Bought green cherry plank

[rich pierce]

Are any of you buying “live edge” slabs with hopes of making gunstocks someday? There are lots of fellas with small sawmills turning these out. All plank sawn and green. I bought an 8’ piece of cherry about 20” wide that looks promising. I’ll cut a couple inches off the ends and seal it and sticker it and wait a couple years.

If you’re buying green and live edge, what’s reasonable to pay per board foot for plain walnut, cherry, and hard maple?

I recognize that it’s easier and less risky to buy blanks but I want a working relationship with a supplier. This guy has a huge river birch trunk with great crotch figure. Not usually a stock wood but intriguing. This young fella was very interested in a muzzleloader and when I told him the price he reminded me he’s got a lot of wood.

[Clear Spring Armory]

I've had a tree out of my own woods sawed out by a friend with a small mill, but never bought slabs from a mill. But I will say, that if I were going to, I wouldn't offer exuberant money even for nice figured wood. Too much can go wrong, and too much work to pay alot for it. Furthermore, I don't see a big market for these small guys locally. They don't get better money for "better" wood.They want to buzz out 3/4 boards and cross ties, send them off to the pallet yard or railroad company. Most aren't even paying attention to grain and figure. I think the way to go would be to either bring in your own logs you think could have nice figure and just pay the going rate for the milling or offer a Sawyer just a bit more than the going rate per board foot if he finds anything with curl. And wouldn't you think they'd rather saw a log in 2.5" slabs as 1" boards? Less cutting and no edging. But that's just what I see locally.

[Nhgrants]

I have  had cherry logs sawed out and got some good boards but there was a percent that cupped, twisted and split.  Looking at the end grain is critical. If it was my logs. I would have some blanks sawed out
And take the chance that some won't turn out well.  I personally would not pay a lot for a green blank.
Last year I bought some cherry logged in Vermont for less than  $5  per board foot.  This was kiln dried.
I sawed out some sugar maple logs into planks. Several years later I found that powder post beetles
Got into them.  That's another risk with green lumber. 

[Jim Kibler]

Yeah, it seems there's a live edge craze, though I think it's going to become passe before too long.  What gets me is that sellers often price these significantly above the cost of dimensional lumber per board foot.  I know they're harder to handle, they take up more space when drying etc, but I also think they are trying to take advantage of current trends.  We've bought some live edge material, but have largely steered away due to price.  It often seems they are happy to cut up cracked and knarly logs as they figure the furniture builder will just fill them with epoxy and be thrilled.  In fact, I had one sawyer say that the nastier the wood is the better it seems to sell.  Go figure...

If bought right, nothing wrong with this.  I would blank out the stocks, sticker and weight them down while drying.  There's less chance of cracking if the wood is blanked out and it will dry faster.

Jim

[Jeff Durnell]

Yep, there's a slab craze alright. It's crazy around here. I've been to a lot of sawmills, big and small, lately looking for stock wood. There's a lot of wood sitting outside degrading to the point of worthlessness. It's a shame. I've found some good walnut, maple, and cherry that's been dried and kept inside, I just can't find any with good figure in it.

I brought home some slabs of walnut and sugar maple recently. It's plain, no figure, kiln dried, and very clear and straight grained. It would still make some nice guns, or bows, I suppose. I used a chunk of the walnut for the end vise on my new workbench.

[44-henry]

It all depends on where you are located. In PA Cherry is common and relatively cheap. I recently purchased 300 bf of 5/4 FAS kiln dried cherry from a small operation near Harrisburg for $2.00 a bf, they had thicker slabs as well for a bit more.

[msellers]

Local small sawmill is charging $1.30 - $2.00 per bf for rough cut.  Am sure they would be willing to cut most anything. Not sure what they currently have one hand, might have to talk to them and see.

[ohidan]

How long would it take for rough sawn 2 and 1/2 inch planks to air dry ?

[SBachner]

How long would it take for rough sawn 2 and 1/2 inch planks to air dry ?

