Posted: 8/22/2024 10:54:50 AM EDT
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Finally got my wood shop set up enough to start some projects. Gonna start small with things like cutting boards and other smaller projects. Any of you doing that type of work? Where do you buy your materials? |
I mill a bunch myself out of firewood and other odds and ends, buy a little from a local hardwood/woodworking store, and have ordered a couple of grab bag cutoff packages from Amazon for some weirder stuff to play with. 
Check out the "Splinters and Sawdust" youtube channel. She does some unboxing videos of cutoff/scrap collections from different vendors; kinda interesting. |
| Macbeath is close to me. They have a great selection and will even do some basic initial milling if you need it. |
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I'm lucky in that there is an Artizan Woodworkers Supply store 2.7 miles from my house. |
“There is no sound, no voice, no cry in all the world that can be heard... until someone listens.”
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free and live in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free and live in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
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As a luthier, I work exclusively with hardwoods, with a lot being exotics. I buy almost everything from one of two local suppliers. My primary supplier is Keim. They have a very large selection at very good prices. However, they only offer a very limited selection for mail order, and at higher prices. My secondary supplier is Hartville Hardware. Their selection is more limited. The stuff that both carry is typically more expensive there (HH actually gets a lot of it from Keim), but they also carry a few species that Keim doesn't stock as often. I don't believe that any of their hardwood is available for mail order. Outside of those two local sources, I have purchased a few things over the years from Exotic Wood Zone. I mainly buy odds and ends they list on eBay, which can lead to some very good deals - but also some ridiculous bidding wars that make no sense. The chain woodworking stores - Woodcraft and Rockler - are generally priced extremely high on lumber. However, occasionally they will have a sale or put select pieces on clearance which can make them alright. |
| https://www.bellforestproducts.com/ |
"Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to tell the difference between skilled trolls versus fucking morons." DK-Prof
C 2/325 1983 - 1986
C 2/325 1983 - 1986
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Originally Posted By Walkure: As a luthier, I work exclusively with hardwoods, with a lot being exotics. I buy almost everything from one of two local suppliers. My primary supplier is Keim. They have a very large selection at very good prices. However, they only offer a very limited selection for mail order, and at higher prices. My secondary supplier is Hartville Hardware. Their selection is more limited. The stuff that both carry is typically more expensive there (HH actually gets a lot of it from Keim), but they also carry a few species that Keim doesn't stock as often. I don't believe that any of their hardwood is available for mail order. Outside of those two local sources, I have purchased a few things over the years from Exotic Wood Zone. I mainly buy odds and ends they list on eBay, which can lead to some very good deals - but also some ridiculous bidding wars that make no sense. The chain woodworking stores - Woodcraft and Rockler - are generally priced extremely high on lumber. However, occasionally they will have a sale or put select pieces on clearance which can make them alright. Kiem is pretty amazing. |
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Originally Posted By Sarge1400: Lol yeah, a lot of places local to you guys. That would be great. I'm in central Nebraska, we got one tree here, and I don't think they're gonna cut it down and sell it. Now this is my AO, but I suspect you have options that might not be apparent. I will say On Line ordering will not be a friend. High prices and inconsistent quality. YMMV. |
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Originally Posted By Sarge1400: Lol yeah, a lot of places local to you guys. That would be great. I'm in central Nebraska, we got one tree here, and I don't think they're gonna cut it down and sell it. Have a trailer? One day's drive to come down here to MO, hit up a local sawmill, and haul back enough oak and walnut to keep you and any woodworker friends busy for a good long while. 
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Originally Posted By Sarge1400: Lol yeah, a lot of places local to you guys. That would be great. I'm in central Nebraska, we got one tree here, and I don't think they're gonna cut it down and sell it. 
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Preferred pronoun: MARINE
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I'm very fortunate there is a yard about half an hour away, family owned and operated for well over 100 years. They stock domestic and imported exotics, plywood, and do milling on site if desired. The best part is the wood is rough and they let you pick through the stock even if you are buying one board. I literally pray they never close as long as I live here and/or I am alive and able to woodwork. |
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ebay fb groups fb auctions in said groups. I've even bought off of marketplace, but it was a long drive to get there. road trip somewhere with good stores. I'm lucky... several options within an hour drive. |
Get involved with your local ranges and HTF events.
Range time >> post count.
Range time >> post count.
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If anyone of in driving distance of Union City, IN, the Frank Miller Lumber outlet store is pretty good. Frank Miller is a big operation and one of their specialties is quarter sawn whit oak (not exotic, but its the way to cut white oak for any furniture projects you want to be proud of) But the outlet store should have nice selection of exotic or tropical woods, too. I haven't been there for a long time, but when I was regularly traveling to kokomo IN for work, I would stop at Frank Miller on the way home usually, if I got out of the place I has working at early enough. I loaded up my little Jetta many times with ash 8/4, that I would use to build my roubo workbench top. That had no issues fitting 9' boards, but they were right their on the laid down passenger seat, cinched down with my belt on the first trip anyways. They also find curly red oak too. That stuff is wicked looking. I would buy some of that stuff on lots of trips. Not something you see everywhere They also have cutoff bins of all sorts of woods, mostly domestic though I think. Those get sold by the pound. I think i got some mahogany for some chair arms. We used to have a good lumber yard near Pittsburgh called West Elizabeth Lumber, near Clairton, but I think they are gone. I got some really nice and wide teak there. I made a dashboard for a jeep way back, it was a trade for some gunsmithing I think on a 1911. Also made some shower trim for home out of teak from there. And got some other tropical from there, chechen maybe? A sort of rosewood. I resawed that and made a hexagonal rod tube for a bamboo fly rod I built from scratch (that was at a class at the Catskills Flyfishing museum in Livingston NY - that was a fun but pricey class). Looks goof with a coating of epiphanes on it |
I'm sorry, did I just roll my eyes out loud?
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