Why is wood so expensive

[bruce119]

Why is wood so expensive

If you need to ask why then you haven't collected & cut much wood!!!

First off you need some tools, chain saw, gas & oil, extra chain, your chain will dull fast and sooner or later you will brake one. Better have a first aid kit.There are all kinds of hazards out there. I don't know how many times I've been chased by bees, snakes, bitten by fire ants and there's a lot more nasty critters lurking in timber. OK you got the saw now go find some good wood to cut that is not easy. I have been watching this old Rosewood for over a year knowing it is sick and ready to die any day. The truth is that tree will still be standing long after I am gone. You can't really just go out into the woods and cut trees down. There are all kinds of restrictions and regulations and most land is privet property. If you do find something you think is OK that chain saw is sure to attract attention.

So you join a club maybe make a landscaper friend. Now you got a tip on a tree you drive 30 miles or more to get to it. You got a truck rite so you can haul wood and you filled that truck up with gas. Now your ready to cut some wood so you got the logs cut up into about 18" lengths. So you got about a Dozen of them on scattered on the ground. So the closest you can get the truck to the wood is about 30 feet. Did you try and pick one of those 18" logs up. You didn't realize they weigh about 60-80 pounds each, you got your hand truck rite. Wheel them over to the truck now pick them up and load them in the truck. Rite about now you feel and look like you just finished a rugby match in the rain and mud. You did bring lunch and water, so you get in your truck and notice it is sitting about 4" lower to the ground and is handling like a gray hound buss. Now after an hour drive trying to stay awake your home and your so sore it's hurts to get on your feet and walk.

You just got the wood home and haven't done anything to it yet. You got a ban saw ready to cut some blocks & blanks. After unloading that 1000 pounds of wood you got to start cutting it again. It doesn't fit in the ban saw so get the chain saw again start slicing so you can get it to fit the band saw. So now you got some slightly over sized blocks you seal the ends put it aside in the garage to let it dry for several months or a year or two. After sitting a few months that nice 1x1x12" blanks you cut are now shrunk and shriveled up to just 3/4" and look like a boomerang. Now you can cut it agian to get what you can into usable blanks.

So why is wood so expensive. After you cut, stored and prepped it all yourself you will understand.

 

[darrenjttu]

I couldnt agree with you more.

 

[Gary Max]

Heck---that sounds like the day I had today cutting cherry.
This getting old stuff ain't helping any either.

 

[1080Wayne]

Glad you said all that Bruce . You are 110 % correct . I tend to operate from the other end of the scale , working with shrubs from a half to 3 inch dia . working on my knees , cutting by hand with a small pruning saw , in the shade in summer with the bumblebees and yellowjackets for company , on the sunny side in the early spring and fall , and always on the lee side of the almost ever present wind . You know how many blanks can be cut from a 1 inch log . There is no point in squaring them up , so I turn from the log , but many want a square blank . All of the labour involved takes the true cost to the $5 range for square , $3-4 for log form .
Now those warped blanks you have , I can use . Will trade one for one for my logs , of woods you don`t have .
Wayne

 

[bruce119]

And you guys that get your own wood know that is only the half of it.

This was inspired by a recent trip to get some Camphor. And I am having a hard time just about giving it away and it's really nice stuff.

 

[jkeithrussell]

Get it from the lumber store or the vendors here and it will save you a lot of time and effort. We in Houston are lucky to have a couple of really well stocked lumber stores that carry nearly everything you can think of.

 

[JohnU]

Bruce, you hit the nail on the head. You only forgot about the wood being so green or hard that you break a couple bandsaw blades cutting it.... or maybe its just me. lol

 

[Bellsy]

The last time I checked, the work was proportional to the size of the tree. The price is just something that people are willing to pay regardless of your efforts and troubles.

Bellsy

 

[workinforwood]

18" logs...I prefer the 12 footers. What you are doing is very cost in-effective. It is far cheaper and easier to take a large log to a woodmizer and have him cut it up. A larger board will be more stable and less likely to turn into a big bow too. You have him cut the wood at 1 1/8" thick. Make 2 passes on each side of each board through a planer, then sticker stack with some blocks on top and paint the ends of course. Planing most of the roughness out will even out the drying. There is 2-3 times the surface area because of all the band saw marks, you plain it down, it dries even and doesn't surface check so much. What you describe Bruce, is why there's so much untapped lumber...all the local exotics are not harvested due to the workload. But you can score some pretty good local exotics and/or semi-exotics like apple, peach, apricot..all the fruit species in lengths long enough to run through a woodmizer. There's a guy out around here, he's something like 25 cents a foot and comes right to your house. Got to work smart not hard.

