Hobbyist woodwork need help!

[CallumChapman]

Hello ladies and gents! I have just started getting into woodworking as a hobby and now with a wide selection of tools and equipment I have started to gather, my biggest issue is obtaining wood!

Let me further explain, timber in the UK so far as to my research from well known timber merchants and builders supplies have been very expensive, and absolutely no where seems to sell hardwood which is unbelievable prices along with plywood sheets? Is it because I am new to woodworking that this seems expensive or is the same experience for other woodworking hobbyists in the UK?

Much appreciated for your time!
CALLUM

 

[bourbon]

Nope, As you have found out, Wood is Very expensive! Try skips, with permission of course. Pallets for practice and even charity shops for old furniture

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

Hi Callum.
Pughs in Ledbury have timber and tool sales from time to time, the timber is very good value providing you can transport it yourself. They have just had a sale ( I got three boards of elm for £50 ) so the next one will not be for at least a few months but if you sign up on their website you will get a reminder before the sale.

http://www.hjpugh.com/new.html

 

[ED65]

Yup nice wood is expensive all right, really nice wood even more so. When buying from a proper yard it is worth remembering that longer pieces have a premium attached to them; short pieces (offcuts) and 'scantlings' can be quite modestly priced even if something particularly nice and exotic. Since initially you'll probably make smaller stuff this can be a boon to the newly minted woodworker.

There are now timber reclaimers dotted around, where wood that has had a previous life is sold for much less than when new. There are probably tips on the forum about these but Paul Sellers has a video shot at one local to him if you want to hunt it down on YouTube. You'll learn a lot from his channel so it's a good thing to know about anyway if you didn't already.

Another source of wood on the cheap, and occasionally for free, is reclaiming old wood from obsolete/outdated/damaged old furniture in skips, in charity shops, from flea markets and maybe the local car boot. Here's a thread from just yesterday on the subject. This can yield some nice stuff with luck, in smaller amounts, but you can't plan ahead for it naturally. You have to pick up what you see when you see it, take it apart and store as much of it as you have room for.

If you're buying any secondhand tools and need any replacement handles for old chisels, rasps or files one or two trips to the local woods with a saw and a cloth bag could set you up with all the stock you need. Either cut green and boil for an hour soon as you get home or cut up anything you find on the ground already into oversized blanks and put it inside the house somewhere to dry out for a few months (the hall can be good, if your other half won't object). Beech trees rather scarily shed quite substantial branches at random, but fallen beech branches can be a goldmine. I found one in the local park the other day that would yield 100 handles if I could take the whole thing.

 

[johnnyb]

I just love the concept of wood recycling. Mahogany now a banned cites species was the king of woods. It was used in great quantities and it's possible to score some pre owned. I got a few boards of japanese oak from the top of a set of drawers. Absolutely beautiful flame figure.
Nice hardwood and softwood shouldnt be wasted. As you've discovered the cost of timber and timber products is ridiculous. It has to go through so many greedy fingers before it gets to you it's no wonder it's prohibitive.

 

[wallace]

If you want 'new' wood try to get it as near to source as possible and as far away from places selling everything else as possible. I got some euro oak from scorton sawmill a little while back to make some kitchen worktops and the price was really good compared to my local timber merchant where the price was double.

 

[johnnyb]

In my experience redwood pine suppliers all charge the same price. If you go to a reclamation yard they will sell there weathered old stuff at the same price as nicely kept undercover stuff. Yes unsorted( best) quality sawn may be cheaper but your just as likely to be sold sawn fifths by unscrupulous timber yards.
Far east ply i won't have at any price. I use b and q shuttering ply if i can it's made by metsawood and is lovely quality(softwood)in 12 mm and 18mm

 

[custard]

getting into woodworking as a hobby and now with a wide selection of tools and equipment...my biggest issue is obtaining wood!

You're far from being alone Callum.

Acquiring tools is the easy bit of woodworking. Acquiring skills and timber is where most people really struggle, along with finding the time and space in which to work wood!

If you read through this thread you'll find the answers to many of your questions,

how-to-buy-hardwoods-t107912.html

 

[custard]

the cost of timber and timber products is ridiculous. It has to go through so many greedy fingers before it gets to you it's no wonder it's prohibitive.

I disagree.

There aren't any "greedy fingers", the price you pay for timber is perilously close to the actual production cost.

I've owned woodland in the past so I can assure you no one's getting fat at that end of the business, I don't see many tree fellers driving around in Rolls Royces, and the timber yards themselves operate on wafer thin margins, in fact so much so that the bigger problem is they're increasingly tempted to push hardwoods through the drying and kilning processes a bit too fast in order to make ends meet, which then impacts on quality.

Amongst the many crackpot ideas that have graced this forum over the years there was one guy who claimed he could source quality Eastern European timber and make a killing selling it here. The saga of his plans to revolutionise the UK timber trade ran for months...and then all of a sudden he disappeared. I guess he finally did his sums and realised he was talking nonsense.

 

[Beau]

Yes it seems expensive but I think we are lulled into a false sense of what it's worth from the some of the unbelievably cheap ready made solid furniture out there. When you look at all that is done to get it to the merchants it looks cheap to me.

Buy standing timber at say £40 per tonne
Fell tree
Sned tree
Extract to landing
Haulage to yard
Leave for six months or so
Plank
Air dry for a bit
Kiln dry
Dispose of all waste dust and edge boards
Stack undercover in stick
Costs on all that covered space, machines, kilns,maintenance etc etc
Finally sell some planks but get left with some that has defects customers dont like the look of

I would not be timber yard for all the tea in China

If you are near West Devon I can sell you larger off cuts for cost as I would like to make a bit of space.

