steve: Andy Rooney's statement in American Woodworker December 1997 was:

At the bottom of my wood rack I have stacked seven Cherry boards 14 ft long and 25" wide at their widest point. I used to have eight but I made two tables out of one of them.

I like the tables, but they do not give me any more pleasure than do the seven boards. I have looked down at the cherry several thousand times in the ten years I've had it and derived pleasure on every occasion, What would I do with them that could be better than that!


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

Small update. I went and checked out the boards, they are 11ft long however all of them have a crack that cut across them that really knocks them down to about 8ft long with another 3ft long piece they're all right about 22" wide and just over 1" thick. They largely appear to be knot free. In one of the boards there was tiny little pin holes in the sap wood but none that I could see in the heart wood, not certain what the deal is with that, this was in a smaller piece that was brought down that was about 4' long and is a toss in if I buy the other 6. I didn't notice any such pinholes in the others but it was hard to see perfectly in the barn. All of them were solid and very heavy with no discernible rot. There is a total of 6 full boards for which he wants 50.00 each and like I said, he'll toss in the small piece. The only other thing is that the boards appear to be sequential based on the crack that runs through most of them and the occasional small knot. 
What are people's thoughts on the tiny pin holes?
Unless I get horrible news about the little holes I'll have pics of them tomorrow, he offered to deliver them for me since he is only about 15 miles away and has a truck and I don't.


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## davidroberts (Nov 8, 2008)

So let's say 6 boards, 8' long, 22" wide, call it 5/4 (might be generous). That's about 110 bf. Add another 10 bf for the 4' board = 120 bf at $300 for the lot = $2.50 bf, plus $100 for the 40 bf of 3' cutoffs at $2.50 bf, just to keep it simple. Actually $2.50 is less than half retail around these parts. So 22" wide 8' long select boards likely from the same flitch at really less than $2.50 bf, plus a free ride home, I'd say it's a steal. Just an opinion. I'd tie them together, screw on casters and roll them home, if I had to. That's just me. All this can change with the pics, but not alot.


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

Seems like it, I'm making the leap. Really can't wait to try and make two dresser tops, each out of a single board and have the two tops match. I figure I need to have two so swmbo can have hers and I actually might have 1/2 a dresser to use as well.


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

Sounds like a bargain …I paid more for less : (


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

The wood made it home, all sixand a half boards. I've got them leaning against the roof so I can pull them up onto the roof and push them through that small upstairs window that I'm aparently still narrow enough to easily fit through.


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## ShaneA (Apr 15, 2011)

Congrats!


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## zwwizard (Mar 30, 2008)

Check your boards carefully, the pin holes were made most likely by 'POWER POST BEETLES' But if the lumber is that old they most likely gone.


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

I looked at each while loading them into the truck and found only a couple holes in the sapwood ofa few boards.


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## Howie (May 25, 2010)

Alert Alert!!!!!
Just read where the EPA has outlawed 150 y/o cherry and it must be disposed of accordingly. Therefore shipping it to me in Tampa Florida will take care of it.

Congrats,I think you got a great score. If you only made toothpicks you still got a good deal.


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## davidroberts (Nov 8, 2008)

Man, those are nice. I wondered about the crack you mentioned. It's up about three feet on the left, across the grain, right? No big deal, at all. You done good, and the PO got what he wanted. That's what they call "a square deal".


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