Wood value

[Steve Fryar]

I have hit a tiny stumbling block with my mill.It is in the form of my minister of finance,aka my wife.:doh:What is good quality hard wood slabs worth nowdays?Say a table size slab.I gotta convince her my hobby is financially viable.Thanks.
Steve.

[Claw Hama]

Hi Steve. I usually pay around $300 -$350 for Redgum slabs 3m x 650 - 700ish wide
and have seen them as much as $650 for similar size.
Good luck with the minister.

[Steve Fryar]

Thanks for that Claw.
Cheers,Steve.

[charlsie]

i've sold an island bar top finished in oil for $2200 2400mm longby 900mm wide. my prices start at $3000 a cubic metre an go up from there all depends on quality and type of timber .if you can supply timber that people can't source comercially the more you can ask!:2tsup:

[salty72]

timber is only worth what Ppl will pay, think this is a no brainer it has been said time and time again - I'm finding that the slabs are not worth much. I have over 50 Slabs of Silky (450-850 wide x 2.4 -3.3 long) trying to sell for $1300Cm3 about the same number of camphor (now the champhor is not just your normal run of the mill - it is so dark it looks like Black wood) $950Cm3 and now have a few hardwood slabs to suit, in the last 6 months I haven'ts sold one of them unless it was made into something...

[charlsie]

salty it is a no brainer you are right cut them up into something! it's called value adding. the more work you do to them the more they increase in value.most people that want a kitchen bench top or vanity unit top, bartop, mantle piece in slab form want the item. they dont have the abilty or the want to machine a slab of timber to what they want .so if you start with a slab of silky oak say 2300mm x 600mm x 65mm thick air dried to no more than 15% moisture content at $1300 a cube is worth $116.61 (pretty cheap i think) as a purchaser i walk in and say i want a bar top 2000mm x 500mm x50mm you say, i have a piece that will fit that but i want $120 for it. i say yeah but can you make the bar top for me.no worries for cutting and machining the slab i want $50. to get it finish sanded to 120 grit i want another $60. to get it sprayed in two pac i get charged $25 per square meter. to deliver it and the running around add another $50 or however much you think is appropriate.this work out to around $300 for a finished top. it's taken me over 5 years to find all the people to do these various jobs. some clients are happy to do part of the work others are not. as for the camphor i'm led to believe that the university of queensland did a report on it something about its anti bacterial properties. some people in the southern states are selling it as chopping blocks and cheese platters .it's reasonablly prized down here due to not being a weed like it is up your way any way that's my 2cents.just dont sell your slabs to cheaply. i sold 4 cubes of english oak in slab form for 2 grand a few years ago and been kicking myself ever since.now if timber doesn't move from the yard it just sits there and drys a bit more.
cheers charlsie

[Sigidi]

I have hit a tiny stumbling block with my mill.It is in the form of my minister of finance,aka my wife.:doh:What is good quality hard wood slabs worth nowdays?Say a table size slab.I gotta convince her my hobby is financially viable.Thanks.
Steve.

Steve there is no doubt milling can be lucrative. One days work can net somewhere close to $1K, without losing more than a quater in expenses, it's a great days pay and a good days work.....

BUT...

days like this are a long time between drinks, certainly not something to rely upon for a families income.

A better idea is to get a good supply of logs and then mill the timber and sell the timber. As long as you have logs you can make money