Retail wood sucks
I went shopping for some walnut for the dining room table I’m about to build. I need 4 8″x84″ 4/4 boards, 2 4″x84″ boards, and 4 8″x40″ boards. What a disappointment.
My Awesome Sawyer Connection can hook me up with gorgeous walnut, red and blue highlights, light figure, for about half what anyone else changes. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any long boards of walnut right now. I used his stuff to make the legs.
Next stop, Compton Lumber, Seattle. Their prices are great (by retail standards). Rough cut is just $4.10/bf for 4/4 stock! But they don’t have anything wide in stock, and the boards are pretty ragged-lots of wane (bark edges), sapwood (the light-to-white stuff from the outside of the tree), and generally not what I’m looking for.
Final stop, Crosscut Hardwoods. Their prices aren’t always sucky, but man, do they bite the wax tadpole for walnut. 4/4 stock is well over $5/bf rough, and they don’t have a single board over 6′. To add insult to injury, I called ahead and idjet boy at the front desk said they had plenty. When I informed the apparant manager of this, he said, “Who did you talk to?” I replied that I didn’t know, and I wasn’t aware that I had to ask specifically for someone who could use a measuring tape, which got a laugh. Which is good, since he was a big guy and happened to be holding a large chunk of ash at the time.
So wood buying sucks. Find a nice sawyer and stick with that. You’ll thank me for it.
(I also have a hookup with a local wholesaler, but they don’t let me pick and choose boards. I get exactly what I ask for, and can reject anything that I don’t like, but ultimately not picking your own boards stinks.)
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