Hardwood buying advice.

[Rorton]

Nice board.

 

[custard]

A couple of chessboards, and some endgrain chopping boards with whats left

PAR is unlikely to be accurately enough machined for that. Actually it's not just about absolute accuracy, even good yards often run their planer knives way, way longer than they should, plus they take massively deep cuts at the highest possible feed speed. Bottom line is the finish quality it's frequently rougher than a bear's posterior, and tear out is endemic. Personally I'd buy rough sawn at quite a bit cheaper and then take complete control of machining to finished dimensions and to the quality you want.

By the way, full credit for taking the plunge and buying hardwoods. Just shout if you need any help. Good luck!

 

[custard]

I gave this one away to a colleague at work - since then I've had half a dozen requests from people who've seen it.

I love the fact that the endgrain is in one piece, but for chopping boards that technique is perfect.

View attachment 99482

Looks very tidy.

 

[Peri]

Thank you all for the excellent help.

I was within a few seconds of hitting 'submit' on the order, I'm glad I held back and asked now.

I'll be sending an email to Hymor shortly.

Thanks again

 

[sneggysteve]

Not too far from you if you are prepared to plane it -

https://www.easyliveauction.com/cat...ed-and-green-sawn-timber-workshop-tools-ring/
Always get bargain timber there

 

[Cabinetman]

I had a look today when I was in the workshop and my local yard supplies prime black walnut, square edge kiln dried 2 inch thick for £84.56 plus VAT per cubic foot. Unfortunately they have stopped doing maple which is a bummer as it’s one of my favourite woods. Ian
For comparison you were looking at 2“ x 2“ x 10 m which is 1.78 ft.³ times by £84.56 is about £150 plus VAT.

 

[planesleuth]

My experience is..... Purchasing sawn timber is not necessarily any cheaper when you consider timber selection ,wastage, work involved in planing and cost of machinery, running and maintenance. Plus: if you order planed timber and it comes in crap then you can send it back. That is far less possible when ordering sawn. You just get told 'well its sawn what do you expect'. When ordering planed...The timber merchant takes on the responsibility for quality. That's a big deal when considering the low quality of modern timber.

 

[tulogngham]

Peru, I'm in Telford too !
Recently I've brought my first load of maple sawn boards from AK Williams. I've got a jointer/ thicknesser so am able to mill my own. The result is fantastic.

When I was looking around for timber suppliers, our neighbour is a chippy by trade and pointed me to Select Joinery. Home - Select Joinery .. They are in Ketley near the Shropshire Star newspaper printers.

You can pop by to take a look. They have a huge unit.

Tu

 

[Pete Hughes]

Good morning all,
I’m in a place called Bersham, near Wrexham. There is a timber yard at a place called Bryn a Gog, Marchweil. He does a fantastic range of hardwoods all shapes and sizes at below normal prices.
I know the above may not be of use to most of you but I thought it may be of use to some of you.
As Peri says, two thirds of you may be grateful and the other half not.

Pete

 

[billw]

My experience is..... Purchasing sawn timber is not necessarily any cheaper when you consider timber selection ,wastage, work involved in planing and cost of machinery, running and maintenance. Plus: if you order planed timber and it comes in rubbish then you can send it back. That is far less possible when ordering sawn. You just get told 'well its sawn what do you expect'. When ordering planed...The timber merchant takes on the responsibility for quality. That's a big deal when considering the low quality of modern timber.

For most hobbyists this is probably the case too I would imagine. At 40% wastage from sawn boards the £84.56 quoted by @Cabinetman changes to £140.93 and that's before you've factored in the cost of the machinery to create all that waste.

That said, you do lose the ability to at least choose which bits of the board you use for certain parts, although if you're using a less figured timber that's probably neither here nor there anyway.

The real down side to buying PAR is that if you make a mistake, it's a pain to get a replacement part due to lead times, postage, etc.

 

[Hornbeam]

For comparison you were looking at 2“ x 2“ x 10 m which is 1.78 ft.³ times by £84.56 is about £150 plus VAT.

2 x 2 X 10m is 0.91cuft.
On clean sawn square edge boards I would expect to pay £110 inc vat per cuft and allow about 20% wastage (less if you can use short lengths, more is needing longer lengths) so material cost in your quote is around £120 inc vat
2 inch rough saw wont finish much thicker than 45mm even with care
It is very difficult to find suppliers of thicker than 2inch rs for US walnut
Ian

 

[Cabinetman]

Yes you’re quite right Ian, I had managed to double up somewhere.
So my Timberyard at £84.56 x .91+ VAT is £92.34 . So as you say Ian with wastage about £120 which is quite a remarkable saving on the prices quoted for having somebody do the work for you! Ian

 

[johnnyb]

sorry you guys seem to miss the point. if you can't prepare your own wood straight and square and to a size how can you make anything. just because timber is planed (maybe only thicknessed) it can't be relied on to stay that way. the better and more accurate the planing and thicknessing the easier everything else becomes.

 

[LeeAkeroyd]

This way to buy timber is going to be expensive. Small quantities are going to have a premium on them.
I agree with above comment just find the size you need. It is probably better to just get bigger stuff and cut it down, always best to get 20% more anyway.

Try Timbmet, James Lathams, Arnold Lavers, Tyler hardwoods, International timber.

Timber is priced by cubic meter or some still use cubic foot ( about 35CuFt to the M2 I think ) so this is the price you should be comparing between suppliers, sawn is cheaper by a fair bit.

Ollie

A more accurate conversion is 35.3147 ft3 per m3.

 

[billw]

sorry you guys seem to miss the point. if you can't prepare your own wood straight and square and to a size how can you make anything. just because timber is planed (maybe only thicknessed) it can't be relied on to stay that way. the better and more accurate the planing and thicknessing the easier everything else becomes.

I made my Japanese toolbox using PAR with no further dimensioning. It is possible.

 

[Peri]

All debate about whether par is good enough aside, I do actually love the process of taking some scraggy looking bit of timber and milling it up and making it into something ready for the next step - that big pile of sawdust and shavings is really satisfying.

Granted, I'd probably think very differently if it was my livelihood, if I was doing it on a daily basis and I was trying to get as many projects out of the door as possible. It'd get tiresome very quickly in that case

 

[Peri]

Just wanted to post a quick update to this.

I ordered sawn 6"x2"x6' walnut and another of the same size in maple from a local yard at the start of January, and was quoted 'about' £90+vat.

It didn't arrive until mid February, but I was ok with that.

When it arrived the walnut was 6"x2" and well over 6' long. The maple was about 9"x2" and nearly 7 1/2' long !

£120 all in.

To think, I almost hit the 'submit' button on a web order !

 

[Britman]

There are sellers on eBay that sell pallets of job lot off cuts. Random species, quality and lengths.
Example listing