Is there even a Demand for Good Quality Timber?

[MrDavidRoberts]

I don't particularly do loads of woodworking, but still I do few pieces a month through word of mouth as a hobby, so I have to drive 90miles away to buy my timber as even living in large city There's just no place that sell good quality stuff that's aimed for woodworking, well there are some places but they charge B&Q prices and they have so little of the stuff in stock that I even wonder if anyone buys from them.

On the contrary there are millions of places that sell fencing stuff/house building standard CLS sizes - but mostly everything is pressure treated or just sitting outside in weather and of very very bad quality, often ridded with the blue mold.
The place I buy my timber from is great, they have their own 4 sided moulder and they produce their own PSE in LOADS of different sizes and all of excellent quality as I think they use 80% of the stuff they make to build summerhouses and other stuff and just sell the produced Timber as side business.

I was always under the impression that the problem is with the businesses selling ONLY this terrible quality stuff because they are just resellers and don't give a toss about their product.
But than I started to think, is there even a Demand for good quality timber that could be used for anything else but building ugly fences in real quantities which would make it worth for timber yards to even stock them and sell for a decent/acceptable price?

 

[Peter Sefton]

There is a demand but not enough for many local suppliers, we also have to travel to find the right quality for furniture. Some of the big suppliers swallow up the small ones and close them down for cost efficiency.

Not great for any of us but just the way it is.

Cheers Peter

 

[tomatwark]

A lot of the change in what is available is down to demand.

When I first went into business In the early 90's there were eleven of us in a small town of 5000 making either furniture or joinery.

A lot of the joiners had workshop where they could knock up a window or a door or a set of shelves etc and one of them had a timber business on the side supplying good quality stuff as they were using it themselves.

But with the changes in CNC technology the big firms could start to offer a bespoke service for a lot of standard items making it cheaper for the small joiner to buy in windows and doors rather than make them.

Also PVCu windows killed a lot of trade off.

In the same town now there are only a couple of firms left with the equipment to make things but there are still the a lot of guys doing joinery work, but they are buying finished goods.

Therefore the is less demand for the raw material locally.

In the town where I am now based which is slightly larger you can't even buy decent redwood and the joiners have to go about 15 miles to get it.

As for furniture timber and sheet materials because of the volume I buy, I have to buy most of my stuff from a big suppliers and get it delivered to get the price, however I am lucky that there are a couple of sawmills left locally when I need that something different timber, but they have other strings to their businesses.

If I wanted fencing timber I would have a choice of 4 companies within 4 miles.

 

[acewoodturner]

Lack of decent hardwoods in my area lead to me and a mate getting into milling local trees with an Alaskan Mill. I also built a kiln to dry it down to a decent mc without having to wait years for it to dry. All my logs are windblown within about a 5 or 6 mile radius of the workshop, mainly on a couple of private estates and some on council land. Its hard work but very rewarding as you can tell customers exactly where the tree is from and exactly when it blew down. Sometimes we are lucky and there may have been a brass plaque attached to the tree and we can say who planted it and when it was planted.
I have recently started to use a timber yard about 70 miles away as their quality is very good and their prices are reasonable. Due to the nature of my work sometimes I don't have sufficient quantity of a particular timber or it has too much figure in it for laser engraving. One side benefit is that we clear up all the branches for our workshop stoves as we like to leave a tidy site.

Mike

 

[NazNomad]

There is a demand for quality timber, but there is no necessity for it since the invention of pallets.

 

[Tetsuaiga]

There is a demand for quality timber, but there is no necessity for it since the invention of pallets.

?

 

[rafezetter]

There is a demand for quality timber, but there is no necessity for it since the invention of pallets.

Previous message redacted for totally getting the wrong end of the message in Naz's post.

However.. I don't really think pallets have enough good bits of timber to full the demand, unless you know something I don't Naz

 

[NazNomad]

naz is referring to his extreme dislike of items made from pallets and is inferring that because there are so many pallets to break down for those that do, why would there be a demand for quality wood with which to make things.

Just the opposite, I love pallets. I make 90% of everything from pallets.

I wasn't being facetious with my post, I was being honest.

 

[SammyQ]

Flame war! Flame war! Mods! Mods! Mods!

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Grow up the lot of you. Next one to throw his dummy out the pram gets a 1 month holiday!

 

[NazNomad]

Some of my pallets...

... and that's just a smidgeon. I never demanded any quality wood for anything. Not sure why I feel I'm having to justify myself because another member misunderstood my post and got a bee up his ass about it.

