lumber gloat

[mr_skittle]

I was the winning bidder of a few small lots of lumber on an online auction of a hardwood distributor's "going out of business" sale. Prices were pretty good. I'm figuring I got about half off retail when it was all said and done. So not only were the prices nice, the wood is SUPER nice.

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 I got about 70BF of Ash (presumably green ash). Its a little more 'mello' than the black ash that is common where I am in N Minnesota. It's all 8/4 10ft and nice and wide. Should be able to resaw some of it for some nice projects.

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 Next was about 130 BF of yellow birch. I was figuring it would be good for drawer boxes and some secondary wood but I was wrong. Some if it is "red birch" (aka heartwood) that is fairly popular these days. IT's also got some boards of curly or flame pattern. It's all 6/4 with 6,9, &10 ft length with nothing too wide.

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The last lot was about 100BF of African Mahogany. Its all 5/4 with a few really wide boards. The biggest is 15in wide. This is the first time I've gotten this type of wood so I'm not sure what to say about the quality of the grain, etc. but it looks pretty dang nice to me.

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The whole load was $650 after buyers premium and rigging fee was added in. That added an extra $75 to the total even after I bargined them down to a single rigging fee of $25 instead of $25 for each lot.

[Strokes77]

Heck of a deal.

[chips ahoy]

Congratulations and you get today's "you suck" award


Mel

[mr_skittle]

I'm a sucker for a good deal. I'm just happy I restrained myself to what I did. The best deals were on the bigger lots of 400+ board feet but the $1200 prices was too much for me. I probably have to try and sell a little bit to recoup some of the expense. My goal was to spend aournd $300 but like I said, I'm a sucker for a good deal. It takes money to save money right?

[Phil Thien]

Nice score!

[Chad_Pearson]

I'm glad to hear you are pleased with the lumber. The auction location was only 10 minutes from my house. I was tempted to bid on the birch. Picked up some gen mahogany, cherry and maple. I didn't know much about the company before the auction but it was interesting talking to the owner when I picked my lumber up. He (and the three generations before him) specialized in high end lumber for years. Apparently he helped facilitate the purchase of the waterfall bubinga log that Rockler sold a few years back. He is a very likeable guy. I wished I would have picked up some of the Spanish cedar they were selling.

[mr_skittle]

The guy who picked up my lumber talked to the owner as well. Sounds like he was really nice. He told my friend to call him personally if he wasn't satisfied with any of the lumber.

Thanks for not bidding on the birch... I couldn't have gone much higher. I started bidding on some cherry but it went out of my price range. I think it was a lot of 16/4. I was dissapointed that there wasn't more available. A pile of cherry is the only wood my stash is missing. There was also a lot of 8/4 birch that went the same way as the cherry. There was a ton of spanish cedar. I've never heard much about it so I wouldn't have known what I was getting. I would fully agree that it was all high end lumber. Its heads and tails better than the stuff I get in Duluth from a private seller.

[Steve N]

The wood looks to be wholly usable, and if you are happy with the price that is all that matters.

Show some pics of whatever you build with it

[mr_skittle]

I'm working on some cabinets for my mudroom that will use some of the Ash for drawer fronts and some plain birch for drawer boxes. Other than that I have no idea what I'm going to build with it. Probably find something to do with some of the mahogany first. Maybe just a small table or something simple to get a feel for the wood.

[teetomterrific]

Some guys might be just a little bit jealous of that mahogany there... 

Anyhoo, here is a small mahogany table idea for you.



This one really pushed my bandsaw skills resawing veneers to laminate the curved apron and making a bandsaw circle jig. 

Mahogany is a beautiful wood. I love working with it.

Tom