Buying timber with sap

[LyNx]

Maybe a silly question, but if i wanted a few boards of black walnut, can i get a discount of it has alot of sap. I'm looking at picking some up soon but i want the sap on the boards. Just wondered if i could haggle the price down from non sappy boards.


Andy

 

[Philly]

Andy
You will be very lucky to buy black walnut without sap in this country. Nearly every board I have bought has some. A lot of boards look sap free until the finish goes on-then you can see it! Most black walnut is kiln dried and steamed, which makes the colour a lot more uniform and makes some of the heartwood colour flow into the sap.
As to discount? You will be lucky-its worth a try though. As walnut is in demand at the moment a lot of smaller trees are having to be felled for timber, giving smaller yields and narrower, sappy boards. Timber suppliers say you have to expect a lot of sap. Well, they would, wouldn't they :wink:
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[Chris Knight]

Andy,

If you find someone willing to discount for sapwood - please let me know! Like Philly says, it is getting harder all the time to find boards without much sapwood as the trees being felled are smaller. Your best hope is to find a yard that will let you select it yourself - even then they will quite likely add a premium for very good boards!

Fortunately, if you really can't live with sapwood colouration, it is easy to stain to a matching colour with Van Dykes crystals. However, I think it is better to accept sapwood as something to be incorporated into the design and celebrated rather than suppressed, especially as it is what gives life to the tree.

 

[LyNx]

Thanks, i'm hoping to visit Timbmet to select the ABW.

Chris, i was hoping for Sapwood in the boards, most of the stuff we have at work is without sapwood and not what i'm after.

Andy

 

[Chris Knight]

Andy,
Sorry, my errant gray cells had added the word "don't" in front of "want sap"!

What you may find is that the sapwood is wormy - or at least has wormholes in it. Occasionally it can be a bit soft and punky although you are more likely to see this in European walnut than ABW. If the wood looks suspect then you might be able to persuade the yard to lower the price a bit. OTOH you probably wouldn't want to use the sapwood if it was like that.

 

[srs]

Don't know if this is of any help but good timber have a palet of black walnut on there special offers page I don't know if this is the sort of size you are looking for

http://www.goodtimber.com/special/special_offers_index.htm

Simon

 

[LyNx]

Simon, thanks for the link. I'll be saving that for later.

I don't think the walnut is big enough. I'm hoping for around 2700mm long as i would like to get the sides and top out of the same piece(s).

Andy