 

[SammyQ]

Grow up the lot of you. Next one to throw his dummy out the pram gets a 1 month holiday!

Yes Boss. Sorry Boss. 8)

S.

 

[Beau]

Not sure on this but will speculate that the problem goes back another stage. Do we still grow any good quality timber? I suspect the answer is some but not enough to keep multiple mills in business.

 

[Dee J]

Sometimes. But not often.
As much as it is criticized on this forum, cls is my preferred timber for most of the stuff I make. It's a better quality than most of the pse/par available... Straight grained and minimal knots. Only ever select the best from the pile. Store it well until needed and select for the longest components first. Cheap screwfix table saw and smoothing plane quickly produces smaller sections. And because it is low cost, always over-buy by 30% ... Any leftovers keep the rayburn going.

Sometimes need something a bit different and venture into sawmills, but the price difference is quite sobering. Currently looking for 10sq metres of 9mm sawn cladding to line the ceiling of a sun room... Larch or cedar would be nice.

 

[Bodgers]

I don't particularly do loads of woodworking, but still I do few pieces a month through word of mouth as a hobby, so I have to drive 90miles away to buy my timber as even living in large city There's just no place that sell good quality stuff that's aimed for woodworking, well there are some places but they charge B&Q prices and they have so little of the stuff in stock that I even wonder if anyone buys from them.

On the contrary there are millions of places that sell fencing stuff/house building standard CLS sizes - but mostly everything is pressure treated or just sitting outside in weather and of very very bad quality, often ridded with the blue mold.
The place I buy my timber from is great, they have their own 4 sided moulder and they produce their own PSE in LOADS of different sizes and all of excellent quality as I think they use 80% of the stuff they make to build summerhouses and other stuff and just sell the produced Timber as side business.

I was always under the impression that the problem is with the businesses selling ONLY this terrible quality stuff because they are just resellers and don't give a toss about their product.
But than I started to think, is there even a Demand for good quality timber that could be used for anything else but building ugly fences in real quantities which would make it worth for timber yards to even stock them and sell for a decent/acceptable price?

Which city?

Sent from my MI 3W using Tapatalk

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Buying 30% too much doesn't really strike me as being a budget way of doing it, even without counting the work. The timber suppliers in Devon must be different to Cornwall - PAR or even sawn is usually far better quality than the CLS on offer. I use CLS only out of desperation.

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

Sometimes. But not often.
As much as it is criticized on this forum, cls is my preferred timber for most of the stuff I make. It's a better quality than most of the pse/par available... Straight grained and minimal knots. Only ever select the best from the pile. Store it well until needed and select for the longest components first. Cheap screwfix table saw and smoothing plane quickly produces smaller sections. And because it is low cost, always over-buy by 30% ... Any leftovers keep the rayburn going.

Sometimes need something a bit different and venture into sawmills, but the price difference is quite sobering. Currently looking for 10sq metres of 9mm sawn cladding to line the ceiling of a sun room... Larch or cedar would be nice.

Sadly I use some of it as well as I can get it locally ,if you sift through a lot of junk you can pick up good pieces as well
Or if I need quality stuff, I have to start my car and do 5hours round-trip to a place that sells freshly planed Unsorted quality swedish redwood for the same price as they sell questionable cls in my city.


So guys is the problem in us that there aren't that many woodworkers left who would create an actual sizable demand for good quality timber hence barely any places left that sell it for acceptable price and have something in stock?

 

[bugbear]

So guys is the problem in us that there aren't that many woodworkers left who would create an actual sizable demand for good quality timber hence barely any places left that sell it for acceptable price and have something in stock?

Yep. Simple as.

BugBear

 

[Beau]

So guys is the problem in us that there aren't that many woodworkers left who would create an actual sizable demand for good quality timber hence barely any places left that sell it for acceptable price and have something in stock?

Yep. Simple as.

BugBear

Not sure I am buying that. Loads of makers around these parts and suspect like myself have switched to imported woods. I used to hunt around the local-ish mills but getting what was needed was hit and miss and labour intensive. I can now get good quality imported timber buying blind. No faffing about just decent wood to the door. Native timber my be better in other parts of the country but it's lottery buying it in the SW.

 

[Beau]

To add to that the imported woods are very well kiln dried IME. Same cant be said for what is available from local mills. In the days before good central heating and widespread kilning this would not have any difference but now it's critical IMO and sadly small UK mills are not as good at this. Not blaming them as a big investment and then trying to keep the end product dry in the UK climate is not easy.