Timber yards

[Custardcream]

Hi all, my first post on this forum. I'd just like to know how you fellow woodworkers go about getting the timber for their various projects: I've been messing around making the odd piece of furniture for the last 15-16 years or so and my method is to hand the guy behind the desk at the local timber yard my cutting list and then sit back and await a phone call anywhere between a day and 2 month later saying my wood is ready to pick up.
This method is fine most of the time but you then have to make your project with what you're given and if a piece of wood isn't really suitable you have to make do and make it work. Which is fine if the project is for yourself but not really the best especially if you have a perfectionist within you trying to get out!

The problem is there seems to be a lack of timber yards in my area where you can hand pick your wood. When I said there was too many knots in a length of wood at the timber yard near me I was met with a look that was a long th lines of 'errrrr and????????'
I wonder what look I'd get if I asked if I could get book matched quarter sawn oak.


Also I've just tried to add a picture of a wardrobe I did a few years back that's hosted on photobucket and I'm getting red warning messages saying my account does not have permision to post links or domain/page references

cheers all

 

[Custardcream]

I see you can't post links until you've posted at least three times. Only 1 more to go then!!

 

[MickCheese]

Cannot help with the wood yard question but the photo's need you to have a post count of three.

So just keep posting and it will come. You beat me to it so reply to me and there you have it.

Welcome.

Mick

 

[CHJ]

......Also I've just tried to add a picture of a wardrobe I did a few years back that's hosted on photobucket and I'm getting red warning messages saying my account does not have permision to post links or domain/page references....

You can not post URL's to off site images until you have at least three posts to your user name.

You can however upload images to the forum using the Upload attachment dialogue below the New post dialogue box.

As long as the image file size is 256kb or less you can upload direct to the UKW server, this way images stay with the post and are not lost should anything change with an external host.

 

[Custardcream]

Thanks Mick,

There's the warbrobe in question:

I made it a few years ago and it's okay for my needs but it's not a showcase in 'good practice' but there you go.

 

[9fingers]

We used to have a suppliers map here but I can't find it now

There is one here http://thewoodhaven.co.uk/resources/uk-wood-suppliers/

Depending where you are in Lancs - you might have to travel a bit for suitable timber merchant.

Good Luck

Bob

 

[Custardcream]

Thanks Bob, I was wondering why there wasn't a list of timber merchants recommended by forum users, say listed by county.

Lancashire seems to be thin on the ground according to that woodhaven site!

 

[CHJ]

There is a list Linked on the Turning Forum Help Sticky

 

[marcros]

There's "find my local" on the top bar. Not sure how good it is- not great for Leeds!

 

[RogerS]

Custardcream..I can but empathise with you. You make a number of very valid points. The only true way of getting the timber that you require is to physically drive there and select it yourself. And therein lies the rub....the proximity of a timber yard to you and more importantly whether they stock the species that you are after and also the thickness ...unless you have the means to easily rip, say, a 2" thick piece down to a couple of thinner planks.

Then there is the question of board lengths and widths. For many of us, the actual amount of timber that we might need is relatively small compared to the size (length, width, thickness) of the plank being sold. So you are then faced with the practicality of being (a) able to rip it down (b) manhandle it in the first place and (c) get it home. For (c) many companies offer a delivery service but this is usually flatrate..ideal for a large pile of timber but damn expensive for a single plank. Lastly, you have the question of what do you do with the other 90% of the plank?

No easy answer, I'm afraid. but I share your pain.

 

[Custardcream]

There's definitely a gap in the market for more craftman geared timber yards I reckon. There are no end of timber yards near me, but I bet 90% of their custom is for relatively low grade timber for 1st fix joiners or for making skirting boards out of.

I did recently travel a 100 mile round trip to a timber yard to purchase £600 worth of quarter sawn oak. A small timber yard specifically set up by 2 guys because they found it difficult to get the quality of wood they needed, yet within my pile there a 2 or 3 boards that are okay but not ideal; 1 has a knot right on the edge of the plank that not only looks in danger of coming out but now can't be edge jointed and the grain pattern is frankly ugly.
So another project that's going to be destined to be a compromise...... and that's without mentioning the fact that sadly, £600 is not far off a months wage for me!!

