# Where can I buy wood in Dallas at a decent price?



## MarkTheFiddler (May 29, 2012)

Howdy gents. I'm hitching a ride off another post about finding an inexpensive source of hardwoods.

Please tell me if you know one. The prices I was seeing in the other post are 1/3 to 1/2 what I pay because I only know of Rockler and WoodCraft. When I look at the lumberyards online, there are no price lists. It makes it real hard to figure out what's what.

Can you help me save a few bucks? I'm getting nickel and dimed to death every time I buy an exotic board. I'm tired of dropping $30 to $50 every visit and leaving with one board. That's not even for the cooler woods. I have to take out a loan to get Zebra, Wenge, Pink Ivory, Bloodwood Etc.


----------



## eao2012 (Jan 14, 2013)

Are you looking to buy exclusively exotic lumber or are you talking about domestic also? If you're open to domestic woods I find all mine on Craigslist. Can't beat the prices and a lot of times it has been air dried for years. I can't afford to go to big hardwood dealers because of the marked up prices in the places I have been

And I am in Nacogdoches so I know where you are coming from. It's been really hard for me to find good lumber at good prices


----------



## RonInOhio (Jul 23, 2010)

I keep seeing where people recommend Craigslist for wood. What forum do you look under ? I
have tried searches and always get a ton of hits for things I'm not interested in.

What keywords or postings do you search/look in ?


----------



## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

Here ya go:

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/mat/3826361447.html

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/msd/3918888926.html
http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/mad/3883939479.html

Maybe some of these good folks could help you out as well.
HTH


----------



## BTimmons (Aug 6, 2011)

Wood can be found under For Sale → Materials. One handy search function on CL is inserting the minus in front of a keyword you want to exclude. For instance, searching for "cherry -flooring" should help you avoid a bunch of ads from flooring retailers.


----------



## MarkTheFiddler (May 29, 2012)

Domestic lumber has it's place and I'd like to get my hands on some walnut. I have seen a Craigslist adds for walnut slabs that require a bunch of driving for just one board. I may not be using the search arguments well. When I use "Wood" I get everything from motorcycles to pressed wood furniture. When I look for "Lumber" I get a bazillion spam adds for engineered flooring and construction pine, or reclaimed barn wood for $5.00 a foot. I do see a few adds for the types of sales I'd like to see more of but 90% seem to be cedar. After searching for an hour, I come away empty handed.

MaroonGoon, do you have any suggestions to improve the quality of search hits on craigslist?

As far as the more exotic species go, I'd still like a better source than the expensive Rockler or Woodcraft.


----------



## MarkTheFiddler (May 29, 2012)

Holy smoke. I posted and got a few more replies before I hit enter. Very helpful my friends!!! You answered the very questions I was asking.


----------



## Condor1 (Apr 1, 2010)

Mark,

I live about 150 miles east of you down Interstate 20. Your best bet is to have your lumber milled from a fallen or dead tree that most folks will give to you for the taking. In the last two years I have taken two Red Oak trees and two large Cedar trees to a local band-saw mill and had them custom cut to the sizes I like to work with. I like 5/4 X 6" wide stock with some larger pieces that are used for legs etc.. Depending on the size of the tree you should pay about $80.00 or so for a Cedar tree to have it cut and about $250.00 to have a good size Red Oak, milled. First find a local mill though and find out about what sizes they will take. Also most mills do not like yard trees because of nails that could ruin a blade. Find out in advance what it will cost to replace the blade or have it sharpened. So far it has only happened to me once and the man only charged me about $25.00 for a sharpening fee.

Of course you will need to wait about a year after the stock is stacked to air dry and you will need to Plane it yourself. I have found that I get a better grade of stock overall because a portion will be quarter and rift sawn. I even had one of my large pine trees that Pine Beetles killed cut into 2" X 4" X 10' long stock and used it to stud out my new metal shop building (24' X 30' X 9.5' ceiling) so that I could hang drywall and finish it out. Good luck!


----------



## Blackpearl (Jan 11, 2011)

I have not seen anyone recommend my personal favorite Woodworld, Craig and the guys are great.


----------



## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

I have been to Woodworld and like the store, but their prices are a little high IMO. I recently tried Brazos and their price for qswo was about 2/3 that of Woodworld. The quality is okay, but you need to sort through the stack. They do have some exotics in the showroom but I didn't pay too much attention to them. I would give them a look and make your own decision. HTH


----------



## jordanp (Feb 1, 2013)

I second woodworld it's right off TI blvd and 635
Prices aren't bad at all and they have a huge selection

Don't miss Lynn Dowds antique tool sale in garland on Saturday
He has a ton of new inventory


----------



## wunderaa (May 15, 2012)

I often use Brazos in grand prarie. Cheaper than wood world, rockier or woodcraft, but not always fast or friendly. Pretty good selection of wood and plywood.


----------



## wunderaa (May 15, 2012)

http://www.brazosforestproducts.com


----------



## MarkTheFiddler (May 29, 2012)

Ah ha! another store to hit. Brazos.

I swang by Wood World at lunch and picked up Peruvian Walnut at $11.00 and some purple heart at $9.00. I didn't need much. Their prices seemed a little lower than the others but the only price sheet I had was in my head so I wouldn't depend on it.

Wood World had much better prices on Baltic Birch, I think… I'll have to make sure.

I really look forward to visiting Brazos. In the meantime Wood World will be my 'go to' store for exotics unless Rockler has a sale on wood that I want to buy. I forgot what the price was but August is curly maple month. They had some pretty decent figured wood out on the floor.

Lynn Dowds antique tool sale in Garland? I'm intruiged. I have to do about an hour of work in the office tomorrow (high 5 area) so I'll zoom out to Garland. I'll be keeping my eyes open for Jordan.

Condor,

I think that is a fantastic suggestion. I'm not set up to handle that type of system - but - I want to. It's still early in my woodworking life. The other day I was looking at small mills. Uh oh!


----------



## jordanp (Feb 1, 2013)

Ill be there man.. I have a bead now so I may look a little different..


----------

