Pwk5017 Posted August 23, 2016 Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 One of the numbers on that sheet is awesome, and one is shocking. I tip my hat to the guy who is buying FAS walnut in any quantity. I will remain with the woodworking dregs buying 1com. A word of advice, buy full packs any chance you get. I rarely buy a lot of any given species because of my storage constraints, but the savings are drastic--about 40-50% discount in this case. Group buys are something to consider if you have people in your area with similar needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted August 23, 2016 Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 Yeah but if 75% of the common is garbage, you break even...except for all the work you have to do to cull out all that garbage. Obviously 75% would have to be total rat $#!%...but you get the point. Quality costs money. I don't mess with commons unless I get it basically free. It's crap as far as I'm concerned. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 23, 2016 Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 Agreed, they are fundamentally two different products. If I want 6" wide, 6' long walnut boards that are mostly knot and check free, I need to buy FAS. If I want rustic looking boards, or narrow strips of clear wood, I can buy #1 commons. Its like comparing pine to cherry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwk5017 Posted August 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 We will see on Friday. I ordered the two FAS boards because i absolutely had to have moderately clear 12' boards. Should be a good comparison to have each grade next to each other at the same time. I feel like im either ordering one or the other, but never at the same time. I rarely buy FAS of anything. Select/better is usually where i land, but with walnut i consider the knots to be part of the charm of the species--personally. I really like the crotch figure you usually get around a knot in walnut, but it is usually accompanied by some form of a defect that needs epoxied. The point of this post was to be semi-tongue in cheek about price disparity. The real take away is "buy in bulk!". First time buying a full pack, and I had no idea the discount was that high. I assumed it would be a 10-20% discount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 23, 2016 Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 I don't mind crotch figure or gnarly stuff for certain parts of a project. For example, floating panels, door/drawer fronts, can look nice with crazy grain. But for legs and aprons I definitely want nice, structurally sound, clean grain. For tops, I want something that will look harmonious in a glued up panel. I have done tops out of rustic boards, but only if I can book match 2 or 3 wide boards to do it. A bunch of gnarly, 4" wide strips doesn't do it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted August 23, 2016 Report Share Posted August 23, 2016 I'm with Eric. Over the last year or so the quality of walnut has gone south over here on the left coast. Large quantities with unacceptable checks or sapwood (and I use sapwood decoratively so if there's too much for me, there's too much). Buying in bulk would mean I have to take all of the stuff I leave behind at the yard and either color it so much I may as well use poplar or use low quality walnut as a secondary wood (which I already do too much of IMHO). A cheap cigar is no good if you can't stand to smoke it ;-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted August 24, 2016 Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 I'm with Mike. My current project uses a panel of 4 flat-sawn, gnarly walnut boards, because that's what I had. Walnut is nice anyway, but I would have been happier to have some straight grain to match up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted August 24, 2016 Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 OP, what will you be building. You hardly ever hear it on here, but pics of the progress would be interesting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwk5017 Posted August 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 1 hour ago, K Cooper said: OP, what will you be building. You hardly ever hear it on here, but pics of the progress would be interesting. This is all for about $6-7000 in counters. I happened to have half of that total lined up all at one time which sparked the necessity to order a full pack. Unfortunately/fortunately, I spend 3/4 of my woodworking time working for greenbacks. I'd post more pics, but once you've seen one island top, you've seen em all! Instead I post the other projects I work on for personal pleasure and use. Too bad I don't have more of those projects to post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socoj2 Posted August 24, 2016 Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 i cant even Get 8/4 common... Steve unless you know i source i would actually like to get some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 24, 2016 Report Share Posted August 24, 2016 Around here, retail yards don't carry common grades. If you want it, you have to special order it, or buy it directly from a wholesale distributor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwk5017 Posted August 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 Not often that all I get are 12-19 7/8" wide material. I don't know what the heck I'm going to do with so many 19-20" 8/4 boards. I don't even know if I can lift a 9-10' board that big onto a machine. Guess we will find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted August 26, 2016 Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 That is not commons, FYI. Rough, yeah. Those are not common dimensions. Unless they are absolutely covered in defects...whoever is selling it that way is screwing himself. Don't get used to it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted August 26, 2016 Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 37 minutes ago, Pwk5017 said: Not often that all I get are 12-19 7/8" wide material. I don't know what the heck I'm going to do with so many 19-20" 8/4 boards. I don't even know if I can lift a 9-10' board that big onto a machine. Guess we will find out. Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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