# Buying wood from a local person...



## Rhaugle (May 12, 2017)

Hi all, I found a guy around here that sells walnut at about $8 per bdft.. better than I can find at the stores for sure! I'm heading up on Saturday for my first buy.. this will be my first time buying from a non retail store. What toes of things do I need to look for and be cautious of? What do I need to do in order to dry/season the wood? I'm assuming it's still pretty fresh.


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## Rhaugle (May 12, 2017)

Asked the guy, he said his moisture meter shows 17%. What level do I need to get down to in order to start using the wood?


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## Catpower (Jan 11, 2016)

Lower than 10% 6-7 is best in my opinion


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

Ditto what Cat said. I buy mine locally from a sawmill at far less than that, in the rough a full 4/4, 5/4, and 6/4, and kiln dried to less than 10%. For $8 I would expect it to be at least S2S and maybe straight line ripped. Is it steamed or unsteamed? Your location isn't on your profile so I don't know where you're located for pricing, so that may be some of the difference.

David


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## Carson (Apr 1, 2018)

If this is "mill run lumber" and "green" $8.00 seems a bit high. You can check hardwood green lumber pricing on line species specific. No matter...enjoy building whatever it is you are going to use it for.


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

Guys, remember price of lumber varies a lot depending upon location. $8.00 may be good where he is located.



George


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Thread is a few month old but my advise for anyone who buys from someone they don't know should have a moisture content meter and check it before buying it. You might buy some wood you would have to store for a year or two and let it dry before building with it. Then if the ends of the lumber weren't sealed might develop splits at both ends during the drying time.

I haven't checked prices lately but I think I could buy kiln dried 4/4 FAS walnut for less than 8.00 a bd. ft.


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## mackman (Mar 2, 2016)

Steve Neul said:


> Thread is a few month old but my advise for anyone who buys from someone they don't know should have a moisture content meter and check it before buying it. You might buy some wood you would have to store for a year or two and let it dry before building with it. Then if the ends of the lumber weren't sealed might develop splits at both ends during the drying time.
> 
> I haven't checked prices lately but I think I could buy kiln dried 4/4 FAS walnut for less than 8.00 a bd. ft.


Here in the central valley of California, best price I can find is a little over $10 for 4/4 walnut.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

mackman said:


> Here in the central valley of California, best price I can find is a little over $10 for 4/4 walnut.


To get better prices you have to go to a hardwood lumber supplier. Places like Rockler or Woodcraft buy their lumber from these places and double or more the prices they pay.


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## mackman (Mar 2, 2016)

Steve Neul said:


> To get better prices you have to go to a hardwood lumber supplier. Places like Rockler or Woodcraft buy their lumber from these places and double or more the prices they pay.


I should have clarified. That price IS at the two main hardwood lumber yards in the area.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

mackman said:


> I should have clarified. That price IS at the two main hardwood lumber yards in the area.


Wow! That is an outrageous price for walnut! If you need a lot of walnut, you might want to consider finding it closer to the Oregon/California border. I live in the Portland, Oregon metro area and I seldom ever pay more than $1/board foot for rough cut walnut. The last 325 board feet of rough cut walnut I purchased was $300. I had to pick that load up. I bought 600 bdft of rough cut big leaf maple a couple years ago for $700. The sawyer delivered it and stacked it under my deck for me. Last year, I picked up 300+ board feet of rough cut English Oak from a guy near Salem for $200. I had to pick that load up also.

I watch Craigs list a lot for people selling rough cut lumber. I am always amazed at how many of the sellers try to sell their rough cut lumber for retail S2S or S4S prices. Most of their ads are still on Craigs list months later. We even have people selling their trees, they just want someone to take it down and pay them for the privilege. In the past, Arborists have been a great source of free logs for me. It is amazing to me, how many tree service companies just haul the trees to the landfill. 

My furniture projects start with lumber sawn from logs I have acquired. The winter of 2016-17, we had lots of trees fall in the area. Home owners were happy to have someone come get the log out of their yard for them. I had Mountain Ash, Cherry and Walnut logs all donated to me. I had to turn offers down, because I have only a small area for storing the logs. I still have a dozen Cherry logs sitting in my backyard waiting to be sawn into lumber. (In the attached photo, only the Cherry logs on the right are left, the walnut and mountain ash have been turned into lumber and are drying in the racks on the left.). I am hoping to get the rest of the cherry sawn before the 2018-19 winter starts.

In case you are wondering: 
1. Woodworking is a retirement hobby for me. 
2. I use a 20" chainsaw and my 17" band saw to go from logs to lumber. 
3. When the log diameter is larger than 24", I take the log to a sawyer in the area.