I believe the gouge is 1 year per inch of thickness.

[44-henry]

A year per inch is the standard, but it all depends on the moisture content of the lumber you start with, stacking method, and atmospheric conditions. In a humid environment it can be tough to get the moisture content down enough to work and the wood will need to be brought into a dryer indoor environment to finish drying. I much prefer the kiln dryed variety.

[Eric Krewson]

I slabbed up a cherry tree with a chainsaw, lots of work, my log had a lot of bark inclusions hidden in the wood  so most of it was worthless for stock blanks.

I cut the stock blanks green, 3" thick, I coated the ends with several coats of shellac and the entire blank with one coat (old bow making trick to prevent surface cracking). I had "0" warping or checking just standing these up in the corner of my shop, the wood is dry now but only one gun has been made from the wood by a friend. I ruined one highly figured blank when I had a major senior moment while running it through a bandsaw.

 

[rich pierce]

Were so used to perfectly planed blanks. Interesting to think how they did it back when. Assuming planks were dawn in a pit saw then cut into blanks back in the 1750s to 1770s but possibly there were sawmills with circular blades.

I’ve bought some slightly crooked blanks and try to get one side flat with hand planes and work from there. I’m sure running it through a planer would be the thing to do.

[Clear Spring Armory]

Were so used to perfectly planed blanks. Interesting to think how they did it back when. Assuming planks were dawn in a pit saw then cut into blanks back in the 1750s to 1770s but possibly there were sawmills with circular blades.

I’ve bought some slightly crooked blanks and try to get one side flat with hand planes and work from there. I’m sure running it through a planer would be the thing to do.

I had a planer set up with an 8ft infeed and outfeed. Worked pretty good on some rough slabs a guy gave me that I had cut to planks. I don't know how much luck I would have had without the long in/out feeds. Keeps the plank coming through on one plane instead of curling up, down, or rolling sideways as high spots leave or enter the planer base. I'd tell anyone wanting to make thier own stocks to consider setting thier planer up like this.

[Jim Kibler]

If you want to flatten a jointer is best.

[Tim Crosby]

 Rich, here's a link to some live edge Cherry, don't know what you've got but to buy it outright looks pretty pricy. These days anything listed as spalted, burl or live edge seems to be in demand.

 http://www.keimlumber.com/cherry-3

  Tim

[rich pierce]

Dang pricey. I payed $130 for about 19” x 8 feet by 2.5” thick but it’s green.

[Hlbly]

That’s four bucks a board foot. Wish I had known you guys when I was in the timber business.

[nemovir]

Noobie question.  Why would you want to buy green wood that need to be dried?

[rich pierce]

Noobie question.  Why would you want to buy green wood that need to be dried?

Like buying green bananas I guess. I’ve got 8 ripe ones but when those are gone I’d like some more and hoping I’ll still be alive and building and they will be ready.

[P.W.Berkuta]

In 1972 I went to a local lumberyard in NJ and told the manager that I wanted to buy a curly maple log and have it slabbed up at 3" thick. He pointed to a pile of logs and said "pick one". I peeled bark on many and found one that I thought was what I was looking for. Two weeks later I picked up 5 boards that were 3" X 25" X 10 feet long price was $54. They were green and HEAVY. I cut them in half (5') and set them into my dads basement to dry. 60% of those boards had ok curl 20% had very good curl and the rest were plain jane. I have two boards left from that lot. I also purchased some walnut 1n 1996 from a farmer in Easton PA that had his own portable saw mill on his property. I got two 2-1/2" X 20" X 12 foot planks from him for $125 I still have some of that left also.

[Shreckmeister]

Rich, here's a link to some live edge Cherry, don't know what you've got but to buy it outright looks pretty pricy. These days anything listed as spalted, burl or live edge seems to be in demand.

 http://www.keimlumber.com/cherry-3

  Tim

Glad to see this post.  I now think I can reach my retirement goals quickly with the live edge cherry I stockpiled 5 years ago.  I might throw a party for you guys