The Hardwood Offcut Shop - Brentwood

[JungleJim]

Evening all,
I spent a great couple of hours on Saturday morning having a look around an absolute gem of a place called the Hardwood Offcut shop in Brentwood Essex. It's owned and run buy a guy called Tim, who I gather runs a pretty large joinery business in Essex which has led to a very large surplus of hardwood offcuts and stuff that I wouldn't class as offcuts at all. Lovely chap who was more that happy for you to spend as much time as you wanted rooting through everything that was there and was great to chat to and answer any questions that I had.

I'm a hobbyist and usually hate going to the usual sort of places to buy wood, because I never buy much and like to sort through and choose the exact pieces I want. As It is a hobby I like to know what its going to cost before I end up at the till (I'd say a good 80-90% is already priced). I'll definitely be back.

I took a few photos to give you an idea of what the place is like. There is another Warehouse that I didn't get any photos of, but I think he has some on his Facebook page and website. He tends to keep the bigger stuff in there.

https://www.facebook.com/thehardwoodoffcutshop/
http://www.hardwoodoffcuts.co.uk

 

[Glynne]

Too far away for me but what a brilliant place and what a good post - I might have stocked up first and then posted!

 

[Bm101]

Many thanks Jim! Close enough for me to visit. Good of you to post.

 

[JungleJim]

I Know, I did pick up a few bits and pieces, Maple, Walnut, Iroko and Cherry. I had no real projects in mind but I couldn't do an hour round trip and return with nothing!!

From the sounds of things he has a steady supply of stock and having a larger main business he probably gets hardwood at prices we could only dream of. If the likes of us small quantity hobbyist give Tim (or even someone like him, depending where you live) our business, the way I see it there's a greater chance of him sticking around for the long term.

 

[Keith 66]

Thanks for the heads up, its not far from me but i dare not go there often!

 

[Bm101]

Too right Jim. My Mrs parents live in Brentwood. More importantly I have a job I do on a fairly regular basis just off the A127. I head home through Brentwood. It would be positively rude not to swing by with the van empty... :roll:
I won't ever buy enough timber to keep him in champagne let's face it but it's a real touch to have an option where I can swing by and have half an hour nosing about and have a fair supply available to look at even for my tiddler projects. It's much appreciated. Fairly local, friendly decent hardwood supplier at what seem to be reasonable prices from the facebook comments, you might have just made my month. Very glad you posted. Many thanks again Jim.
Regards
Chris

 

[JungleJim]

You're welcome guys, had to share. As much as I'm sure it's a business it had a community feel. Pot of coffee on the counter to help yourself. Tim was more than happy to run things through the planer if it was too wide to deal with at home.
Cheers
Jim

 

[DTR]

Wow, thanks for the tip, I'm not far from there

 

[Londoner100]

Tims a great guy, very friendly and I always seem to spend more time chatting about woodworking than looking for wood. I drive up from West London and even with time spent on the road, its still worth going with the prices up there and the welcome you get, the only problem is explaining to the wife why I needed to buy even more wood.

Ian

 

[No skills]

+1 For the hardwood off cut shop.

The stock is made up of stuff that's not good enough for the joinery side of things plus I think what ever left overs they have from jobs.
There's quite a bit already cut up for turning or small projects, Tim likes to chat so don't go if you think your in a rush

 

[Cinimod]

What a cracking looking place, every home should have one..................Dom

 

[Lonsdale73]

Could do with something like that up here. I've just made a two hour plus round trip to a sawmill that claimed to have a variety of hardwoods in stock ready for collection yet I got there to be told they don't offer wood at all.

 

[custard]

I used to be in a workshop where they held regular open days that attracted lots of hobbyist woodworkers. The same two questions were asked over and over again, "how do you sharpen your tools?" and "where do you get your wood from?". It was pretty clear that sourcing good quality hardwoods is an almost insurmountable obstacle for many aspiring furniture makers. It's great to see a new retailer like this opening up, I hope they do very well and the idea spreads to other parts of the country. Without initiatives like this it's difficult to see how amateur furniture making can ever really flourish.

 

[MusicMan]

In view of the importance of wood to everyone on this forum, I wonder if threads such as these giving recommendations of good timber shops (especially hardwoods) could be made sticky as a permanent resource, perhaps in a new forum section? It needs lots of posts from around the country, as transport of timber is tricky and costly and one wants to inspect the wood first. But it could encourage the growth of outlets, as Custard says.

 

[woodenstx]

I went there about 6 months ago, very helpful to a blundering idiot like me

Glad to see they are bigger and gaining ground, once I get my finger out to make more bits, I'll go and stock up again.

 

[Lonsdale73]

Looks like they have an outlet on ebay

 

[woodenstx]

Thats how I found them :lol:

 

[Andrewf]

I was there last Saturday. Nice guy to chat with. Have been trying to think of a job that I could make from some of his flooring from a bowling alley.

 

[SteveF]

what a cracking place
made a detour today..thought I would have a glance just out of curiosity
over 1 hour later I left with a few bits and could have stayed welcome for hours
could not think of anywhere else that is this friendly and reasonable price
I could not get whitewood from B&Q at the same price as their hardwood
perfect for the hobby minded people
also has a large cnc there
think he said an 8x4 mft in mrmdf was about £85 which i thought was reasonable
Steve

 

[cgarry]

I popped in today and ended up thoroughly enjoying a couple of hours there before returning home with a car full of wood. Tim was so friendly and welcoming and stressed that he would be happy for anybody to visit for a few hours, even if they did not buy anything at the end. I completely recommend that hobbyists in the area pay it a visit even if they just have £10 to spend, there is so much wood to choose from and the prices are excellent.

As a bonus I also got to meet SteveF who was hanging around there too!

Cheers,