 

[RogerS]

There's definitely a gap in the market for more craftman geared timber yards I reckon. There are no end of timber yards near me, but I bet 90% of their custom is for relatively low grade timber for 1st fix joiners or for making skirting boards out of.

I did recently travel a 100 mile round trip to a timber yard to purchase £600 worth of quarter sawn oak. A small timber yard specifically set up by 2 guys because they found it difficult to get the quality of wood they needed, yet within my pile there a 2 or 3 boards that are okay but not ideal; 1 has a knot right on the edge of the plank that not only looks in danger of coming out but now can't be edge jointed and the grain pattern is frankly ugly.
So another project that's going to be destined to be a compromise...... and that's without mentioning the fact that sadly, £600 is not far off a months wage for me!!

Now I am confused. If you drove all that way then surely you checked out the boards before taking them away?

 

[trsleigh]

I too have a problem with buying timber. Currently i use SL Hardwoods website and vastly over-order in the hope that I'll get enough good stuff to use. I am not even sure that even if I went to their timber yard I'd have enough confidence/experience to be able to pick through and select appropriately.

Does anyone do short courses on buying timber, or perhaps people with experience could mentor us clueless lot on a couple of visits?

 

[RogerS]

I too have a problem with buying timber. Currently i use SL Hardwoods website and vastly over-order in the hope that I'll get enough good stuff to use. I am not even sure that even if I went to their timber yard I'd have enough confidence/experience to be able to pick through and select appropriately.

Does anyone do short courses on buying timber, or perhaps people with experience could mentor us clueless lot on a couple of visits?

Why don't you drive down to Surrey Timbers in Guildford and select personally? Kevin is a very helpful sort of chap.

 

[marcros]

I too have a problem with buying timber. Currently i use SL Hardwoods website and vastly over-order in the hope that I'll get enough good stuff to use. I am not even sure that even if I went to their timber yard I'd have enough confidence/experience to be able to pick through and select appropriately.

Does anyone do short courses on buying timber, or perhaps people with experience could mentor us clueless lot on a couple of visits?

Surely it is looking at the boards to minimise those bits that you have rejected for use in the project- you must have a reasonable idea to have done so after delivery when machining.

I am never confident to ask to search through an entire pack for a single quarter sawn board!

 

[trsleigh]

Why don't you drive down to Surrey Timbers in Guildford and select personally? Kevin is a very helpful sort of chap.

Thanks, I've bookmarked their website to remind me next time.

 

[EddieJ]

There's definitely a gap in the market for more craftsman geared timber yards I reckon.

Trust me anyone doing this would be bored and broke within a month of having the DIY/hobbyist wasting half a day of a mills time while they search for one or two planks. Add the down time wasted each and every day and you soon won't have a business.

We only sell to trade, as do the three friends of mine who each run mills. Selling to the public just isn't worth the hassle.

 

[heimlaga]

I get most of my wood by buying standing or windfallen trees and bringing them to any of the local sawmills. For this I use an old farm tractor (English built Massey-Ferguson 165) eqipped with a winch and a log trailer. Then I stack the wood and put a temporary roof on top and let it air dry for at least one year or preferably two.

This way I can get the wood I want sawn the way I want. Storage is the main problem. This summer and autumn I have rebuilt a little old hay barn to be used for wood storage. It is a log building with good sized gaps between logs so it will probanly work well for this purpose.

I am fortunate to live in a densely wooded part of Europe.

 

[Giff]

Hi Custard cream

Have you tried Richard Potter's...http://www.fortimber.demon.co.uk/. Depends where in Lancs ou are. as they are in Nantwich, Cheshire.....but it is a good place and had good stocks when I was last there in the summer....they will machine as well if you give them notice. cheers giff

 

[RogerS]

There is a list Linked on the Turning Forum Help Sticky

Who maintains this as I have a couple to add.