I am trying to network locally and find good wood but cheaper than the big box woodworking stores. I have been chatting with people who cut and deliver firewood on craigslist about burls and nice character / figured woods. Only a few have responded.
One asked how much I would pay but he didn't send pictures or anything. I would like to see it to give an estimated fair to both parties price. I'm looking to cut bowl, stopper, pen and other blanks.
Some forums say to buy burls etc by the pound, what is the going rate for wood, burls in pounds per dollar?
How do I respond and negotiate with the people who have the wood....
Any and all suggestions and or comments are appreciated.
- Rarely have I needed any type of wood that I could not find and get from one of the members here and the best part is they can be trusted
- Unless the price is way out of line, I never worry about it. The seller did all the work of cutting and marketing. They deserve to earn a profit for the effort they put into it thus saving me from having to do it myself.
Yes, you are correct, everyone needs to make a little to help pay for the equipment investment and their time...!
I don't think that, it makes any difference where you are in the world, timber work is the same everywhere only the tree species found in each area, varies....!
Not all trees produce burls nor every tree species is the same, most will never produce any kind of burls and these are quite dispersed around the world but, Australia is probably one place where you find the vast majority.
With that said, only a very minority of the tree species in Australia produce burls and some parts of Australia are more predominant in that respect, NSW and QLD beeing the 2 best States for its availability.
I have stated this many times, I have many native and introduced tree species in my area however, the fingers of one hand, would be plenty to cover the number of species that produce burls.
I understand that, the poster is requesting prices averages as a guide and that is probably one of the hardest things to answer due to the multitude of variations possible, each wood/burl species has to be valued on its own merits, even the best quality producing tree species produce bad wood/burls and this is where, the presentation of the product on sale, is so important.
If there is a price structure that I would advise you to look at/follow is, look at the prices offered for the species you are interested, on those woodturning shops/suppliers, find if the product is green or dry, whatever the price they are selling it for, divide that in half at least, the shops will mark up the blanks with at least 100% of the cost price, this will give you a good starting base to the prices to offer if you want to buy some woods directly.
Now, if you are looking for burls at good prices and you have firewood suppliers in your area or in a fair driving distance, get a trailer, a chainsaw and go visit those firewood suppliers places, ask permission to look around on the uncut logs pile(s) for anything that is of interest, unless the burls are big, they wouldn't bother in cutting them off before start splitting so, there is a possibility that they have some already cut, on top of a pallet, somewhere.
If you find something that you want, let the owner know about it and see if you can reach it by yourself or, you need them to move some logs away. Offer them twice of the value they are selling their firewood at, that normally gets you the deal, if not, work from there...!
Take special attention in their yards for tree roots, they leave them for last due to the time that takes to clean the dirt off them and the damage they cause to the equipment, many of those roots are in fact burls and even if you are not aware of any native trees in the area that are known to produce burls, have a good look around, they cut/remove many trees that are introduced species and those may have the burls, it pays off to have a good look..!
I hope this helps a little...!
Cheers
George