 

[Chris152]

When I look at the cost of wood, I try to compare it to the other things I spend my money on. And given the return the wood gives me, I find it to not be so expensive. One of the last pieces of wood I bought was a 3m length of ash, about 18 cm wide and 2.5cm thick. It cost under £14 at Yandles. It was beautiful, no knots, just clean, quite white wood. I made a picture frame from part of it, and plan another from the remainder. I really enjoyed making it and I think the result was good, as did the friend I made it for (at least, that's what he said...).

More recently I bought a good quality, 3m slice of sycamore for about £65 and made several large bowls from it (it was about 5cm thick, 40cm wide in places). That was about a week's work and lots of pleasure.

I'm not saying wood's cheap, but it is wonderful stuff and compared to the price of lots of other things these days, it gives good returns.

edit - oh, and the ONE time I tried using some reclaimed wood (from an oak sideboard), the bandsaw cut through a nail. £new blade.

 

[johnnyb]

We don't really grow wood commercially in this country so we're mostly reliant on imports. Imports mean long chains. Yes the people at the end( timber yards) may have tight margins and high overheads. But there children need feeding just like everyone else.
By greedy i mean profitable. I just use greedy because it impacts on what i pay!
Unfortunately the nearest wood recycling place online is Manchester for me.
Whilst i struggle to feel to heartbroken for the enormous timber yard I've recently stopped using due to there elastic calculator i still need something to saw up!

 

[ScaredyCat]

Let me further explain, timber in the UK so far as to my research from well known timber merchants and builders supplies have been very expensive, and absolutely no where seems to sell hardwood which is unbelievable prices along with plywood sheets? Is it because I am new to woodworking that this seems expensive or is the same experience for other woodworking hobbyists in the UK?

You're in Nottingham? I buy lots of my wood from Nottingham and I'm in Suffolk!



.

 

[thetyreman]

it depends what you get, PAR Scandinavian redwood pine is cheap, it's very different to the stuff you find in B&Q and Wickes, so much stronger and higher quality, I'd recommend going to a timber merchant and talking to them.

 

[custard]

When I look at the cost of wood, I try to compare it to the other things I spend my money on. And given the return the wood gives me, I find it to not be so expensive.

+1

A hardwood side table like this,

will cost about a £100 in materials and ( if you incorporate a nicely made, dovetailed drawer) would take the average hobbyist maybe 100 hours to make.

That seems pretty good value for money.

It's sad that the success rate in hobbyist furniture making is so extremely low, based on what I've seen on this forum only a small percentage of enthusiastic beginners will ever complete a straightforward but high quality project like this. And I suspect that sourcing timber is a big part of the explanation.

We've all gotten used to the easy convenience of modern purchasing, where everything is just a click away. Buying hardwood isn't like that, and for many it comes as a shock. But unless you can get out of your comfort zone and fix the timber sourcing problem, then your woodworking hobby will come to a grinding halt.

You can watch all the YouTube videos there are, agonise over this plane versus that, witter on for England about sharpening; but at the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, without decent quality wood you'll never make much progress as a woodworker!

Personally I don't believe reclaimed timber provides the answer. It has it's part to play, but more when you're a few rungs up the experience ladder. At the very beginning stick to "unsorted redwood" from a proper supplier (ie not B&Q), and then maybe a year down the road locate a good timber yard and build up hardwood supplies in different thicknesses of just two, or at the most three, sensible and versatile timbers like European Oak, American Cherry, or Ash.

Mind you, I can say this until I'm blue in the face, it won't make a blind bit of difference. It'll still be the case that for every ten newbies who fetch up on this forum, after a couple of years eight or nine of them will have crashed and burnt without ever having made anything of any substance. That's just the way it seems to go.

 

[Racers]

Hi Callum

Sign up for this news letter and visit the tearoom for wood and cake!

http://rowanwoodlandproducts.weebly.com/

You might bump into some of us, but don't let you put you off!

noggins-wood-sale-t103366.html

noggins-timber-sales-sunday-19th-november-t108464.html?hilit=noggins%20wood%20sale

Pete

 

[johnnyb]

That's a good call on Rowan. I went years ago after seeing him at beacon Hill. Went to his house then drove to a farmyard where he kept his stuff. He had stacks of air dried beech much of which was wormy. He helped me sort the quarter sawn stuff as i was making planes at that time. His telehandler was hilariously dangerous with no brakes and baling string to turn it off! In fact we got some Ash later for steam bending but that was no good (rotten)
Don't let this put you off though this was a long time ago. He certainly provides wood for the Windsor chair guys. I've just been planing some cats paw oak that i had from the ash batch and it's great now!he said he'd cut it for an experiment and let it go cheap. X years later it's great.

 

[Ttrees]

Keep looking for exterior doors, and frames and windows exc
I have hoards of it and gonna get me another door today if its still there.
It adds up.
Get yourself a metal detector wand if you choose to go this route.
Cant find any piccys of my stash, but I've got enough to keep me very busy for a long time.
Tom
Good luck

 

[StraightOffTheArk]

Also worth checking ebay often people are getting rid of timber, collection only - I've picked up some nice bits this way. Obviously it's unlikely you'll get enough for that six seater dining table and chairs, but for small stuff you can often get something relatively cheaply.

 

[ED65]

One of the last pieces of wood I bought was a 3m length of ash, about 18 cm wide and 2.5cm thick. It cost under £14 at Yandles.

Bloody hell that's a good price. I expect you could add a zero to that in a lot of places here, no exaggeration.

I'm not saying wood's cheap, but it is wonderful stuff and compared to the price of lots of other things these days, it gives good returns.

An excellent perspective.