Where to get decent wood from?

[stuffimade]

Hi
I am relatively new to woodworking, only been doing it fro a few years.
I live in the south west of the UK , near to Bristol.

Does anyone have any recommendations to get decent timber local to Bristol (40 miles)

To begin with i was using Robins timber, but really it doesn't stock the type of wood i am after.

Stuff like Walnut, elm, ash, maple, Oak etc

thanks for any advice!

You can see my workshop project s here if you are interested.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx_IYo ... lxvJ1uddcQ
https://www.facebook.com/Stuff-I-Made-1672995366302244

 

[AndyT]

This is a bit theoretical as most of the small amount of hardwood I have bought has been from Robbins, but there are some places I have mentally bookmarked for when I need them.

Yandles near Radstock look good - search on here for mentions of their special open days. They also sell tools.

Interesting Timbers in Somerset look good for special boards.

Clark's Wood on Feeder Road have more hardwoods than most yards.

Further afield there's an interesting looking place in S Wales selling native woods. I've forgotten the name but will add it later. There is also Vastern near Swindon.

 

[AJB Temple]

I can't help with local to you, but one thing I would do is start to build up a stock of commonly used sizes of hardwoods for the kinds of things you do if you have space. When you find nice woods at a sensible price, get some stock in. This is not practical if you are working commercially, but I find it very frustrating not having good material readily to hand. As I mainly work in oak I build up stocks of that. My own workshop is bereft of stock currently and it is time I addressed that!

 

[Alexam]

+1 for Yandles, nr Yeoville they have a huge woodyard with timber stacked up all around and you can walk around and select just what you want. Really the best I have found and it takes me 2 hours to drive there from south of Birmingham. Yo wont be dissapointed.
Malcolm

 

[shed9]

Try here, only 25+ miles from Bristol;

http://www.wentwoodtimbercentre.co.uk/

I can certainly recommend them, used them a few times and will keep using them. Superb selection of hard (and soft) woods and incredibly decent people.


EDIT: Another thing I would do is trawl the Ebay / Gumtree listings in your area for band saws and lathes and contact the sellers to see if they have any hard wood stock. They usually do and either don't fully appreciate the value of it or intend to sell it anyhow. Either way if they are selling machinery it often means they have no use for the wood and it's worth the call.

 

[AndyT]

Wentwood was the place I was trying to remember! It looks ideal from the website.

 

[shed9]

Wentwood was the place I was trying to remember! It looks ideal from the website.

Did think that might be the case when you referenced a South Wales option. Well worth a look if your in the area.

 

[custard]

start to build up a stock of commonly used sizes of hardwoods for the kinds of things you do if you have space. When you find nice woods at a sensible price, get some stock in. This is not practical if you are working commercially, but I find it very frustrating not having good material readily to hand. As I mainly work in oak I build up stocks of that.

Hello Geoff, AJB has given you some great advice.

Once you start getting around to timber yards it's all too easy to end up with a hotch potch of different hardwoods that are each too small for a project but collectively take up a lot of workshop space. You can justify it by thinking, oh that'll come in handy for a cuff-link box or a drawer pull, but in reality that never happens!

So predominantly working in one timber and keeping decent stocks of that timber makes a lot of sense. Material left over from one project can be carried forward to the next project plus you can inventory different thicknesses so you're ready for legs, tops, or whatever a project demands.

For a beginning woodworker American Cherry has a lot to recommend it, reasonably consistent from tree to tree, reasonably stable, reasonably strong, kind on your tools, fine grained so helps with precise jointing, widely available, and not too expensive. No timber is perfect and Cherry needs care in finishing to avoid blotchiness, but taken in the round it's a good candidate for a "core" timber.

One final thing. Making the effort to physically get out to a timber yard pays real dividends because you get to pick through the boards and select the very best. If you order by phone or on the internet you'll only ever get the boards that other woodworkers have rejected.

Good luck!

 

[marcros]

So predominantly working in one timber and keeping decent stocks of that timber makes a lot of sense. Material left over from one project can be carried forward to the next project plus you can inventory different thicknesses so you're ready for legs, tops, or whatever a project demands.


Good luck!

Wise words, as ever from Custard. I would add to this...

Try to have a standard finish or two if possible, rather than having endless 3/4 bottles of every oil and finish under the sun, all slowly going off, and eventually needing throwing away. There will be exceptions, where you need something specific for its properties, and I have to confess that I do not strictly follow my own advice- I have a few different things for pens, tool handles that I have gathered over time.

The bargain for me is shellac flakes. In dry form, they keep forever. They are nice and cheap, come in a few colours ranging from almost colourless to garnet, can be tinted, dont have nasty fumes, dry reasonably quickly, and once you have a bit of practice are easy enough to apply. You can mix up what you need and it has a few months shelf life. (the best source that I have found is Dictum Tools, by the way)

I also have some boiled linseed oil which I use quite regularly. Nice and cheap, can be thinned if needed.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

A wee tip for anybody wanting or needing small pieces of 'nice' or exotic timbers for drawer pulls, small boxes and the like - have a hunt around the internet suppliers of turning blanks. Spindle blanks are available in bewildering variety of species, in handy sizes, and by mail order (which saves petrol money). It obviously works out expensive if costed out in pounds per cubic foot (though not that much more expensive than sawn boards for exotic species), but you end up with easily storable pieces or first class timber.

However, that obviously doesn't help much if you're looking for five cubic feet of walnut to build a bureau!

 

[Rhossydd]

...anybody wanting or needing small pieces of 'nice' or exotic timbers for drawer pulls,....suppliers of turning blanks. ...
However, that obviously doesn't help much if you're looking for five cubic feet of walnut to build a bureau!

Although it could be another reason for a trip to Yandles. They not only sell boards for furniture making, but also have a good range of exotic blanks at comparatively reasonable prices.

 

[siggy_7]

I grew up near to Yandles and the self selection yard is great, the variety of timbers is excellent. I often struggle to find what I am looking for there though, maybe I'm too fussy (or not very skilled) but I can never find oak that's straight grained enough to make attractive looking glue-ups for wider panels.

Another one to add to the list is Williams British Hardwoods, just south of Gloucester. It's a family run place - they sold up on farming a few years ago, the son is a furniture maker and the Dad just seems to like cutting up trees as something to do! They have some massive piles of really wide boards in the more common species - well worth a look.