I'm sorry those prices on the West Coast are like 3-4 times what I'm paying in NJ. I would strongly suggest that one get out of the retail woodcrafters' stores, or sites, and go visit 'real' lumberyards, especially those who cater to 'real' builders (not HoDePo level). I'm building a wine bar for my daughter and found a piece of 3/8" teak plywood (not 4x8) for $30. This is at the local place that struggles when all the 'high-end' customers shop at HoDePo. I can get prices like that every day out of him. Rumor has it he still has the same mahogany planks we ordered from when Cherubini Boat first started producing C44s. Places like this exist everywhere if you look.
My teak-and-mahogany supplier is a guy in southern NJ who builds cabinetry under contract for Viking and Ocean Yachts. He always has stacks of South American mahogany and Asian teak, I mean like 5/4 boards, 12" and more wide, name your board-feet and go. Last I bought from him the Honduras wasn't pretty so I chose the Asian mahogany (probably from Thailand; there have been political problems in buying it from The Philippines for years). It varnished up really well.
I can also get Honduras from a really good lumberyard we have about 15 miles from me. He has stacks and stacks of it, bright red, really pretty; pick your own. I got two nice 7-ft boards for $90 last time.
Sorry; but the 'new reality' on the West Coast sounds like the same one that brought us CAFE standards and warning labels on products that tell us that eating the plastic container may cause birth defects. I would respectfully suggest that people in California awaken to the concept that just past the Sierra National Forest lies a whole rest of a country out here (same as we in NJ tell people in New York)! If California and Washington don't have it, other places do. My brother buys cabinetmaking wood online. And if anyone on the West Coast tells you you're not allow to 'import' materials into your home state, that's what elections are for.
If you still have trouble finding reasonable prices for boatbuilding lumber, perhaps I'll go (back) into the wood business. Call me.
My teak-and-mahogany supplier is a guy in southern NJ who builds cabinetry under contract for Viking and Ocean Yachts. He always has stacks of South American mahogany and Asian teak, I mean like 5/4 boards, 12" and more wide, name your board-feet and go. Last I bought from him the Honduras wasn't pretty so I chose the Asian mahogany (probably from Thailand; there have been political problems in buying it from The Philippines for years). It varnished up really well.
I can also get Honduras from a really good lumberyard we have about 15 miles from me. He has stacks and stacks of it, bright red, really pretty; pick your own. I got two nice 7-ft boards for $90 last time.
Sorry; but the 'new reality' on the West Coast sounds like the same one that brought us CAFE standards and warning labels on products that tell us that eating the plastic container may cause birth defects. I would respectfully suggest that people in California awaken to the concept that just past the Sierra National Forest lies a whole rest of a country out here (same as we in NJ tell people in New York)! If California and Washington don't have it, other places do. My brother buys cabinetmaking wood online. And if anyone on the West Coast tells you you're not allow to 'import' materials into your home state, that's what elections are for.
If you still have trouble finding reasonable prices for boatbuilding lumber, perhaps I'll go (back) into the wood business. Call me.
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