pc

patrick conroy

05/10/2004 4:06 PM

Buying rough stock - do you take a block plane?

Just starting buying more rough stock and, so far, I like it.

I find a tremendous satisfaction in revealing what's underneath. A
woodworkers version of Christmas, I suppose.

What do you take with you when you go to the yard? I think I saw a
show where someone (DJM) took a block plane with them to plane away
enough to see some grain underneath.

Obviously - he said you need to ask permission first. But I'm not
sure if that's a tad pretensious or not.

What tips/tiplets do you use to select your rough stock?

Thanks!


This topic has 11 replies

TD

"The Davenports"

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

05/10/2004 9:57 PM

> Just starting buying more rough stock and, so far, I like it.
>
> I find a tremendous satisfaction in revealing what's underneath. A
> woodworkers version of Christmas, I suppose.
>
> What do you take with you when you go to the yard? I think I saw a
> show where someone (DJM) took a block plane with them to plane away
> enough to see some grain underneath.
>
> Obviously - he said you need to ask permission first. But I'm not
> sure if that's a tad pretensious or not.
>
> What tips/tiplets do you use to select your rough stock?
>
> Thanks!

I try not to be an ass about it, but he the sawyer wants me to buy the
lumber, he better not object to strongly about me wanting to make a small
shaving or two. If he does object without a pretty good reason, I can and
will go somewhere else to buy.

With that in mind, I also do very few "spot checks" compared to how much I'm
buying. As in a spot or two on two or three boards out of 30 or so...in that
ballpark, anyway.

Mike

Gg

"George"

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

05/10/2004 1:02 PM

If you're buying a board, sure. If you're buying forty, go with grade, and
learn to recognize figure by the conformation of the sawing fuzz if they let
you pick and choose.

I go to the sawyers who are generous with the BF calculations, and ask them
if they've got any fancy stuff.

"patrick conroy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Just starting buying more rough stock and, so far, I like it.
>
> I find a tremendous satisfaction in revealing what's underneath. A
> woodworkers version of Christmas, I suppose.
>
> What do you take with you when you go to the yard? I think I saw a
> show where someone (DJM) took a block plane with them to plane away
> enough to see some grain underneath.
>
> Obviously - he said you need to ask permission first. But I'm not
> sure if that's a tad pretensious or not.
>
> What tips/tiplets do you use to select your rough stock?
>
> Thanks!

Gg

"George"

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

06/10/2004 8:06 AM

Yep. Select grade, if you can get it without FAS, is the most economical.
#1 common is the lowest grade I'll spend indoor storage space on.

"patrick conroy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Tue, 5 Oct 2004 13:02:18 -0400, "George" <george@least> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >If you're buying a board, sure. If you're buying forty, go with grade,
and
> >learn to recognize figure by the conformation of the sawing fuzz if they
let
>
> Grade as in "FAS", "Selects and Better"?

AD

Andy Dingley

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

06/10/2004 12:39 PM

On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 16:06:57 GMT, patrick conroy
<[email protected]> wrote:

>What do you take with you when you go to the yard?

Notepad, big tape, spokeshave (works better than a block plane). The
yard I buy from is far enough away that I can't just nip over there.
So whenever I am there, it's worth noting down anything tasty they
have in for the next project.

>What tips/tiplets do you use to select your rough stock?

Beer. A regular feeding of it to my friend the penurious sawyer. I
probably save a little money by doing this, but more importantly it's
me who gets the phonecall when he finds something particularly
attractive and wants to shift it.

--
Smert' spamionam

pc

"patrick conroy"

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

06/10/2004 2:06 PM


"Andy Dingley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>

> Beer.

Brand? Temperature? Bottle, can? :)

Lr

"Leon"

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

05/10/2004 11:06 PM



"patrick conroy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 16:21:51 GMT, "Leon"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>>For me, buying rough stock costs me more than buying S3S. Let me resay
>>that. I can save about 15 cents per BF buying rough stock over S3S.
>
> Here it's about a 50 cents to a buck or more "depending..."

In that case I would probably do all of it my self.


pc

patrick conroy

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

05/10/2004 10:07 PM

On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 16:21:51 GMT, "Leon"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>For me, buying rough stock costs me more than buying S3S. Let me resay
>that. I can save about 15 cents per BF buying rough stock over S3S.

Here it's about a 50 cents to a buck or more "depending..."

>per BF to me and I can quickly see what the board looks like if it is
>already surfaced. YMMV.

Yeah - today for example, I needed one board quickly to finish up a
project and had to know it would fit in with the others. So it was off
to Paxton's for some S3S.

TT

TWS

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

05/10/2004 4:36 PM

Patrick,
if the shop is not too busy you can usually ask them to 'skip dress'
the pieces you're looking at. This is simply a shallow pass on their
thickness planer so you can check the grain and color. I've never
been charged for this service even though I am not a high volume
customer.

TWS

On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 16:06:57 GMT, patrick conroy
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Just starting buying more rough stock and, so far, I like it.
>
>I find a tremendous satisfaction in revealing what's underneath. A
>woodworkers version of Christmas, I suppose.
>
>What do you take with you when you go to the yard? I think I saw a
>show where someone (DJM) took a block plane with them to plane away
>enough to see some grain underneath.
>
>Obviously - he said you need to ask permission first. But I'm not
>sure if that's a tad pretensious or not.
>
>What tips/tiplets do you use to select your rough stock?
>
>Thanks!

pc

patrick conroy

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

05/10/2004 10:07 PM

On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 16:36:32 GMT, TWS <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
>Patrick,
>if the shop is not too busy you can usually ask them to 'skip dress'

Thanks - one shop offered to do this. I didn't know what they meant,
and now I do!

pc

patrick conroy

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

05/10/2004 10:07 PM

On Tue, 5 Oct 2004 13:02:18 -0400, "George" <george@least> wrote:

>
>
>If you're buying a board, sure. If you're buying forty, go with grade, and
>learn to recognize figure by the conformation of the sawing fuzz if they let

Grade as in "FAS", "Selects and Better"?

Lr

"Leon"

in reply to patrick conroy on 05/10/2004 4:06 PM

05/10/2004 4:21 PM


"patrick conroy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Just starting buying more rough stock and, so far, I like it.
>
> I find a tremendous satisfaction in revealing what's underneath. A
> woodworkers version of Christmas, I suppose.
>
> What do you take with you when you go to the yard? I think I saw a
> show where someone (DJM) took a block plane with them to plane away
> enough to see some grain underneath.
>
> Obviously - he said you need to ask permission first. But I'm not
> sure if that's a tad pretensious or not.
>
> What tips/tiplets do you use to select your rough stock?

For me, buying rough stock costs me more than buying S3S. Let me resay
that. I can save about 15 cents per BF buying rough stock over S3S. The
time involved in getting the stock down to S3S is not worth saving 15 cents
per BF to me and I can quickly see what the board looks like if it is
already surfaced. YMMV.


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