Have fun,
Eric


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## hawkeye10 (Feb 18, 2015)

ORBlackFZ1 said:


> Wow! That is an outrageous price for walnut! If you need a lot of walnut, you might want to consider finding it closer to the Oregon/California border. I live in the Portland, Oregon metro area and I seldom ever pay more than $1/board foot for rough cut walnut. The last 325 board feet of rough cut walnut I purchased was $300. I had to pick that load up. I bought 600 bdft of rough cut big leaf maple a couple years ago for $700. The sawyer delivered it and stacked it under my deck for me. Last year, I picked up 300+ board feet of rough cut English Oak from a guy near Salem for $200. I had to pick that load up also.
> 
> I watch Craigs list a lot for people selling rough cut lumber. I am always amazed at how many of the sellers try to sell their rough cut lumber for retail S2S or S4S prices. Most of their ads are still on Craigs list months later. We even have people selling their trees, they just want someone to take it down and pay them for the privilege. In the past, Arborists have been a great source of free logs for me. It is amazing to me, how many tree service companies just haul the trees to the landfill.
> 
> ...


Eric, unless they are getting the walnut free and brought to his sight to saw I don't see how they can sell it for a $1 per foot.


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## mackman (Mar 2, 2016)

ORBlackFZ1 said:


> Wow! That is an outrageous price for walnut! If you need a lot of walnut, you might want to consider finding it closer to the Oregon/California border. I live in the Portland, Oregon metro area and I seldom ever pay more than $1/board foot for rough cut walnut. The last 325 board feet of rough cut walnut I purchased was $300. I had to pick that load up. I bought 600 bdft of rough cut big leaf maple a couple years ago for $700. The sawyer delivered it and stacked it under my deck for me. Last year, I picked up 300+ board feet of rough cut English Oak from a guy near Salem for $200. I had to pick that load up also.
> 
> I watch Craigs list a lot for people selling rough cut lumber. I am always amazed at how many of the sellers try to sell their rough cut lumber for retail S2S or S4S prices. Most of their ads are still on Craigs list months later. We even have people selling their trees, they just want someone to take it down and pay them for the privilege. In the past, Arborists have been a great source of free logs for me. It is amazing to me, how many tree service companies just haul the trees to the landfill.
> 
> ...


See, that would be an absolute dream come true for me. I was lucky enough to be able to get a load of small walnut logs last year, which my dad and I took to a local sawyer. I have so little time for woodworking that it will be years before I even use half the supply, but that doesn't stop me from always looking for more opportunities - but those opportunities are very few and far between here. There's very little black walnut even in the orchards, and absolutely no cherry. (There is an abundance of almond wood, so maybe I'll start to make side tables out of the trunks!)

That's interesting information about Oregon prices. Maybe in a few years (when my boys are in school and I have more time for woodworking), I can arrange a trip with a lumber yard in that area.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

*Be Creative in Finding Lumber Sources*



hawkeye10 said:


> Eric, unless they are getting the walnut free and brought to his sight to saw I don't see how they can sell it for a $1 per foot.


(I am going to qualify this post because I live in the beautiful state of Oregon in the Portland Metro area, where we have lots and lots of beautiful trees. If you live in Southern Arizona or Naples Florida you are going to have to take my post with a "grain of salt". Sorry :sad2

Yes, it is hard to believe. The 325 bdft of walnut that I got was a case of watching CraigsList. I knew the sawyer's CraigsList ad from previous purchases. So, I called him immediately when I saw the ad. When I got there he told me the story, while venting his frustration.

The original size of the load was over 3000 bdft. The sawyer had sold the load to a local furniture shop. The shop sent back the 325 bdft that they didn't want. The sawyer was not happy with the shop, to say the least. The sawyer just wanted the returned load gone, so he made me an offer I couldn't pass up. 

I have yet to find any problems with the walnut except for some of the boards are mis-matched. Every one of the boards that I have jointed and surfaced planed were excellent, so I am not sure why the local furniture shop rejected them. The sawyer told me he had been selling to the shop for years and this was the first time he ever got any returns from them.

The point I am trying to get across to anyone that is looking for lumber, is to skip the retailer and find the source. That source can be your local sawyer, your neighbor, Craigslist, "scraps" from a local furniture maker or where ever. Be creative in finding lumber! Don't just whine about the retail price being too expensive. I very seldom purchase lumber from a retailer, unless I really need that lumber.

December 2016, I had a client that wanted a special chair built from mahogany. Well, that was a problem for me, because mahogany doesn't grow in my area! Yes, after visiting eight (8) local lumber sellers, I finally found a warehouse that had excellent mahogany on hand. I was really upset because it was $6.20 per board foot! I needed about 70 bdft with my overage percentage. $420+ :sad2: Yes, I paid the price, but I didn't like it.

Let friends, family and who ever will listen that you are a woodworker and if they hear of anyone wanting to get rid of lumber you could use, to get a hold of you. 

