Inquiring minds want to know. I haven’t worked with lumber much yet, and looking on woodworkerssource I see that a lot of 12/4 stock is about double the bf price of the same 4/4.
I would have assumed it would be the opposite since there’e less milling, etc involved. Does the price disparity have to do with drying times and processes?
I assume that 4/4 is much more common. Larger stock requires an older tree and that is less common to find that. Also you are probably looking at the center of a tree. That is my so so wood worker knowledge.
Excellent question and something I to wondered after a recent trip to Houston to source wood. @JOSEGAYTAN might have some insight on this as well.
Supply and demand for bigger clear pieces. The smaller the board is, the more ability the mill has to work around defects in the tree.
The price difference should be less pronounced for lesser grades, until you get up into slab sizes that are popular nowadays
the simplest way to think about it is that you’re buying more wood. 12/4 is 3x more material than a 4/4 board of the same width x length
more complicated answers involve things like drying time and age of the tree required to produce such a thick board, finding a tree thats not full of defects etc.
think of it like organic produce. technically less is being done to it so you would think it should be cheaper, but because less is done you get less yield from a single source, thus it comes at a premium
a board foot is a measure of volume.
Yes and 12/4 or 4/4 refers to the thickness of the material, boardft is calculated with the thickness width and length of the material to determine the volume
The standard measurement of lumber for retail sale is a board foot. A board foor is 12" X 12" X 1" thick no matter the actual thickness of the board it is the basic unit of measurement. The best way for me to calculate board feet on a board is to multiply the width times the length times the thickness devided by 144. Or you can use a sawyers stick. There are other methods. Once you get to 6/4 lumber more than likely you will get the pith or the center of the tree included on that piece as the people that mill the logs or cants are trying to maximize the use for profit. Otherwise the pith would have to be cutoff or if left on a 4/4 or thinner board the board would be very unstable. You would think that there is less process to get an 8/4 or thicker board but youre thinking in 1/4 not the optimum yield of a log. A thicker board takes longer to dry so therefore the price is usually higher normally 25% or so within the same grade and species of lumber. There are some species that are harder to dry so the price reflects it. You did not state if the 4/4 and 12/4 were the same grade of lumber. To illustrate a piece of lumber 4/4, 8" X 10’, is 6.6 BF and an 8/4, 8" X 10’ is 13.6 BF. Grades of lumbers could be FAS, #1 common, #2 common, etc. Grades vary from one place to the other and at times with the species (e.g. Alder is graded as premium and superior were primium is the lower grade). Reclaimed and milled (dimentional) lumber is sold different so is highly figured lumber. Lately there are some sawmills that sell lumber by the linear foot.
I was looking for some wider cherry (in the 10"+ range) while at Fine towards the end of summer. All 6/4 stock was narrower and would require a glue up that I didn’t want to see the seam from (for some of my resin CNC carved turtles). I found some great 12/4 stock there instead and used our beefy resaw (back when it actually worked) to resaw it to 6/4 prior to carving on the CNC. I don’t remember the exact price but it was competitive to their 6/4 price and well worth the effort for me.
When you say “while at Fine,” i assume you’re talking about Austin Fine woods. The problem i have with them is that they cater to their big accounts. So everytime they put up a new bundle of lumber misteriously you’ll see that specific limber moving out in large quantities. They also cull the nicer pieces for their dimensional/milled lumber. 12/4 does not meet any of the above, so it doesnt surprise me that you found a nice piece. Dakota in the other hand process their dimentional lumber centrally and then disperse it to their branches. So if is american species, and small quantities they let you pick off the first two or three layers of the bundle they bring to you. Their bundles have not been picked as much as Austin Fine woods. If you plan it right, have the transportation, Clarks Lumber in Houston has a much bigger pool of lumber to pick from. Central Hardwoods in Dallas has very decent prices and their stuff doesnt get picked as much mainly because when you buy large quantities they only let you pick so many boards abd then the rest they pick. However you can refuse boards that you do not think meet the grade of lumber you are buying such as buying Cherry or Walnut and the board is mostly white on both sides.
Dirthurt got it right.
8/4, 10/4 and 12/4 require significantly more drying time and it’s much longer than 4/4 . You can’t simply double the time.
It usually requires more air dying time as well . You can put 4/4 in the kiln pretty much immediately and not have any issues - if you do it to larger stock you run a higher risk of warping/twisting and case hardening.
It also depends on the wood - much less risk of those things with mesquite.