BUYING WALNUT AND CHERRY FOR THE FIRST TIME PLEASE HELP

[andycorleone]

Hi,This morning I called a timber supplier in Maldon Essex for a quote of:

4 Pieces Walnut:
2" Thick, 6" Width, 7 feet long

and 4 pieces of Cherry
2" Thick, 6" Width, 7 feet long (same as Walnut)

the price for the wallnut was £57 per cut feet
the price for the cherry was £52 per cut feet

juet received a call back with an aprox quote of £300 + VAT :shock: (no delivery I Will go to pick it up) he told me that he over charged wasted a little bit but could be less.

Is the price right? What is this wasted? Can I buy rough timber (the whole piece 2" thick and keep the wasted and will be cheaper?

I dont really need square boards for my project only to be 2" thick and at least 4" width and 6 feet long, Should I order this in a diferent way to make it cheaper?

sorry for the obvious questions but this is my first time buying hardwood timber in this country
Thanks

 

[ByronBlack]

That sounds about right to me, basically you are getting 8 x 7ft lengths of 2" stock in relatively expensive wood.

A quick calculation from me: you'll need about 5Cuft and at £57 each it comes to around £285 so it's not far off.

From the wasted, I assume he means to cut away the waste to give the dimensions you require - I could be wrong on that, but it sounds like it could be.

I would call them back and ask if the quote is for rough sawn or dimensioned just to be on the safe side.

As an alternative quote, have you tried EO Burton who are in Brentwood, they have always been straight with me in regards the quote.

 

[mr]

SL Hardwoods price calculator reckons £136.67 ex vat , without delivery for your walnut 50mm x 125mm x 8400mm & £118.61 for the same amount of cherry (by my calculations). Giving you a grand total of £255.28 ex vat. Another £45 for Vat and I hate to think how much for delivery and you arrive at a price not dissimilar to your quote. These prices are for sawn boards (not PAR) and as I say ex vat and delivery. Wastage is all yours though it seems to me that you haven't allowed for any wastage in your requirements which will of course have an adverse effect on your costs. Hope that helps.

Cheers Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds about right to me

Am Cherry and Am Balck Walnut are pretty expensive woods these days

 

[Corset]

Seems about right from what I can see. It was similar to what i paid for some cherry last week. It is pretty expensive.
Owen

 

[Chris Knight]

It's hard to avoid but available cherry and walnut generally have ever more sapwood these days. If this is unacceptable to you for whatever reason, plan on paying a lot more to get just heart wood.

 

[BradNaylor]

It's hard to avoid but available cherry and walnut generally have ever more sapwood these days. If this is unacceptable to you for whatever reason, plan on paying a lot more to get just heart wood.

This why I always go and select my own timber. Walnut and cherry have a lot of sapwood which is a totally different colour and unusable. Go to the yard, pick your own rough sawn boards, and machine them yourself. Order it up for delivery and you'll throw away a third of it!

Dan.

 

[Waka]

Why don't you try Atkin & Cripps, the last time I bought cherry from them it was a lot cheaper than what you have been quoted, and if the order is above £250.00 then delivery is free.

 

[Chris Knight]

I wouldn't agree that sapwood is always unusable. It's true that it has sometimes been rendered so by attack from insects or fungus and the wood can become punky but it can also be sound so that the only real objection is the colour. In this case you can stain it or incorporate it in the scheme of things - or put it aside for something else.

Having said all that, I try to avoid it whenever possible..

 

[andycorleone]

thanks for all the responces
Byron: Today I'm going to brentwood to have a look
cheers

 

[PaulO]

Why don't you try Atkin & Cripps, the last time I bought cherry from them it was a lot cheaper than what you have been quoted, and if the order is above £250.00 then delivery is free.

Do you know which areas of the country delivery is free for? Their website seems to be lacking much information.

 

[TheTiddles]

Yep, wood is expensive.

I buy offcuts from my local timber merchant for a few pounds a piece. For instance a bundle of 6' long 1"x1" beech was £5. I buy it with no particular use in mind, just to keep stock levels up, I then plan around what I have. A recent project (a 3 drawer chest of drawers) cost £12 in offcuts, £22 in veneered MDF and £47 for four rectangular beech posts which I routed half away to make beautiful curved legs, as you can see buying what you want is expensive, the rest is pretty cheap with some forward planning.

The flip side of this is I have a giant pile of stripwoods that I keep tripping over as I'm too lazy/busy to tidy up

Aidan

 

[Waka]

Why don't you try Atkin & Cripps, the last time I bought cherry from them it was a lot cheaper than what you have been quoted, and if the order is above £250.00 then delivery is free.

Do you know which areas of the country delivery is free for? Their website seems to be lacking much information.

My understanding is that it covers all areas, the best way to find out is give them a call.

 

[ByronBlack]

Andy, what was the results of your visit to EO Burtons?

 

[andycorleone]

Hi, byron this was the Result




Thansk for the advice, ended buying only 1/4 to get confident for next time

they charged me:

Walnut .69 Cubic feet at 41.40
Maple .78 Cubic feet at 38.22

79.62
VAT: 13.93

Total 93.55

 

[Chris Knight]

Andy you left too quickly for me to point you to this previous post of mine on buying wood https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... 0037#40037

Please note the need to plane some of the sawn surface to see what you have got - before you buy it!

 

[ByronBlack]

Glad the boys at EOB sorted you out Andy.