Thread: What’s your favourite all-purpose timber?

Originally Posted by auscab

I’m shopping for a pack of comsel 25mm US white oak atm . $2055 a M3 as a whole pack and $2803 for broken pack . That’s an unusual big jump from broken to opened . I haven’t questioned why, yet. A 1.4 M3 pack of 50 mm comsel I got a few months back cost $2700 per M3 . + gst and delivery .

You absolutely must send me your supplier!!!!!! pleeeeassseeeee......

Besides the oaks (Quercus) and the Ashes (Fraxinus) the most popular furniture woods
still must be various maples (Acer) and Walnut (Juglans).

General purpose woods must be regional. Good enough but it won't show, buried inside some project.
I live in Taiga - Boreal Forest Biome. Even so, what gets used mostly is mostly what we've got.

Hundreds of millions of cubic meters of SPF ( could be Spruce, could be Pine, could be Fir <Abies>).
The mechanical and non-mechanical properties are so similar that they are used interchangably in design.

Locally, we have no hardwoods with any notable visual properties at all. They are all pale and essentially featureless.
Local cedar (Thuja plicata) is used for most outdoor constructions as the mills are 15 minutes down the road.
That might run less than $200/m^3

Here in WA, as you know, the timber is hard and hardly orientated for general-purpose. As a result, I tend to turn to Tassie Oak, which comes quarter sawn. Quarter sawn Tassie Oak is well-behaved and stable. I frequently use it for drawer sides - indeed, it is my first choice ... clear and uniform in colour. Hard enough to wear well and soft enough to work with a plane. There is still a touch of brittleness, but after working with other local harder woods, this is shrugged off.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Not mentioned so far is Cherry, Chestnut and Elm. All are nice to work with in my experience hitting that sweet spot terms of stiffness, hardness and not being brittle.

However I would say American Oak is my favourite general purpose timber. Actually looking to buy a cube in from Melbourne for projects I have planned.

I am however tempted by American Ash.

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Does anyone use comsel for table tops or other visible areas? Whenever I see a knot in prime white oak I quite like how it looks but have never seen comsel oak planed. Are the knots a lot bigger or ugly?

What are people thoughts of American white ash?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

The knots vary, if they're dead and loose you might just be left with a hole but the tight live knots can add a rustic look, we had one client who specifically wanted knots and lots of them; which was a problem because Global's comsel was too good. The knots will still usually have cracks in them that need some filling.



I quite like White Ash BUT you do sometimes get boards that have 'dirty' patches or streaking through them. You'll usually get at least one good face, but sometimes the whole board will be discoloured. It does smell really nice too.

Thank you for the tip on https://www.globalhardwoods.com.au/ and just messaged them.

Ive been paying 3x their price so far.

I do buy by the cube, sometimes two. Ive been ripped. Feel really angry about it too.

Originally Posted by woodPixel

You absolutely must send me your supplier!!!!!! pleeeeassseeeee......

The prices were from Anthony Grifiths , Timber Lord . 0411 640658 is his number . You can read he was mentioned on forum here a while back post 6 in this thread. He is Ex AFT from Port Melbourne .
Thttps://www.woodworkforums.com/f14/timber-supplier-melbourne-post-aft-189211.

Anthony's Prices and Harvey at Global Hardwoods are just about the same with what I compared. Small packs like this can cost between 4 and 5 grand . Cubic meter prices change all the time as well.

Where do people like to buy in Sydney? Or are both the cheap suppliers in Melbourne! Global Hardwoods looks great from their website.

I’m not keen on buying much timber from overseas, even though american white oak is probably from sustainably managed forests, I’d probably only import for something special like walnut. Supporting local industry and all that.

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Does anyone use comsel for table tops or other visible areas? Whenever I see a knot in prime white oak I quite like how it looks but have never seen comsel oak planed. Are the knots a lot bigger or ugly?



Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

Not sure if its been mentioned or you know this . Comsel is supposed to be a pack mixed with two types of board . Common and Select grade. The common boards are not always just knotty boards . They can be bent or twisted and have faults like larger splits .
There is possibly a further grade below common that may get sold . I don't know though .
Its a great way of buying the sort of timber you go through a fair bit of . Every job has its need for short lengths.
The bad faults just get cut out and you have top quality Oak.
I save the knots that get cut out to a knot box and they are used for patching missing or badly split knots where they are used as a feature.

Edit . Here is an Instagram post I did of a knot job on a top .

https://www.instagram.com/p/BainKTqFiiN/

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Ive been paying 3x their price so far.
I do buy by the cube, sometimes two. Ive been ripped. Feel really angry about it too.

Check grade and quality first to avoid embarassment, then leave public reviews on the internet to warn others!!

Originally Posted by auscab

Not sure if its been mentioned or you know this . Comsel is supposed to be a pack mixed with two types of board . Common and Select grade. The common boards are not always just knotty boards . They can be bent or twisted and have faults like larger splits .
There is possibly a further grade below common that may get sold . I don't know though .

Good point. Wane and bark inclusions are another fault that gets dropped in. The official grading guidelines can be found here if anyone's interested https://www.americanhardwood.org/sit...AW_pages_0.pdf

I remember feature grade being mentioned as the one below comsel, you'll get stuff like this

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Thank you for the tip on https://www.globalhardwoods.com.au/ and just messaged them.

Ive been paying 3x their price so far.

I do buy by the cube, sometimes two. Ive been ripped. Feel really angry about it too.

Yeah! You have paid the big prices and buying one or two M3. I know what you mean about feeling angry about it .
I went through a similar thing with a company I dealt with for many years . They changed internally and started treating me like a stranger every time I rang . New girls on the phone who were hopeless and a new manager who was a ****head . Then I got stung paying to way much by just trusting them to look after me as usual. It was my fault for not staying focused .
so I walked and went back to checking prices like I used to .

I mainly in the past have bought Oak and Cherry in packs . For secondary timbers I use Radiata Pine . I have bought packs or large amounts of that as well . All the rest is broken pack stuff.

What Id like to be able to do one day is buy US Black Walnut in packs . The problem is the stuff is a fortune . So I buy it at broken pack rate just enough for the job and pay more. It would be easy to pay $10 or $15 grand or more for a pack . The sellers mentioned can be flexible and split packs . Sometimes Ive bought packs and paid and taken half and they keep the other half for me to pay and take months later. That was with the other sellers that I left .

It wonder if finding other similar users to buy and split big expensive stuff like Walnut would work out ?

The thing I reckon with buying wood like this is not just the saving on the day you buy it . Its the massive saving of not having to buy and cart lots of smaller amounts over a year that really add up . I think buying the right way leaves something like an extra $20 Grand a year with Me.

I have some beautiful slabs of English Oak in my shed that are from Windsor Castle. A client I did some work for purchased an old roof tie beam that was removed when Windsor castle had a fire back in the 80’s I think it was ?? The beam was 900 square and about 8 metres long and has been certified as 400 years old. He had it cut up into flooring left in its full width and it looked magnificent. He let me keep some of the offcuts and I have enough to make a coffee table or vanity out of it.

Double post