 

[keithkarl2007]

well said Bruce, some people thought i was mad looking for $25 for a bog yew pen blank. They don't realise the time put into trying to mill, season and dry it never mind hauling it from where it sat for the past few months, that was a job in itself as i didn't want to cut it up too short, so i got a neighbour with a tractor and trailer to help get it home. We couldn't even lift the bloody log it was that heavy and even when cut in half still couldn't lift it. We had to head home for a transport box for the tractor so we could just roll it into it

 

[Longfellow]

Expensive wood

Being retired on a meager fixed income I have supplemented the household income just about anyway I can legally.I do occasional woodworking projects and I started a few years back cutting and selling pen blanks on Ebay, (recently have listed some occasionally here on IAP). If I were doing it as somebodys employee, they would be prosecuted for violating the minmum wage laws. After all the work of finding the wood, loading it in my truck, cutting it with the chainsaw, cutting it on my bandsaw, then my Unisaw, drying it, sanding it, photographing it, downloading it, listing it,(have to pay a listing fee to Ebay), I might get lucky and get bids on a good percentage of them. If so then I have to pay Eaby a percentage of the winning bid. Then I have to pay Paypal a fee based on how much the bidder paid plus the shipping charge. Then I have to package it and ship it. While I don't earn enough doing this that I have to pay income tax on the earnings ,but I do have to pay Social Security and Medicare on my earnings. Most times I am lucky if I wind up with $0.50 per blank.
My blanks are premium grade because I do everything myself and will only sell what I would expect as a buyer. Hey, at least it keeps my off the couch

 

[bruce119]

Hey, at least it keeps my off the couch

I feel your pain and know most people (not wood workers of course) have no idea the amount of work that goes into collecting, cutting & prepping wood.

I too am disabled and think of this more as a hobby but it does help me make the bills especially in the summer when the bills go up and the income goes down. Here in Florida it is the off season all the tourist are gone. It's like the dead of winter up north.

But it is also still fun for me so I don't need to charge for my time. If I did no one could afford it. The big guys got the big tools and move the big volumes they also have big bills.

Any way I was just whining knowing there was others that felt my pain But it's OK I still like doing it. When I stop like doing it I will go back to fishing. To me it's a hobby that supports it self and I am having fun.

Nothing like a roaring chain saw to cheer you up.

.

 

[Longfellow]

Pen Blanks

I feel your pain and know most people (not wood workers of course) have no idea the amount of work that goes into collecting, cutting & prepping wood.

I too am disabled and think of this more as a hobby but it does help me make the bills especially in the summer when the bills go up and the income goes down. Here in Florida it is the off season all the tourist are gone. It's like the dead of winter up north.

But it is also still fun for me so I don't need to charge for my time. If I did no one could afford it. The big guys got the big tools and move the big volumes they also have big bills.

Any way I was just whining knowing there was others that felt my pain But it's OK I still like doing it. When I stop like doing it I will go back to fishing. To me it's a hobby that supports it self and I am having fun.

Nothing like a roaring chain saw to cheer you up.

.

I also live in Florida,St. Cloud, and you pretty much sum it all up.

 

[holmqer]

When I was taking a bowl turning class, the instructor told us that our first bowl blank would cost $25K. He then explained that by the time we got a truck, chainsaw, bandsaw etc we would be well on our way to having spent that much money.

 

[mdburn_em]

I feel ya'

The only suggestion I have is to sticker and stack the small pieces you get. Place a lot of weight on top of the stack and they will dry evenly.

Not a lot of extra effort. Big dividends.

 

[wdcav1952]

So, why is wood so expensive? :biggrin::wink::biggrin:

 

[babyblues]

Well, pen blanks don't exactly grow on trees ya know.

 

[bruce119]

Well, pen blanks don't exactly grow on trees ya know.

Sure they do don't ya know it's as easy as pushing a button.

 

[GouletPens]

I just spent all day clearing brush and felling a few trees that are standing dead. A pine and a few oak....my back is dang sore and I'm tired as crap now. There are at least a dozen more trees I can see from my kitchen even bigger than the ones I did today that I still need to fell and cut. I'm staring at 2-3 full weekends of what I just went through today. The great thing is I get to do all this work, cut and split it all up, stack it, store it, then when it gets cold haul it inside and throw it in the stove, which will warm my house about 10 degrees or so:tongue: I tell myself I do it for the exercise.

 

[bruce119]

I just spent all day clearing brush and felling a few trees that are standing dead. A pine and a few oak....my back is dang sore and I'm tired as crap now. There are at least a dozen more trees I can see from my kitchen even bigger than the ones I did today that I still need to fell and cut. I'm staring at 2-3 full weekends of what I just went through today. The great thing is I get to do all this work, cut and split it all up, stack it, store it, then when it gets cold haul it inside and throw it in the stove, which will warm my house about 10 degrees or so:tongue: I tell myself I do it for the exercise.

You better get moving bye the time your done there will probably be snow on the ground :redface:

 

[babyblues]

I just spent all day clearing brush and felling a few trees that are standing dead. A pine and a few oak....my back is dang sore and I'm tired as crap now. There are at least a dozen more trees I can see from my kitchen even bigger than the ones I did today that I still need to fell and cut. I'm staring at 2-3 full weekends of what I just went through today. The great thing is I get to do all this work, cut and split it all up, stack it, store it, then when it gets cold haul it inside and throw it in the stove, which will warm my house about 10 degrees or so:tongue: I tell myself I do it for the exercise.

Oh, you poor thing. Must be tough when it gets down to 40 in the winter. Geez. :biggrin:

Some of us have to warm our homes FROM 10 degrees or so. That's when you don't even think twice about the work. So there.