Oak...Expesive why?

$35 for 10 board feet = $3.50 / board foot, which actually isn't too bad a price for S4S oak lumber. That said, there are many better places to buy hardwoods than HD or Lowe's. Try looking in the Yellow Pages under 'Lumber' for a dealer that specializes in hardwoods.

It isn't. What gave you the idea that it was? Oak and pine are *nothing* alike. Not in physical properties, not in appearance, not in price.

Perhaps you have a distorted picture of "expensive". Or a distorted picture of how much red oak lumber "should" cost. Or a distorted picture of what red oak lumber *is* -- "poor man's pine" indeed!

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1. Because you are buying it at the borg. They are not the most cost-effective source for hardwood.
2. You are paying a premium for S4S (surfaced four sides).
3. Thats about .50/bf which is really not that bad. I pay about .50/bf for Oak here in the Northeast for rough-cut.

-Steve

Is that "1" piece of wood or several pieces glued up to make one wide board?

Is that $2.50 in US$? Wow, pricey - up here (Canada) I'm paying (from a local mill, of which there are plenty around me in Ottawa) about $2 Canadian a board foot.

Ya, but that's before they slap the tariff on it:)

Well, with tongue in cheek - - I tend to agree with the OP. Red oak certainly doesn't compare with walnut, cherry, mahogany, or maple in my book. It smells when you cut it, doesn't stain well, and I don't like the grain pattern. I rate it with poplar and pine, I actually prefer pine.

Quarter sawn white oak is another matter, however, there has been an incredible amount of ugly, dark oak furniture made. Green and Green is a refreshing relief, but they often used cherry if I remember correctly.

I'm thinking of using ash in the future.

Having said all of the above, I may change my mind next week. :-)

Because your buying it at Lowes.

I don't do much with oak anymore. I have a steady supply of genuine mahogany and white mahogany for two bucks a board foot.

Bob

Do you have any contact info for your source at 2bf? CDN in Ottawa. I tried woodsource but they want much more.

Thanks in advance,

If you have a supply of genuine mahogany for $2.20 BF rough sawn, kiln dried I will take 20 tons tomorrow to start.

You may have African, but I cannot get that price on mahogany at the mills in Nicaragua.

JJ Lots of teak for sale $4-5/ bf +shipping from Houston

JJ

bob wrote:

Well. tell us where to get the teak. I'll come get some.

JJ

Not any more. I used to be in the business, but health problems last year forced me to shut down. There is a bunch of old inventory in storage.

Email at this address off the list if you really are serious and I will send tel. contact info.

JJ

Lowell Holmes wrote:

Well, they told me it was genuine mahogany, and it looks damn good for the price! Actually, I prefer the white mahogany, as you can stain it any color you want and don't have that reddish color of genuine. The stuff comes from somewhere in South America - managed forests!

White mahogany sounds like the stuff from the Philippines that is used to make luan plywood and door skins.

Do you know if it's a similar species?

Barry

One of the tricks is to find a species of wood that looks like mahogany when sawn and just call it that because of similar characteristics. Funnily, some of the fake mahoganies are better woods to work with than the Swietenia macrophylla. A similar thing is happening with the rosewoods and "genuine" requires species definition.

JJ Cheap teak for sale.

bob wrote:

$2/bf wouldn't pay for the CITES paperwork on _genuine_ mahogany

Mine cost me nearer $30, and it's not the best figured boards.