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Discussion Forum

how to sell old growth cypress lumber?

oldhand | Posted in General Discussion on April 17, 2016 09:40am

I’ve got about 750 BF of extrodinary cypress lumber that needs a good home. It is old growth lumber 14-18″ wide and 14 to 18′ long, some incredibly tight grained, maybe 6 small knots in the lot. Of course there is a story behind it but short one is the boards have been in storage for 60 years. It was oiriginally bought for boat work which dried up.

I’ve had it for 25 years and finally have owned up to the fact it is way too nice for any project I’ll find. I really doubt there to be a worthy project for it in my home state [AR.] but some where surely there is someone  who appreciates this bad enough to pay for it and haul it off.

I don’t expect to reach a potential buyer from this forum but maybe some of you could suggest some advertising venues that might hit a broader likely market.  Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

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  1. florida | Apr 17, 2016 10:21am | #1

    How about ebay? I can't hink of anywhere else that would get you the exposure the wood deserves. I'd think you'd be looking at $6.00 to $15.00 a BF for nice wood like that.

    1. oldhand | Apr 17, 2016 10:49am | #3

      good idea

      Sometimes it's the obvious I miss. Good suggestion and I will look into that. Also I think you're pretty well on at the price range but if you saw a board you'd rule out the lower end. It is fantastic. Thanks.

  2. DanH | Apr 17, 2016 10:26am | #2

    Cypress is fantastic stuff.  I'm sure it will draw a pretty penny if you can find someone who wants it and appreciates its properties.

    The problem is that it's sufficiently rare that there's not a standing market to speak of, and many are unaware of it's great properties.

    1. oldhand | Apr 17, 2016 10:54am | #4

      yeah..

      I used to buy modern day cypress to make boat/canoe paddles out of. The second growth stuff is great for that but this old growth is a whole 'nother animal. I figure you're right  about the "if you can find some one who appreciates it". Hence the reason for starting the thread. Thanks.

  3. junkhound | Apr 17, 2016 03:00pm | #5

    Your greed is showing ?

    If you have had those boards that long, how about finding some young guys locally who are starting out in making furniture or boats and giving each of them a portion ? 

    There should be a boatbuilding forum or similar you can find some worthy recipients in your area.

    About 20 years ago, I put a notice in keenjunk (a blacksmith site, now defunct) that I had a ton and a half of blacksmith tool to give away. (yep, 3000#).  -- give away as in free

    To separate the true builders from the resellers, I had them all show up at the same time, 11AM on a superbowl sunday.

    The real blacksmiths could spot the 2 resellers who showed up right off, and I told the resellers to just plain leave, they would get nothing.  Everybody else was really happy and thankful.  I reserved the anvils for a shop teacher who was starting a class in forging, he came from 130 miles away.  Met some interesting folks that way also. 

    1. oldhand | Apr 17, 2016 05:13pm | #6

      greedy?

      To ask if my greed is showing is extremely insensitive at best.Despite what you may infer from the genius nature of my posts over

      the years I am a low income guy in one of the poorest areas of

      a poor state. To add to that cheery scenario for the last 7 years my carpentry/custom woodwork business has operated about 1/3

      rd the time. I chose the life so there's no call for violin music  but now I'm kicking into old age and I'm going to have to play this

      carefully to not just totally freakin' starve in retirement.  Good part is I can live pretty good on little money.

      And as for the romantic part about donating it to young guys starting out  in boat building or furniture work also shows your [no

      offense] complete ignorance of the state of the culture and the economy here.   

  4. junkhound | Apr 17, 2016 07:44pm | #7

    golly gee, would not want to be insensitive ....

    anyway, if you have 2/3 time available, etc and already have the cypress, look around and see what type finished products with the cypress sell for on ebay.

    You can reinforce ;your retirement account more with a finished piece of furniture vs. the lumber only ? 

    "cypress furniture' -- first one popped up on ebay was a simple table for $600, looked like about 20 BF of cypress in the $600 table.  Advertise the age and the story, if you can doucment that it was cut from someplace historically significant it will be worth more converted to furniture. 

