Tips to Buying Hardwoods

I think the biggest trick to buying hardwood is to take your time. A friend of mine says the process we use to select hardwood is like a beauty pageant -- except the contestants are pieces of lumber.

For the preliminary round, each piece is quickly judged for color, grain, and lack of warp. The best of these are set aside as semi finalists. Then the semi finalists are looked over carefully.

Each piece is scrutinized for sapwood, knots, stains, checks, snipe, and chipout. This helps bring the board count down even further. Finally, we make our final selections based on color match and grain pattern.

Although this sounds like a lot of work, it's not. And besides, we enjoy rummaging through lumber. Who know what we'll find? The guys are the lumber store know we'll go through the entire stack, but they don't mind. They know we'll carefully restack the lumber after we're done sorting. There's nothing wrong with being finicky about lumber. It'll pay off in the long run -- you'll see it in the finished project.

SIX STEPS FOR BUYING LUMBER

1) The first step to buying lumber is to quickly sort for the flattest, straightest, and nicest-looking boards.

2) Once you have about twice the amount of lumber you'll actually need, check the stack for boards containing sapwood.

3) When shuffling through your stack, also sort carefully for knots, stains, checks, and chipout.

4) After the field has been narrowed, compare each board to the others and select the best color match.

5) If you still have more lumber than you'll need, sort the stack one more time for the boards with the straightest grain.

6) After making your final selections, tally up the board footage (thickness x width x length -- all in inches -- and divide by 144) to make sure you have enough lumber.

Note: We always get 15% to 20% more than what the project calls for. This gives us room for waste and to make a mistake or two. It also lets us be a little more picky in matching color and grain when we're actually building the project.

Tips to Buying Woodworking Tools and Equipment

 Before you buying woodworking tools and equipment you must knowing of you need to process in projects.

Value in Tools

   None of us likes paying more than we have to for anything. Unfortunately, trying to get a good deal can, if we are not careful, cost us more money.

   The popularity of woodworking has made that marketplace attractive to more and more companies who offer an ever-increasing line of power and hand tools. The law of supply and demand may have lowered the price of some tools, but it also spurred the marketing of bargain-priced tools that may or may not be the best value for your situation.

   When I first started buying woodworking equipment I tended to look for higher quality when making larger purchases. However, I was just as likely to put emphasis on price when considering smaller tools like drills, sanders, or routers. It did not take long in the shop to learn that regardless how well one tool was performing, inadequate performance of bargain-priced tools used afterwards could still produce unsatisfactory results. Sometimes, I had to remake parts of a project when mistakes or the limited capabilities of a lower priced tool rendered a part unusable. These situations were not only frustrating; each occurrence increased the cost of the tools I thought I had saved money on.

   An experienced woodworker once told me those of us who build projects regularly have to consider ourselves to be job shops, not hobbyists. We use tools more frequently, work with tougher materials and expect more precision than bargain priced tools were designed for.

Working Within a Budget

   Like most woodworkers, I would love to have my shop full of top-quality tools, all from the best names in the industry. Unfortunately, my budget steadfastly disagrees. Therefore, I have to compromise. Like most of you, I have to get the best equipment I can without having to convince my wife living in a tent would improve our quality of life.

   Having to operate your shop on a budget does not automatically mean buying cheaper tools. Planning purchases effectively, taking advantage of promotions and careful assessment of your shops needs go a long way towards stretching your tool dollars.

   It is also important to understand the capabilities of each tool and how jigs or techniques can expand its uses and effectiveness. All of the woodworking magazines and web sites regularly show us how to build jigs and fixtures that allow us to perform various tasks accurately and safely. Some of these adaptations allow one tool to do the job of another, and do it well. Knowing the needs of your shop and being able to match them to the various jigs and fixtures could increase your capabilities without having to add more equipment.

What You See Is What You Get - Sometimes

   Sometimes the difference between a quality tool and its bargain priced counterpart is obvious. Other times the differences are less apparent. Price, in some cases, can be a general indicator of quality, but we need to look beyond a price tag to be sure a tool is right for our needs. There are high-dollar tools that were designed with specific capabilities that if exceeded, can shorten the life of the tool or affect the quality of the work it produces.    Case in point. I bought a rail and stile router bit set with a ¼-inch shank. The set consisted of a single mandrel on which cutters were changed to complete a set of rails and stiles. The small set worked, and I did build acceptable cabinet doors, but before long, it was increasingly difficult to get clean cuts and tight fitting joints.

   Later when I purchased a heavy-duty plunge router with a ½-inch collet, I also bought a heavy-duty kitchen cupboard bit set with ½-inch shanks. Laying these production quality bits next to my old ¼-inch shank set was revealing. The better set not only had the heavier shanks, they were much heavier overall. The flywheel effect from the additional mass of the production set would obviously produce smoother cuts. In addition, the new set had individual bits for rails, another for stiles and yet another for raising panels. My ¼-inch rail and stile set did not even offer a panel raising bit, and there few of them on the market with the smaller shank. The first doors I made with the heavy duty, and more expensive, bit set proved this was a wise purchase. They worked great, as I hoped the first set would have.

Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

   It is important to understand the needs of the work you are doing so you can temper your buying decision with that knowledge.

   If in trying to save money, we have to replace a tool that will not do the job, we simply increase the cost of the correct tool by the price of the "bargain" we thought we found.

Understand Your Needs

   Knowing what tool you need is important when having to make a list for someone who wants to give it as a present. Friends and relatives may have a true desire to get you a good tool, but they may not understand your needs and could easily present you with a tool that simply will not work."

   Now, after replacing several tools I thought would "suffice," I opt for the best tool I can afford. If we consider that our skills and capabilities are expanding, and the projects we build increasing in complexity, our need for quality tools is never reduced.