African Blackwood coffee tables???

[bradleyminns]

Good day everyone, i'm hoping one of you can help me?
I'm from Herts but currently living in South Africa and plan on moving home in the next couple years.
I've designed a couple coffee tables I wish to make and bring home when I move..
Any ideas on how much african blackwood live edge slab coffee tables (with stainless steel legs) would be worth?
600 x 1000 each...

I know it depends on the work, the buyer etc... But I'm after a ball park figure here to see if it would be a worth while investment.

Blackwood is available in massive slabs but expensive with the rand being 24 to the pound and before anyone asks no I wouldn't be able to just bring a few slabs home! Lok

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Brad.

 

[custard]

Live/waney edge furniture sells pretty well, but price resistance for coffee tables really ratchets up as you go beyond £800-1000, and once you're up at those levels most clients are looking for something a bit wider and a lot longer. As well as wow factor they also want acreage. If you're planning on selling on Ebay you can of course knock a zero off that!

By the way, I'm reasonably familiar with many of the sources for large exotic slabs in the UK, but I've never seen genuine Blackwood in those dimensions or anything even approaching it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The Wood Database gives the diameter as up to 2' - 3' and the height as 9m (although Wiki gives the height as 15m.)

"This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, but is reported by the IUCN as being near threatened. Technically it doesn’t meet the Red List criteria of a vulnerable or endangered species, but is close to qualifying and/or may qualify in the near future."
I would think from that (and other articles I've read) that the chances of getting really large ones are small.

 

[bradleyminns]

I helped out a supplier with a conference table he was building, that was over 5 meters long. He has paper work for it but said he's had trouble exporting. My thinking is 2 coffee tables will blend in with the rest of my belongings I send back.

The tables I've designed can sell between R30,000 - R40,000 here. Avg £1500.

To be honest I was hoping for a few 1000 pounds for a high end design handmade from rare wood. I've looked around online and seen that there is nothing that size selling there...

I'll take some pic next time I visit to show you guys...

 

[custard]

There's at least three timber yards within 60 miles of me in the South East of England that are now actively marketing themselves towards consumers/interior designers/architects as an instant source for waney edged furniture, they offer a selection of slabs, a super-wide thicknesser to flatten them off, and they'll even arrange to have trestles/legs made up for you if you want!

Here's an example,

http://shop.surreytimbers.co.uk/epages/ ... ducts/AW16

The owner of this particular yard is South African, he was a timber merchant in SA for many years before coming to the UK, and he actually specialises in African slabs.

There's still a strong market for waney edged pieces, indeed I think it's a fast growing market, but with my suppliers now targeting my customers, and with low skill operators nibbling away at the bottom of this business (after all it's not that hard to fasten some legs onto a big old plank!) you have to keep climbing up the value curve in order to get the orders. By the way, here's somebody who's really charging up that particular road with a vengeance!

http://www.benchmarkfurniture.com/Furni ... mber-Table

Good luck with your venture and do show us some photos of your designs.