Total beginners question about thickness vs width

[par]

Hi !

First post here, so please don't bash me if I am posting in the wrong place

When you buy wood, is there actually a difference price wise in thickness vs width ?

What I mean by that is..

Let's assume the standard is: width x width x length

We have 2 boards
a) 35 mm x 45 mm x 2500mm
b) 45 mm x 35 mm x 2500mm

will the price be the same for both of them ? Why ? If b) option is more expensive, can I buy a) and get the same result? Does it affect the look of the wood?

Really appreciate your explanations..

 

[Chrispy]

Is it April the first again?

They are both the same, so the cost should be the same.

 

[par]

Ok,

Well it should, but then why is it not? Sorry but my account does not allow to post links for some reason, but if you go to iwood dot co uk, and choose walnut american black all planed, pricing is different if you flip those two measurements around ?

Tried 35 mm x 45 mm vs 45 x 35 mm , and there's clearly a difference.. I suppose it's just this merchant then?

 

[Cheshirechappie]

In the example you give, both should be the same price, since they contain the same volume of wood. However, there may be a slight difference depending on the thickness of board from which the strips were cut - most thicker boards tend to a slightly higher price for a given volume, because they take longer to dry, and therefore the sawmill or merchant has capital tied up for longer.

Broadly, there are three ways that timber is priced. The sawn and planed-all-round softwoods bought from a builder's merchant or shed-on-bypass will be priced per metre run. Hardwoods are usually priced per cubic foot (or per cubic metre if you're bulk buying), and some exotics are priced by weight. The price for the same specification and size of timber can vary significantly in all cases, so it pays to shop around.

 

[Glynne]

Notice the bit about minimum order - £750 exc VAT!

 

[marcros]

i suspect that the merchant has a formula loaded into the website where each thickness is a price in the equation. You tried to fool it, but it is a computer. All it does is process the numbers that you put into it- it doesnt try to work out whether you have inputted them correctly.

 

[par]

Thank you for an informative reply,

So I assume then I should always look for thinner and wider boards. To my understanding, the texture should not be in any way different? ( My first project is a cutting board, oh well )

Sorry if that is the topic is a bit too simple for you all. I really want to get into woodworking, but the only way to learn it myself is by books and online ..

 

[MickCheese]

I think you should try 200mm X 25mm X 3000mm and 200mm X 50mm X 1500mm to see if that is the same.

Mick

 

[marcros]

Thank you for an informative reply,

So I assume then I should always look for thinner and wider boards. To my understanding, the texture should not be in any way different? ( My first project is a cutting board, oh well )

Sorry if that is the topic is a bit too simple for you all. I really want to get into woodworking, but the only way to learn it myself is by books and online ..

look at what you need, how the prices vary and what tools you have. No point buying 3" thich timbr because it is cheap if you cant do anything with it. a chopping board is an odd one because you can make it many different ways, and you may be able to take advantage of that.

you will pay a premium for very thin boards- more wastage and time spent producing it, very thick boards- better tree needed to get them from, extra wide boards- similar rarity, extra long boards etc etc. These variables will vary depending on the species and how big they grow/how fast etc.

The wider the board, the more potential it has to contain defects and the more potential it has not to be flat. It also gets frustratingly heavy when you get into wide, thick timber. lugging around big lumps isnt much fun.

 

[custard]

Marcros is right, wide boards (and even wide veneers) are more expensive because they're rare. In fact the kind of clear, wide, long boards we'd all like to work with are really, really rare and unfortunately getting rarer all the time.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Obtaining hardwoods in small quantities is quite difficult. A couple of firms that might be worth a try are Interesting Timbers (they're near Bath) and British Hardwoods (Yorkshire). Both do a mail order service for smaller quantities, though the price will be a premium one. Other posters on this forum have also mentioned Ebay for small boards, so that may be worth investigating. It may also be worth an internet search (or even Yellow Pages) for small sawmills and specialist wood shops in your neck of the woods.

Just a final thought - you mentioned American Black Walnut and that your first project will be a chopping board (good choice of first project, by the way). Black Walnut has a bit of a reputation for toxicity, so it may be wise to select another species; traditional 'food safe' choices include close-grained native hardwoods such as beech and especially sycamore (which from experience is quite hard but nice to work, and can be brought to a really smooth, lustrous finish).

 

[par]

I have already placed an order from a local shop in Harlow called "Eastern Hardwoods" and went for black walnut/rock maple combo - didn't hear anything about this toxicity issue before...

bought 45 x 35 x 5000 of each.. I think it was ~14gbp / meter for walnut and ~9 gbp / m for maple, PAR. Now I can see it wasn't a bargain, but oh well - it's still looks like one of a less expensive hobbies to me !

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

to save money....get a decent planar thicknesser and start salvaging wood that most people would throw away!

 

[joiner_sim]

I know you've already purchased your timber, but an online website for ordering PAR timber I can recommend is http://www.timbercut4u.co.uk/default.aspx There's no minimum order and they send good quality timber to exact specified dimensions. It's a shame about that iWood having an minimum order of £750 with a huge stock of hardwoods. Especially when they are only up the road from me! Next time I want some exotic timber I might give them a bell to see if they are interested in doing a small order for collection.

 

[JakeS]

didn't hear anything about this toxicity issue before...

IIRC you can actually use black walnut sawdust as a weedkiller!

There's two facets to wood toxicity that are worth bearing in mind to the beginner. One is that some woods are simply poisonous; never make anything food-related out of yew, for example, it's notorious for it. The second is that the dust from cutting some woods can be problematic while you work it. Some will either set off existing allergic reactions or sensitise you so that you're more likely to have an allergic reaction to sawdust in the future; some is more carcinogenic than regular wood dust if you inhale it (although there's a risk with everything particulate that you inhale); some can go septic if you get splinters of it in you. It's really worth getting a decent respirator if you're going to be doing anything that kicks dust into the air - the little elastic-band dust masks you get in DIY shops are pretty useless.

For the latter in particular, there's a readable table of common problems here:
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-artic ... -toxicity/

(A chap named Bill Pentz had a pretty comprehensive list on his website at one time, but it seems to be broken now.)