What Was Your First?

[Leo Graywacz]

And I get upset when I have to buy Curly Maple at $10/BF

[Montgomery Scott]

That depends on what you call expensive. I've purchased pink ivory, macassar ebony, etc. But probably the most expensive wood I've purchased was small blocks of high grade desert ironwood burl for ~$500/bd ft and I bought a few flitches of 40 year old Brazilian rosewood up to 17" wide for around $900 and about a year ago or so I bought a 57 lb slab of amboyna burl for $700. I have around 60 species of wood, most of them exotic, but only a few what I'd call really expensive.

[Fred Voorhees]

Honestly, I have yet to purchase anything that could be called exotic wood.

[David Keller NC]

Honestly, I have yet to purchase anything that could be called exotic wood.

Yeah, but "exotic" is open to interpretation. The asians absolutely go nuts over birds-eye maple, and I've been told that's why you can't get the really high-grade stuff. It all gets cut for veneer and shipped to the far East.

To me, "exotic" includes a few North American species. A chunk of desert ironwood is definitely in that category - it's not like I can walk around and find a few pieces of it (in the South, anyway).

[Rob Diz]

That would be an 8/4 piece of fiddleback Koa I picked up in, oh the 5 minutes I had as I drove to the airport to return the rental car before the last shuttle went back to the ship we were on.

Big family trip, but no time for lumber hunting, so I found the largest thickest piece I thought I could fit in a dufflebag and bought it. I wish I had more time at Aloha Lumber. I could barely tell the guys what I wanted fast enough.

My wife didn't go with me, but was moaning about the costs of things on the big island. I didn't tell her how much I paid, but it was about $75/bf if memory serves.

that board still awaits its calling. I don't know if I will ever have the heart to cut into it.

Every now and again I'll take a look see though

[Bruce Page]

The most expensive per b/f was some Koa that I picked up in Kauai a few years ago. I haven’t decided what I want to do with it so it’s still in the lumber rack.

[Chip Lindley]

*Expensive* lumber! But I did not pay full price for it! Three black walnut planks, 2-1/4" x 16" x 14' long at a farm auction. Nobody seemed to want them very badly. I was prepared to pay $400, but my winning bid was $80! The man selling his property was in his 80s. He said that walnut tree was cut down when he was a boy, and had been stored in the barn ever since!

I have never spent any amount on exotic wood. I hope for bargains, like those walnut planks, and the 300 bf of 4/4 cherry for $400, and a neighbor's free claro walnut log I had sawed into beautiful figured boards for only $15!!