I was trolling Craigslist the other day and ran across this ad for reclaimed river wood. This guy in SC recovers tress that have been sunk in the rivers down there for centuries and then he mills them and kiln dry's them for sale. He has some beautiful slabs of cypress that i thought some of you might be interested in see/buying. I emailed him and here is his reply. Not sure how good the price is but it sounds pretty reasonable to me and he can ship the slabs to you as well.
Our slabs are $7.50 per board foot green and $8.50 dried. The slabs you viewed are 14' long x 32" wide x 2-3" thick. The 2" thick slabs are About $550 green and under $650 dried. The 3" thick are $850 green and about $970 dried. We are cutting more slabs every week with larger logs.
I recover these logs from the bottom of rivers and lakes in South Carolina. These tree's don't grow anymore except in a few State and National parks. All of our logs were ax-cut well over a hundreds years ago. Each log of this size grew for no less then 500 years before they were cut. Some of our logs are over a thousand years old and with the ago comes the beauty.
Michael Mayo
Senior IT Support Engineer
Soft Designs Inc. albiemanmike@gmail.com
1960's SS Mark VII, 1954 Greenie, 1983 Mark V, Jointer, Bandsaw, Jigsaw, Dewalt Slider, Delta Super 10, Delta 8" Grinder, Craftsman compressor, Drill Doctor, Kreg PH Jig, Bosch Jigsaw, Craftsman Router and Table...........and adding more all the time....
If I am not mistaken, Norm Abrams (or maybe the 'This Old House' guys) did a piece about this practice. My sister lives in mid-Ontario, beside a man-made lake (behind a dam), and they regularly pull up old trees that were cut and left a long time ago..
Derek Darling
Surrey, B.C. Canada
10ERs, other stuff, you know.
And then there's that 50000 year old wood from New Zealand bogs.
SS 500(09/1980), DC3300, jointer, bandsaw, belt sander, Strip Sander, drum sanders,molder, dado, biscuit joiner, universal lathe tool rest, Oneway talon chuck, router bits & chucks and a De Walt 735 planer,a #5,#6, block planes. ALL in a 100 square foot shop. .
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Bob
Then again a few years ago my son and I were picking up a tractor for a friend and while we were there the seller gave us a quick tour of the horse barn he was building. Parked in it under roof was a big trailer load of recently sawed cypress lumber that he had hauled back from somewhere in Kentucky near where he used to live. It was very nice stuff but not kiln dried or even air dried for very long (horses wouldn't care). He said that it only cost him .32 cents a board foot...
Don't over look little country sawmills tucked back in the woods. Even with high gas prices you can drive quite a ways for the difference of several dollars a board foot...
I am constantly surprised at how expensive wood is often priced at one place compared to how it may be priced 80 to 100 miles away. Gas isn't "that" high. Heck, we may drive 300 miles on a Sunday drive just to take pictures or go stomp around in old ancestral graveyards.
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farmer
Francis Robinson
I did not equip with Shopsmiths in spite of the setups but because of them.
1 1988 - Mark V 510 (bought new), 4 Poly vee 1 1/8th HP Mark V's, Mark VII, 1 Mark V Mini, 1 Frankensmith, 1 10-ER, 1 Mark V Push-me-Pull-me Drillpress, SS bandsaw, belt sander, jointer, jigsaw, shaper attach, mortising attach, TS-3650 Rigid tablesaw, RAS, 6" long bed jointer, Foley/Belsaw Planer/molder/ripsaw, 1" sander, oscillating spindle/belt sander, Scroll saw, Woodmizer sawmill
I don't know if it is just the picture or not but the heart at the closest end seems it may be a little pecky. That is the term used for Pecky Cypress when it has worm holes it in. The worms bore about 3/8-1/2 diameter holes and they never run straight for more an a few inches.
Cypress and Pecky cypress is available here in Florida.
I had some Pecky Cypress in the house as accent walls, they drove the termite man crazy every new guy would go nuts checking for termites in this bug eaten wall.
My question are you able to mill/handle slabs this large? What would you do with them. 30 years ago cypress knee slabs were the rage but I had two I nearly had to give away to get out of my shop.
I took the Pecky down from accent walls after them being there 30 years (wife said we needed a change). I couldn't give the boards away. Took them to the dump where I ran into an old friend that took them. I don't know what he ever did with them.
Cypress has a dark heart and the sapwood is light. When dried and with a little age the sap wood look almost like Southern Yellow pine with very little interesting grain. The heart wood when dried and aged gets dark like cherry but again with little interesting grain.
Most cypress was cut for barn siding, sub flooring, bender boards and such. Northern Florida cypress usually ends up as paper.
One of those slabs would make a great table top BUT it would be a problem milling it. Most would plane it as smooth as possible and then use acyrlic epoxy for thick shiney top. It would weigh a ton.
Before you buy ask the guy who some of his purchasers were it might give you a real good idea of how people are using the wood. My guess would be most are home hobbiest that end up with 14ft 32inch wide super picnic table or one up designers that had a particular use in mind.
Oh cypress makes really nice signs but you would have to cut the slabs into thinner slabs for that.
