Wood sources Canada

[Glenn Lefley]

i dont know if this should be here or market place. Looking for sources in canada where i can go and look for 3 inch thick or better turning wood. Could be a local mill, or anything. Would like pcs of spalted, curly, burl of any hardwoods. Kiln dried for pepper mills and air dried, green for larger turning. I really would like a place on the island (bc) from the source or even a logger in eastern canada i could ship a larger order out to bc. The stores just have the regular stuff and i would like to buy from a source. You just cant go to a store and buy a nice maple crotch! And i live on alberta bc border, the softwood capital. No hardwood except the neighbours apple trees. Any names numbers much appreciated.

Glenn.
ostere@telus.net

 

[Bill Boehme]

I think that you have posted in the right forum. The marketplace forum is for person-to-person sales. It sound like what you really want is to get a list of dealers who do mail order sales of wood.

I know of lots of US dealers that have web sites with pictures of each turning blank, but unfortunately I can't help with Canadian sources.

I am in a situation similar to yours. I would like to find a source for very large green hard make blanks, but they don't grow anywhere close to where I live. I understand your frustration about what can be found in local stores ... it's somewhat like that here also ... the only have small turning blanks ... something that I already have plenty of and may never actually use.

EDIT: You might try eBay or a Google search if you haven't already exploded those options.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

You can always wait till the neighbors go on vacation and take one apple tree, lol. An apple tree in Hawaii is a rarity, found a huge one last year, absolutely love it, good for everything, included chasing threads. You could try calling tree trimers, telling them what you want, then make a trip to pick it up. Other is, contact the local AAW chapter club of the area that you know has the timber you are looking for. The club's secretary can then email the membership with the request. I get a lot of requests from visiting turners looking for Hawaiian woods... Good luck and happy turning!!

 

[John Torchick]

What Emiliano said. Our chapter has a wood raffle to raise $$$ and members bring all kinds of wood for the raffle. I have some cherry that I'm taking to the next meeting. Saving a lot for myself. OK, I'm selfish.

 

[hockenbery]

Glenn,
Probably your best source for local hardwood is yard trees that come down for various reasons.
All sorts of hardwoods are planted in people's yards and nature takes some down and others need to be removed for construction. You might check with firewood dealers.

I can recommend three places local to me, central Florida. I rarely buy wood but I would not hesitate to buy from the following below. They understand what turners want and they usually have a good selection of nice wood.

Blanks 4 U carries mostly locally collected woods NORFOLK island Pine, camphor, rosewood, etc
http://www.woodturningblanks4u.com/

Amazon exotic hardwoods deals a imported wood as well as some nice domestic
http://www.amazonexotichardwoods.com/

Advantage lumber where the Sarasota club meets has a good selection
https://www.advantagelumber.com/turning/

I did a demo for the Sarasota club a while back. When I was packed up and leaving the manager gave me a tour of the warehouse and gave me some nice blanks of rosewood and camphor. I was impressed that all the blanks i saw were cut centered on the center of the tree as they should be.
Al

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

Al is right, local hardwood is surely your best bet. Give a few arborists a call and promise to give them a bowl or other work if they connect you with good wood. People must buy firewood around your parts, so give a firewood outfit a call and tell them what you're looking for...often the worst firewood is the best bowl stock because no one wants to split stumps, crotches, and crazy grained wood.

Otherwise, start calling mills. I went to UVic 25 years and visited a few amazing sawmills on Vancouver Island and a pretty good one south of Vancouver. I have no idea if those mills are still running.

Alternately, there must be absurd amounts of fruit trees in the Okanagan. My understanding and my limited experience says that most any fruit tree is well worth turning.

I personally like cutting my own wood, partly because the price is right, but even more so for the experience to learn what's in the tree and where to look for the most interesting wood and how to cut it.

And if it's any consolation, I'm in the middle of hundreds of miles of softwood rainforest, and I still find plenty of interesting wood to keep myself busy. Even softwoods can be great if you cut from the right trees or concentrate on stumps and/or slower growing trees.

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Glenn here is a list of wood suppliers in Canada, most of these carrie only regular lumber, but some carrie turning blanks and other hardwood, I also have one address of a supplier I personally know and have bought turning wood from, if you want special pieces you probably should take contact up with him, as he does also some sawing from his own bush.

Of course shipping is the killer with getting rough blanks from Ontario or anywhere else, good luck.

https://www.canadianwoodworking.com/lumber-directory?_ga=1.125337610.1425493018.1475105243

http://www.woodshedlumber.com/products/35/bowl-blanks

 

[Vern Crandell]

Glen, I know of two Canadian suppliers that would be reasonably close to you. Black Forest Woods in Calgary carries a number of kinds of wood (I bought some wood from them when I was in Calgary a number of years ago.) Also Bow River Woods in Chilliwack has an excellent selection of turning wood (I bought from them when I was at the Greater Vancouver Woodturning symposium where they had a display; they were kind enough to box it so I could bring it home on the plane). Both have websites. Shipping will probably be the biggest expense.
https://www.woodtoworks.com/
http://www.blackforestwood.com/

Hope this helps.
Vern

 

[Stan Semeniuk]

I have also used Bow River Woods on a number of occasions. They were great to talk with on the phone and shipped to Edmonton no problem.

 

[Glenn Lefley]

I use bow river all the time. As a matter of fact they just shipped me a box of wood this morning. But as always these places have limited supply and often run out of spalted wood or whole wood products. I know windsor plywood buys theremaple burls off a guy in vancouver or the island who has a huge stock and dries himself in three shipping containers. But they wont divulge his name. This is the guy I would like to find.