Cheap ? Hard wood

[lwasserm]

It might be different in your area, but on the East coast, mid Atlantic vicinity, soft maple would be a good choice. Not always easy to stain consistently, though.

[J T]

Wed, Nov 22, 2006, 5:33pm (EST+5) [e-mail] (Lee) doth sayeth: Looking for suggestions on a low cost hardwood ( if there is such an animal). Need it for some wood shop cabinets and tool boxes. I don't care to use ply, wood should be stainable, reasonably stable and reasonably able to be machined. I don't want the perfect wood just a usable one. First person that says try Google gets a large splinter in a very bad place. :)))))

If ya wind up painting whatever, I'd think using plywood wouldn't matter.

Like you've been told, different prices in different places. You'll have to ched in your local area.

JOAT Democratic justice. One man, one rock.

[Prometheus]

First suggestion would have been soft maple- but you want it stainable, so I'm going to suggest Ash.

Of course, that will depend on where you're located- if you're anywhere in the midwest, those two are often less expensive than knotty pine. Elsewhere, they might be premium woods- hard to say.

[Prometheus]

Oh yeah- forgot about birch again. Not a bad looking wood, either. Last batch I bought came from the hardwood dealer with some nice spalting, and was the least expensive wood he had.

[Prometheus]

Hard to even find planks of basswood, though- I don't know that I've ever seen it thinner than 9/4. That's a carver's wood.

[George]

Nope, it's a wood which sells for so little that it's seldom sawed into lumber, as I said. When the deck is empty of decent lumber, they'll saw it for pallets to fill the time. Not even graded. Which is a pity, because it's available large, generally largely clear, stable when cured, and abundant in the northwoods. Think of all the paintable moldings it could make, much less insides and under. If you'll offer the half buck a bf it costs to saw it, they'll be delighted. I take my logs to a local, which is another option, and pay by the hour.

Makes sweet, fragrant honey if you park your bees nearby.

[B A R R Y]

Check out what hobby shops get for it.

[J. Clarke]

FWIW, the local yard has 4/4 basswood for $2.95/bd ft. Also 8/4 and 16/4 for more.

[J. Clarke]

There's a useful tool at . With that and the pricelists from your local yards you can generally find an inexpensive wood for just about anything. Sometimes very helpful. Also, while it doesn't show it by default there's an option to show location, at least to the general region--that can help in ruling out particular species--generally if it's local it's cheaper than if it's imported.

Doesn't include all commercial species (ipe for example is not in its database) and doesn't make fine distincitions (white oak and LV are both "hard" for example) but it's still very helpful in finding a species with a given set of characteristics.

[<marierdj]

As stated it is best to get your lumber at your local mill. That is if you happen to live close to one. Buying hardwood at HomeDepot is not too economical. Here we have a local lumber kiln and the average price is around $0.75 CAD per rough 4/4 thick board foot. The last time I purchased 3,000 board foot of sap maple, ash and pine and split the cost and load with one of my friend.

Otherwise, you can get green hardwood and season it for no less than 1 inch per year. Palette wood is not all that bad. At time, I get oak which I keep for structural purposes. What is not good I burn. At first palette wood appears to be cheap but it is not. May time I have nicked planning blades and it is labour intensive.

[Larry Blanchard]

And spalted birch is beautiful!

--=20 It's turtles, all the way down

[Bill Stock]

Crap, I saw your Sympatico addy and I was going to ask where you're getting wood that cheap. But then I see the NB in there. Damn. :-)

It's $5+ a bf for Oak around here.

[Prometheus]

I must have missed something... are you saying it isn't a carver's wood, or just that it's an underrated wood altogether?

I do agree, though- it'd make better painted moldings than that foam stuff they sell in a lot of places, and it machines really well.

[George]

You didn't miss anything, you just added something of you own to what was written. The reason you don't see lumber from it, as I said twice, is that nobody wants it. Keeps the price so low it's almost better to saw poplar.

Two uses and dimensions have been mentioned - carving thick and modeling thin, where you can ask a premium.

Butternut, there's a nice carving wood.