Sawmill visit

[capncarl]

Yesterday i was able to visit a new to me sawmill that was recommended by a lady woodworker in a nearby shop. The mill is Hamsley Hardwood. The owner, Danny, a retired forester, showed us around and spent a lot of time helping us pick out some nice wood. I would recomend him to anyone living within driving distance for some great wood. I purchased some spalted Sycamore, ambrosia maple, Cherry, my favorite, Chinaberry and some 4x4 pine for a friend. I was impressed with his wood storage which was an old house converted to a wood rack. It even still has carpet on the floor! The kiln is part of this house. This way the kiln dried wood stays clean, dry, bug free and organized, and keeps it from mysteriously disappearing. His prices seem to below market price, but the quality is great, and I don't expect good wood to be cheap. My new favorite sawmill!
capncarl


Photo of wood storage house

[poolhound]

Nice, looks like a cool place. What did you end up paying?

[leehljp]

I am jealous of people finding good sawmills and great lumber! All of the good timber around here is long gone. I would love to get into the reclaiming business if I wasn't getting so old and with bad knees and back!

Congratulations on a great find, and finding a good person to do business with!

[capncarl]

The price for this wood was $240. This was for 3 spalted Sycamore boards, 3 ambrosia maple boards, 5 pieces of 6/4 Cherry, (hopefully enough for 12 tiny table legs) and 5 pieces of Chinaberry (not much usable wood in the chinaberry).

[atgcpaul]

What was the bf for cherry? How far away was this one?

That was an interesting seller. I don't suppose there was a basement under that house? I'd be concerned with all that weight above.

I haven't had to buy lumber in a while but I've been finding it through Craigslist. My local one moved about 30 miles away. They used to be 2 miles away. Now all my sellers are about 30 miles away. I know still probably not far for most of you guys, but I got spoiled.

[JimD]

Congratulations!!! I have a local dealer but often go up into NC for wood. Once I arranged for it to be brought to me. It's nice to visit the mill, however. I bought a bunch of cherry at a place where the sawmill was in a cow pasture. They were around when I was but they didn't bother us. The seller had a lot of good wood at a fair price and also had a huge slabbing mill that was interesting.

[onedash]

I went to check out a place Saturday but they are only on the first and last Saturday of the month. So I might have to take a long lunch one day this week and head over there. They seem to have decent prices plus they have some short packs I want to check out. The lengths are fine for anything I plan on making in the near future. I have to get some QS White Oak to make a shelf for my brother and will probably pick up some Walnut and Cherry unless something else begs me to take it home. http://exoticlumberinc.com/ I will get at least 100 bf so I can save 10%.

[atgcpaul]

I went to check out a place Saturday but they are only on the first and last Saturday of the month. So I might have to take a long lunch one day this week and head over there. They seem to have decent prices plus they have some short packs I want to check out. The lengths are fine for anything I plan on making in the near future. I have to get some QS White Oak to make a shelf for my brother and will probably pick up some Walnut and Cherry unless something else begs me to take it home. http://exoticlumberinc.com/ I will get at least 100 bf so I can save 10%.

That used to be the place around the corner from me. From the pics, their new place is bigger.

[capncarl]

But did your sawmill have carpeted floors?

[poolhound]

A minor divergence from the main topic but still on theme, if we think this idea has merit would be happy to move this to its own thread so we can discuss further.

How about we start a sticky somewhere for sawmills and lumberyards around the country. We could all submit the ones we use and could include a few prices for reference e.g a few common woods such as Cherry, Walnut, Oak etc and a few specialty ones e.g. Purple heart Cocobola etc. Not sure the best technical format but it should be something that can be easily added to or updated.

Just a thought but it would be a great reference for members and also once the search engines find it it should bring us some new visitors/members. It also might give us a vehicle to offer the actual sawmills an advertising spot in return for a donation to help keep our coffers filled.

[atgcpaul]

A minor divergence from the main topic but still on theme, if we think this idea has merit would be happy to move this to its own thread so we can discuss further.

How about we start a sticky somewhere for sawmills and lumberyards around the country. We could all submit the ones we use and could include a few prices for reference e.g a few common woods such as Cherry, Walnut, Oak etc and a few specialty ones e.g. Purple heart Cocobola etc. Not sure the best technical format but it should be something that can be easily added to or updated.

Just a thought but it would be a great reference for members and also once the search engines find it it should bring us some new visitors/members. It also might give us a vehicle to offer the actual sawmills an advertising spot in return for a donation to help keep our coffers filled.

I don't have a problem with that, but there's already an "app" for that: http://woodfinder.com/

The lumber yard that OneDash linked to can be found through it and they do post their prices on their website.

I'm not sure if you can filter by carpeted sawmills, though.

[poolhound]

I have used that but its not very complete or accurate, at least here in AZ. some of the best suppliers are not listed and its zipcode search is miles out. The idea was really to have a resource on this forum that was useful to members and could also help draw new members etc. Just a thought...

[leehljp]

I am going to have to MOVE!

With Woodfinder, I clicked within 200 miles of me and also within 200 miles of Memphis. I checked every box and even put in "red oak". Still nothing.
I put in Memphis zip code to include Nashville and still nothing. Memphis, Little Rock, Nashville, Jackson MS, Nothing!

THEN I clicked in my daughter's zip in Ozark (Springfield) MO, and wham a bunch, even up to KC MO.

I need to move where I can get some good wood!

[capncarl]

I'm not sure what percent of sawmill operators are that Internet savy or have the time to build and keep a website updated. The sawmill in Perry Fla barely had electricity. I didn't see anyone there clicking on an iPhone and doubt that they use them in the business. Their lumber storage area wasn't carpeted either! I could see how a web site might be more trouble to a sawmill that it is worth. Internet buyers wouldn't likely be local and would be requesting shipping or delivery, something that small sawmills couldn't easily cope with.
I second the sticky for sawmills
capncarl

[twistsol]

Woodfinder charges suppliers $299 per year to be listed which prevents many from listing on their site. This might make a nice feature once we have the site upgraded and I can focus on something other than getting that done.

Back on topic, That sawmill looks like an awesome place. It's too bad its 1,191 miles from my house so I probably won't make it there any time soon. We had a sawmill, Northern Hardwoods, in our town for a couple of years, but they didn't make it and disappeared about 5 years ago.