Does anyone here have any suggestions as to where I can buy quality wood for wood working projects. I am looking for good - high quality grades of various species of oak, maple, cherry, ash, hickory. I have tried the Home Depot, Lowes and various lumber yards in my area (Charlotte, NC). It seems that the lumber that these places cary are mainly for home building (ex. 2 x 4, 2 x 6, playwood, etc.) and not cabinet or furniture making. Does anyone have any suggestions where I can find such a store be it physical or online?
Marc - I would think Charlotte would be a pretty good place to find several of the woods you describe. However, Home Depot and Lowes are high on their hardwood prices. (If you really measure a piece of red oak at Lowe's it will scare you to death (as high as $8/bf)).
Take a look in your yellow pages under "hardwoods" or "mills". Also try internet searches for lumber, hardwood or mills in your area. I live in south central Kansas (Andover) and a lot of our hardwood is trucked from Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma or extreme east Kansas. I buy from a hardwood mill/dealer about 30 miles south of Andover and pay about:
- $2.99 to 4.10/bdft for red oak (depending on grade)
- $1.79 to 2.89/bdft for white oak (depending on grade, not QS)
- $3.95 to 5.30/bdft for walnut (depending on grade)
- $3.50 to 5.50 bd/ft for cherry and maple is a little cheaper, again grade
All of these prices are for lowest quantity and go down a bit with large buys. However, I have priced some of these significantly lower in the southwest Missouri/northwest Arkansas area. In fact several grades of red oak are $1.00 bf cheaper and walnut even better.
My point is, look for mills in your area because I suspect prices could be even better since several of the woods are native to your part of the country.
There is the Charlotte Woodworkers Club here in Charlotte. I'm not a member, and have never gone to a meeting, but I do visit their website often. They seem to be very active and have good meetings. I haven't gone or joined yet because I don't actually do any woodworking yet.
Try going to the farmer's market on a Saturday. Visit the craft shed. There is a woodworker there, towards the back of the shed, who you can talk to. He can obtain any kind of wood but checkout the prices. Might try neighboring with him to find out his sources.
The Charlotte Hardwood Center at 4250 Golf Acres Drive (near the airport) is another place to check out (although they seem to be getting more into veneer plywoods lately). The last time that I was there (couple of months ago) they have quite a bit of the more common domestic and imported hardwoods.
You've got several good replies, but I'd follow up and ask if you're familiar with abbreviations like S3S, numerology like "4/4" and terms like "board foot".
In my case finding the hardwood stores were easy - there are about a half-a-dozen in the greater Denver area. Learning how to understand the product being sold was the challenge.
I agree with the earlier post for Wall Lumber. Good Company. But always be checking your classifieds, Trading Posts, Thrifty Nickels, etc... for someone selling. That is where I've found my best deals and woods. Also keep an eye on any auctions in your neck of the woods. It seems to me a guy was "gloating" over an auction from and out of business furniture company in your area and ran into several super deals on wood.
I went to Charlotte Hardwood Center. They were a bit pricey and they did not have my preferred sizes for wood. I went to Wall Lumber yesterday and they had what I wanted. The prices are reasonable and they did cary the sizes that I wanted (mainly 1/4" - 1/2" craft wood). In the future, I will check Trading Posts, Thrifty Nickels, and Going out of Business sales for deals.
Hey...did you notice that the Independence Hardware off Independence Blvd. is going out of business? Everything they have left is 80% off. My discount so far is over $1200!! Maybe I need to make the new workshop a little bigger...haha.
Charlotte was my old stomping grounds. There's Charlotte Hardwood, and someone mentioned Steve Wall in Mayodan (sp?) up on the virgina border north of Greensboro, but if you go out to Kings Mountain theres a family sawmill run by a nice guy named Sidney, the name is HH&NK Hardwoods. Nice people, you can pick your wood, reasonable prices and if you are looking for anything in particular they're willin' to help. To get there, if you go west on I-85 to the 74 bypass of Kings Mt, take the second or third exit (not the one with the RV place on the right, but the one with the new or pretty new gas station on the left), at end of ramp make a left and its down that road about 3/4 mile on the left, theres a sign, I think its the very first left you can make. Sorry for the directions but its been 2 years, I can get there but can't remember the exact directions. The guys down at the Woodworking Shop (Klingspor) might be able to give you better directions.
I just did a google search for Kings Mountain in rec.woodworking, and someone else gave the following directions, pretty much like mine:
HH & NK Hardwoods is located on Bus. 74 the first intersection from US
74 at the west side of Kings Mountain. From Charlotte, go south on I-85 to us 74 West (Kings Mountain). Take US 74 to the second Bus 74 exit to Kings Mountain. Cross over US 74 toward Kings Mountain, go to first cross intersection. They are on the corner.
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