Your local woodworking guild members may be able to offer better places to purchase lumber. Our guild sends out emails advertising people that need a tree taken down, or have one that is already down and want the lumber to be used, not burned in a fireplace. Members also swap and trade lumber. Someone may have too much left over from a completed project or a project that was cancelled by a client after the initial non-refundable deposit was paid.

I had one guy donate me a couple of 4" x 10" x 12' beams of myrtlewood. Someone had given it to him years ago and he never got around to using it. It was in his way in the garage. I resawed it and made some beautiful bookmatched panels that I will be using in an upcoming cabinet project.

Another Craigslist ad was for a guy that was retiring his mechanical engineering business. During his 30 years of business, he had acquired a huge stack of "scrap" wood that he needed to get rid of because the 6000 sqft shop was being leased to a new business. He wanted $400 for the pile. The pile of "scraps" consisted of cedar, oak, douglas fir lumber from 2" to 10" wide, 1/2" to 6" thick and from 6' to 20' long. I offered him $200. He said he would pass. Three (3) weeks later, he called me and asked if my offer was still available. I said it was. When I picked up the pile, the total pile of "scraps" filled my Toyota Tacoma bed and rack on top. It took me over an hour to get my Tacoma loaded and tied down. I have used about 80% of the "scraps" for various projects from furniture to changes in my deck structure. [Some of the Douglas Fir was PT (Pressure treated) beams.]

Anyways, my advice to anyone that is looking for lower cost lumber is to find other sources for you lumber than a retail store. If you only need 10 bdft for a project, then a retailer is probably going to be your best use of time and money. But, if you need >100 bdft, you might want to find a better source. 

Have fun,
Eric


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## mmwood_1 (Oct 24, 2007)

mackman said:


> S
> 
> That's interesting information about Oregon prices. Maybe in a few years (when my boys are in school and I have more time for woodworking), I can arrange a trip with a lumber yard in that area.



Don't get your hopes up. Eric is telling tales of rare scores he may have gotten. That is not what you will pay for walnut at a mill, a local sawyer, nor a hardwood dealer. Not even anywhere in the ballpark. You could buy a small bag of the sawdust for $1. Upwards of $7 is the general range around here at this time. Granted, he's in Portland and I'm a hundred miles south of there...but still.


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## hawkeye10 (Feb 18, 2015)

I buy walnut at a local lumber yard and pay maybe $5.30 a BF for it. The price can change daily. Tha bad part is the walnut is steamed which I don't like, and it's 13/16 thick and some of it is more like 3/4" thick. I really need to buy 5 quarter lumber because a 1/16" isn't enough to get the board to a 3/4" cleaned thickness.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

I just found this one posted on Craigslist four (4) days ago. I don't know the seller, so I can't make a recommendation one way or the other, but the ad looks reasonable. It is certainly out of my usual price range, but if I needed walnut for a project at this time, I would certainly go check it out.

Beautiful 4/4 Black Walnut lumber - seasoned and air drying - $4 (Rainier, OR

https://portland.craigslist.org/clk/mat/d/beautiful-4-4-black-walnut/6593883747.html

Rainier, Or is about an hour from my house. Try using CraigsList to look for deals in the Southern Oregon, Northern California region. You might get lucky and find some great walnut.

Eric


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

This is for people who have more time than money:

One source of wood for me is abandoned old hardwood furniture. It is a lot of work to cut up and disassemble old hardwood furniture, but the yield can be good. You must be VERY careful to find and remove nails, screws, staples, and more. Many pieces are not worth the effort, especially anything made from particle board. Don't hesitate to cut off edges with too many nails rather than pulling them. I recommend using an old scrap blade, just in case. 

I get a lot of scrap that is useful for test pieces, and sometimes I have to laminate smaller pieces to make larger ones. 

A metal detector would be very helpful. I tried my stud finder's metal detector, but it is not sensitive enough. So far, I have gotten away with careful inspection and observation, but a quality metal detector would add assurance. 

You can find old furniture on the curb when people move out, or at yard sales, thrift stores, or just family and friends getting rid of stuff. Be picky. It is already a big time sink, so don't waste more of it on trash that you will never use.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

Tool Agnostic said:


> This is for people who have more time than money:
> 
> One source of wood for me is abandoned old hardwood furniture. ......
> 
> You can find old furniture on the curb when people move out, or at yard sales, thrift stores, or just family and friends getting rid of stuff. Be picky. It is already a big time sink, so don't waste more of it on trash that you will never use.


The Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Goodwill sometimes will be good for lumber and/or furniture.

Eric


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## TimPa (Jan 27, 2010)

lumber costs vary by quality, amount of processing, and moisture content also. lowest quality, log form, and green expect to pay the least amount. highest grade, cut boards, and kiln dried, expect to pay the most. general statements about $$$ per board foot need to be qualified.


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