# fair price buying wood / burls locally?



## endacoz

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.


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## robutacion

endacoz said:


> 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.



Well, when buying wood, there are a few things to consider, here are a few;

*- Make sure you see the wood/burls before you commit to buy anything.

*- Work out it what has been offered to you is, air dry, kiln dry, if is green, wet or both, weight vary significantly if the seller wants to get paid by weight.

*- Research a little about the wood on offer, unless you know what it is.

*- Look in places such as eBay for prices of identical woods.

*- If you are offered heavy wood blanks that are fully waxed, those will be green wood in 99% of times.

*- If you don't want to get much waste, buy your woods in dry slabs, between 2" and 4" thick, if dry, you can verify the wood condition, cracks, twisted, etc.

*- If you want free wood or close to it, go and cut your own...!

There is a lot more to it and your "wants" are not unique, by the contrary however, working with woods for sale, is heavy work and lots of expenses, one has to experience it to learn to appreciate what it takes so, expect to pay a fair price for fair quality, that way everybody wins...!

Best of luck...!

Cheers
George


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## Wildman

Suggest learn little bit more about buying wood before venturing into buying burls.  These article gives you some incite to buying burls and some perils. 

Dollar Value of a Walnut Burl

http://www.knowyourforest.org/sites/default/files/documents/Figured_wood_primer.pdf


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## NittanyLion

The thing with buying whole burls is that you are taking a risk.  I've cut plenty of burls that I thought would be amazing, only to find a small amount useful.  I've cut others that did not look like they would be anything, only to find out once I opened them up how special they are.  Like George said, buy in slabs.  If someone has a whole burl, tell them to slice it into 1" slabs....then take a look.  There is plenty of amazing wood around....no matter where you are.  You just need to look.


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## endacoz

I have bought burls in the past. Could someone give me some rough numbers of prices they have paid for wood and burls.


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## low_48

I wouldn't pay more than a dollar a pound for green burl. Remember though, it's not uncommon to pay $5 for a really good burl blank. So if it has a lot of appeal, well you know. It's been my experience, that if you walk up to a prospective firewood guy offering a couple of nice pens, or a bowl, you are more likely to have a good experience. You might be surprised to find some really nice figured wood in the split pile. You loose some to the rough fiber issue, but you see what you are going to get. I air dry in two places; my attic in the summer, on top of my main trunk line going from the furnace in the winter. The wood warms up and cools off sitting on the duct, and the rough pen blanks dry out pretty quickly.


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## Wildman

You need to be more specific on what you want chunks, slabs, or whole burls.  You are competing with experienced people in the burl trade that know value and known by people who harvest burls. 

Cost can range from nothing if come pick a burl up or few turned items, or lots of money depending upon your source. You need to network with folks in your local area.  Many people in wood cutting community (firewood, loggers, saw mills, or tree trimmers) do not want to cater or bother with woodturning community because too many folks looking for something for nothing.  So would not hurt looking in your local phone book and start asking.  Also might check with people at city or county waste dumps. 

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/um/twincities_sawmill_drykiln_listing.pdf

I do not like this site, might try different search scenarios and see what you come up with.  Normally distance from you less than 1,000 miles.   

Woodfinder: Find Sources of Lumber, Veneer and Sawmill Services


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## bobleibo

endacoz said:


> 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.


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## robutacion

bobleibo said:


> endacoz said:
> 
> 
> 
> 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.
Click to expand...


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


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## MrPukaShell

Do you have a gardner? Have a local Mulch factory near you?  Local Tree Trimmer or Tree removal company?  Check with those folks.  You offer to trade them for finished products.  The Woodturning group that I belong to has a tree trimmer that sets wood aside for us and an email is sent to the group on a first come, first served basis.  Then they get kick backs to give to their customers.  Has worked out great for us.  We even have a mulch place for unlimited bowl blanks.

Just a thought


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## SDB777

From my limited knowledge, burls are weighed 'green' and will always sell at that assigned weight...no matter how long they have been sitting to dry.  For instance, Burl "A" is 400# on 01/23/1999, it has been sitting in the back of a warehouse somewhere next to a rare Corvette collection, the seller will still sell that burl "A" at the assigned 400#, even if you weigh it at 355#

Not sure I've ever seen a burl sell for less then $1/lb?  And if it did, there will be a reason....like it's junk.  There will always be 'internet claims' of I bought this for $0.02/lb, but you might want to take that one with a grain of salt(their story should have started with. "Once upon a time...."

I see burls everyday, I know exactly where they are located.
I get calls very often about burls for sale.  Mostly from people that have a 'friend that knows about burls', and want thousands of dollars.....I generally start laughing and keep laughing until they hang up.

Burl market is a tricky one.....buy carefully until you get the 'feel for it'.  Check out websites that are 'stocking burls', there are already a LOT of them.  And I'd guess they won't be sharing their suppliers....why would they?



Good luck!





Scott (cutting is fun) B


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