The guy who owns/operates it is Gary Chanin, who is possibly the most knowledgeable person I've ever spoken to about wood. He has endless energy, and will talk your ear off if you let him.
Buying wood from Gary is not without frustration however. As you can see, his inventory is far from organized and if you're looking for something specific the usual response is 'Oh yeah, I've got a couple lifts of it, beautiful stuff! But I don't know when I'll be able to get to it'. I asked about doussie once and he pointed to a couple lifts of it wayyyy in the back. He thought he might get to it in a couple months. I know that he has some air-dried domestic pear though, and he also gets lots of really wide planks of mahogany and bubinga.
The other unfortunate thing is his prices, they are the highest you'll find anywhere. He almost has that 'Robert Prince' attitude, where you get the feeling that he's collecting the wood rather than trying to sell it. I was there last week to buy a couple of planks of maple, I had left PJ White empty-handed - digusted at the crap they were trying to sell. Gary charged me $9.70 a board foot! Nice stuff, but twice the price of PJ's. I also overheard him telling a customer that he had a lift of quarter sawn olive, for $70 a board foot. Yikes.
Anyways, if you're looking for something specific or special I'd give him a call, he's always willing to chat.
8 comments:
good god, did you buy anything? how could you not, you would have to be of steel not to walk out of there with something.
how's the fingies?
brought the tools down into the basement over here. decided to paint the bandsaw.
put the jointer together, still need power in the shop though.
hopefully the water will stop coming in with new drainage.
jacques
woah thats some expensive maple! and olive =|
Phew, it's tough to not leave with a truckload. I would've had to re-mortgage my house though.
The fingers are good, out of the bandages and basically healed over. Limited flexibility and feeling, but it's coming.
You should post some pics of your shop!
Nick: I feel like hardwood dealers can set their own prices for more rare exotics like olive, but you're right, running the price up on maple is crazy!
You're a good man for sharing, I wouldn't have said anything.
Well, I couldn't very well kepp ALL the $10 maple to myself!
Merry x-mas Cody!
Hey! Thanks Nick, you too.
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