20" wide white oak (very long)

[Jim Dunn]

I have the oportunity to purchase some 1/4 sawn white oak that is 20 inches wide Now for the delima. These boards are going to demand a premium price as they are hard to find. Should I buy them even though I am by definition a: newbie, non expert and I don't have the tool to plane them. This is a moral delima on my part. These boards could be used to make a beautiful piece of furniture in the hands of an expert so I hate to cut them up for trim or other simpler projects. I could invest in them for a future project, but to plane them, I'd still have to rip them to 12" wide pieces. By the way the lumber is all rough sawn 8/4+, 8' long and kiln dried. I still have 3 weeks to decide as they are in the kiln and still need some time to be completely dried. As I am the first person to inquire about the white oak I have dibs on buying all I can haul.

This isn't a gloat I really do want/need some input. By the way I found this lumber supplier by using a thread on this site that was titled "wood prices rant". By the way I could have titled this thread "Hey Jim Becker" but I'd probably have to put him up for the night

Jim

[Glenn Clabo]

Jim...
Just my .02...
If you have a place to properly store it AND you are serous about doing woodworking...BUY IT! Wood will wait for the right project. I have some 50 year old cherry sitting here waiting.

[Rob Bourgeois]

Get it, then save for a bigger machines or find someone locally that can help you out.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

If the price is right... get it for sure... You do not need a power planer to surface this material. The work in hand planing it would be worth the reward! Also, you could look around in high school wood shops and professional cabinet shops to rent some time to plane it.. .

[Jim Becker]

My philosophy for buying lumber is not to pass on incredible material if I have the cash available. In the worse case, one can re-sell the material for the same or more than one paid for it. In the best case, it becomes something wonderful when the right project comes along. Don't worry about the wide width...there are ways to manage that when the time comes.

[Dan Gill]

If it was in my price range, I'd buy it. You can probably find a pro shop that will surface it for you.

Of course, you may not have the room to store something for years. Lots of us are in that boat.

[Terry Hatfield]

My philosophy for buying lumber is not to pass on incredible material if I have the cash available. In the worse case, one can re-sell the material for the same or more than one paid for it. In the best case, it becomes something wonderful when the right project comes along. Don't worry about the wide width...there are ways to manage that when the time comes.

Ya, what Jim said!! Never and I mean NEVER pass on wood like that assuming the price is not totally crazy.

Terry

[Jim Dunn]

This wood supplier's price for rough dimensioned, normally sized?, 1/4 sawn white oak is $3.00 a bf. He says he can demand a premium price for this lumber, $4.00 a bf. Still a bargain? I think so!

Jim

[Frank Pellow]

Buy it (as much as you have room to store).

[Alan Turner]

That is a good buy, but not a freebie. Note that it is all 8/4. My experience with resawing white oak is that it moves a bunch when you open it up. And, of course, finding a 20" resaw will be a hard one. I think the only thing that the 8/4 wood will be used for is a country table top, or leg stock. Buy some, but not tons. As to handplaning white oak, it is one of the more difficult woods to hand plane, IMHO. I would tread cautiously. A commercial widebelt would be handy here, and you can probably rent time on one. This wood can often be chippy. Don't buy it if you need to store it outside as it is a tasty morsel for the local bugs.
Alan
p.s. -- I have literally tons of stored wood, and while that is nice, it is also a PITA. I get a commission, and still have to go to the yard. If I built on spec. it would be different.

[Donnie Raines]

Make sure that the lumber is truley quarter sawn!!! White oak, in quarter sawn cut, is indeed hard to find these days. Now, regular ole' white is not to far out of line.

[Tom Sontag]

It's 5/4 material. I think most of the boards are closer to a mere 16-18" wide and yes Donnie, the flecks go all the way across. Joe and I were laughing at the boards as we placed them in the kiln.

Gee Jim, maybe the price should go up for every positive response these guys give you!

[lou sansone]

Well I hate to be a party pooper, but just a few words from another perspective. I have quite a lot of 18"-20" wide stock ( walnut and cherry )and have found that over the years that it tends to have to be ripped down into narrower stock for what ever project one could come up with. The exception would be a table, where I am still holding on to several 8/4 20" wide clear walnut planks. There are a couple of things to consider.
If the material is really 8/4 ( although by now the posts seem to indicate it is 5/4 ) then you will have to resaw them. There are only a couple of 36" band saws out there that will do that ( although I believe that laguna now has a 24"x24" resaw ). And I agree with one of the posts that indicate resawing material, and I do a lot of it, does tend to open up a whole set of problems with regards to wood movement.

Secondly, although I know our forfathers did hand plane all of their wide boards flat, I think for practical purposes you will tire of doing that for very long, well at least I would. Basically you will need to find a 20" jointer ( at that size it is usually called a "facer" ) or use a wide belt sander to face the one side flat. I have a 16" jointer and a 37" wide belt. For stock greater that 15" I simply send it through the wide belt and that seems to flatten it enough.

By the way I should be the last one to say " don't buy the wood", because I have tons of it. I have started to moderate my purchases over the years though, and find stock in the 8 to 12 inch range much more efficient in the long run. But at the price you were talking about, it it is really quatersawn, then it is probably worth buying it.

[Tom Sontag]

I agree that wide boards are not right for small-project wood hoarders. Clearly material like this should be used in a way that optimizes its unique value, like table tops. One would be a wasteful fool to buy $4 wood to do the job $3 wood can do just as well. If you like to buy wood opportunistically, just balance out a chance like this with some smaller stuff that you will also need and use.

As for flattening one, a wide belt sander is the obvious easy out. But I personally would go at it with my #7, build a sweat, and an hour later enjoy the fruits of real labor. That's me though.

IT IS REALLY QUARTERSAWN!

[Jim Dunn]

Darn Tom, you coulda clued me in that you were a member of good standing here I am quite impressed with all the responces I've gotten from the members here and I believe that I have found a noble use for those wide boards. My grand daughter has her eye on a nice bedroom set and my son and I are going to ablige her. Course she's only 5 months old but her mom said she clearly heard her say that's what she wanted I have found a wide belt sander I can rent some time on and a 8" jointer should do the edges just fine. Oh, I'm going to need some hard maple as well so look for your minimum to be demolished when I come calling.
As for the positive responces I've been getting here, these guy's are all a bunch of kidders

Looking for the sun to stay out so the kiln stays hot. I'll talk to ya in 3 weeks.
Jim