Buying Wood.

I'm often asked where I buy my wood and the answer is all over! Wood yards aren't easy to find sometimes and they can be intimidating places especially for novices. Yards that sell planed timber in a self selection manor are much more user friendly as you can buy small amounts and you can see what you are getting. The down side is that they are expensive compared to buying quantities of waney edged timber. These two boards above cost me £100 for about 1.5 cubic feet of timber (about $170 for 18 board feet for all you Yanks!) Whilst that is expensive lets have a look at the real cost.

The first board was brown oak, solid brown all the way through with no defects. It was also bang on quarter sawn right the way across. It is 5 1/2' long and almost 4" square and will yield enough timber for 10 beautiful small boxes, all with continuous matching grain. About £5 of timber for a £250 box, that's ok by me.

The next board was quarter sawn oak, again no defects and with a wonderful delicate tight ripple running the full length and visible on both sides. It measures 10' x 5" x 2 1/2" thick, enough for 10 larger boxes at a cost of about £4 a box selling for £300 plus.

Now I had to turn a couple of hundred boards to find these two but it was well worth the 40 minutes rummaging. So if you are willing to make the effort and you know what you are looking for, great timber can be found in these DIY yards.