Price wise the guy is asking top buck but that is because the slabs are so thick and wide. Cypress normally sells for near or less than clear white pine. All the fasica on my house is cypress, with cypress ply soffits.
robinson46176 wrote:Then again a few years ago my son and I were picking up a tractor for a friend and while we were there the seller gave us a quick tour of the horse barn he was building. Parked in it under roof was a big trailer load of recently sawed cypress lumber that he had hauled back from somewhere in Kentucky near where he used to live. It was very nice stuff but not kiln dried or even air dried for very long (horses wouldn't care). He said that it only cost him .32 cents a board foot...
Don't over look little country sawmills tucked back in the woods. Even with high gas prices you can drive quite a ways for the difference of several dollars a board foot...
I am constantly surprised at how expensive wood is often priced at one place compared to how it may be priced 80 to 100 miles away. Gas isn't "that" high. Heck, we may drive 300 miles on a Sunday drive just to take pictures or go stomp around in old ancestral graveyards.
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I don't suppose you know where in KY!:D
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Goldie(Bought New SN 377425)/4" jointer/6" beltsander/12" planer/stripsander/bandsaw/powerstation /Scroll saw/Jig saw /Craftsman 10" ras/Craftsman 6" thicknessplaner/ Dayton10"tablesaw(restoredfromneighborstrashpile)/ Mark VII restoration in 'progress'/ 10E[/size](SN E3779) restoration in progress, a 510 on the back burner and a growing pile of items to be eventually returned to useful life. - aka Red Grange
JPG40504 wrote:I don't suppose you know where in KY!:D
No but I do know where the guy's house is. It isn't all that far from me. I was past it just recently and gave thought to stopping to ask him (nice guy) but I have waaay too many irons in the fire right now and too much money going out right at Christmas time.
It sticks in my head that he said around Somerset but I cannot be sure.
I have enough old cottonwood to cut to keep me busy sawing much of my available time next year. That and some ash and hack-berry. I want much of the cottonwood for horse stalls etc. They don't like the flavor of it very much and don't crib on it as bad. It also doesn't make bad rustic siding if you keep some preservative stain or paint on it. It doesn't plane too bad but if you sand it you need about 6 dust collectors and several dust masks.
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farmer
Francis Robinson
I did not equip with Shopsmiths in spite of the setups but because of them.
1 1988 - Mark V 510 (bought new), 4 Poly vee 1 1/8th HP Mark V's, Mark VII, 1 Mark V Mini, 1 Frankensmith, 1 10-ER, 1 Mark V Push-me-Pull-me Drillpress, SS bandsaw, belt sander, jointer, jigsaw, shaper attach, mortising attach, TS-3650 Rigid tablesaw, RAS, 6" long bed jointer, Foley/Belsaw Planer/molder/ripsaw, 1" sander, oscillating spindle/belt sander, Scroll saw, Woodmizer sawmill
robinson46176 wrote:No but I do know where the guy's house is. It isn't all that far from me. I was past it just recently and gave thought to stopping to ask him (nice guy) but I have waaay too many irons in the fire right now and too much money going out right at Christmas time.
It sticks in my head that he said around Somerset but I cannot be sure.
I have enough old cottonwood to cut to keep me busy sawing much of my available time next year. That and some ash and hack-berry. I want much of the cottonwood for horse stalls etc. They don't like the flavor of it very much and don't crib on it as bad. It also doesn't make bad rustic siding if you keep some preservative stain or paint on it. It doesn't plane too bad but if you sand it you need about 6 dust collectors and several dust masks.
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I would have guessed a bit further east. Not all that serious a question, but if the opportunity presents itself ask him. I may go 'hunting' next year. I ran across some white oak WIDE boards at a garage sale(being used as a table) and asked the guy where it came from. The next county west of me. During the following conversation, it came out he had a 510 under wraps. The clue was a miter pro on the shelf. Small world indeed!;)
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Goldie(Bought New SN 377425)/4" jointer/6" beltsander/12" planer/stripsander/bandsaw/powerstation /Scroll saw/Jig saw /Craftsman 10" ras/Craftsman 6" thicknessplaner/ Dayton10"tablesaw(restoredfromneighborstrashpile)/ Mark VII restoration in 'progress'/ 10E[/size](SN E3779) restoration in progress, a 510 on the back burner and a growing pile of items to be eventually returned to useful life. - aka Red Grange
Ed in Tampa wrote:One of those slabs would make a great table top BUT it would be a problem milling it. Most would plane it as smooth as possible and then use acyrlic epoxy for thick shiney top. It would weigh a ton.
That would be my interest. Making a nice table out of one of the slabs. It would be a bit of a pain to work something so large but the end result would be worth the effort I think.
Michael Mayo
Senior IT Support Engineer
Soft Designs Inc. albiemanmike@gmail.com
1960's SS Mark VII, 1954 Greenie, 1983 Mark V, Jointer, Bandsaw, Jigsaw, Dewalt Slider, Delta Super 10, Delta 8" Grinder, Craftsman compressor, Drill Doctor, Kreg PH Jig, Bosch Jigsaw, Craftsman Router and Table...........and adding more all the time....
wannabewoodworker wrote:That would be my interest. Making a nice table out of one of the slabs. It would be a bit of a pain to work something so large but the end result would be worth the effort I think.
My fear would be splitting. If did use one for a table I would encase the whole thing in acrylic epoxy (totally encased). On the top I would pour the epoxy and then sand it to 600 or 800 grit then I would put a final thin coat of epoxy.