    Building furniture out of the cypress you ma;y be able to turn it into $30+ BF vs. $10.   

  5. DanH | Apr 17, 2016 10:25pm | #8

    Maybe you should advertise in WoodenBoat Magazine.

    1. oldhand | Apr 18, 2016 10:36am | #9

      yeah..

      I didn't know that mag still existed. Seems they still have a modern version of the old pay by the word classified section that may be promising. I'll check into some more. Thanks.

      Seems to me like the early versions of  FWW and  FHB mags had a  pay by the word classified section in the back, no?

      1. florida | Apr 18, 2016 12:23pm | #10

        I looked on ebay and sorry to say it doesn't look like a good market after all. I looked at 2 or 3 pages of Cypand only 3 or 4 were sold.

        Here's a current retail price list just for fun but of course has little to do with your 60 year air dried wood.

        http://www.aalumber.com/Pages/CypressPriceChart.aspx

        1. oldhand | Apr 18, 2016 06:58pm | #11

          thanks for the review

          I hadn't gotten as far as checking ebay for the OG cypress market yet so thanks for the update.A while back I looked at ebay as a place to sell some of my thick basswood for carving blocks and your review matched what I saw there.

          That 2nd growth cypress price list was very interesting to me. I've bought a fair amount of it directly from a mill for from .25 to .60  cents a foot. Obviously back in the day. I always liked working with it but very little of it had any rot resistance. Seemed to me you could pretty well lock at a board and guess if it would weather or not.

          1. DanH | Apr 18, 2016 08:27pm | #12

            You might want to consider Craig's List.  More local that eBay and, I think, more "real".  But a smaller market.

          2. oldhand | Apr 19, 2016 06:57pm | #13

            I will give it a shot on craig's list no doubt but I don't see much likely hood od selling it in my home state. But ya never know....

            Best likely venue I see so far is at Wood Web classifieds. It seems to reach nation wide and more.

          3. florida | Apr 20, 2016 09:42am | #15

            It certainly hasn't shown any exceptional rot resistance to me, 2nd growth I mean. I built 3 porch swings from cypress about 15 years ago and all 3 have rotted pretty bad. It doesn't have much heartwood at all.

  6. User avater
    coonass | Apr 19, 2016 10:37pm | #14

    Old Hand,

    I live in the land of cypress and have seen some nice stuff over the years. Part of the problem you have is your cypress is what's called yellow cypress. Cypress that grows in a Louisiana or Florida swamp has deep red coloring like OG Long Leaf pine while the stuff that grows on upland soils has more of a yellow pine color. That being said I think you should get in touch with some local cabinet shops where the lighter color is desirable.

    I have a new growth (grobeck) gate I made 30 years ago that has never had any finish on it and is still good.

    KK

    1. oldhand | Apr 20, 2016 03:05pm | #16

      yes and no

      There's some confusion here. The stuff I was buying green at the mills was second growth, light weight and pale but very little of it doesn't spend at least part of the year in water. I suppose old growth Arkansas cypress is rot resistant, no way to know. I live in the Ozark Mts. but parts of Arkansas have some nice swamps. Any old growth that can be had is long gone, that applies to all species here.  

      The OG cypress I'm looking to sell came from southern LA. It is dark in color and some of it is very heavy, almost greasy feeling.   Some of the growth rings are maybe less than 1/64th inch. The man that originally bought it was a neighbor of mine in my boyhood. Once in a while, [ we're talking 1950's] he's fire up the old 2 T. flatbed and head south for a few days and come back with a load of lumber. Seems  like he called it tide water cypress, but I really don't know. . 

       Anyway he made flat bottom river boats for float fishing White River. These 20', narrow, heavy, very shallow draft boats were on a one way trip, down river. Came back on a flat car. You could control one loaded with 2 sports with your paddle but way too heavy to paddle upriver. Meantime some one ran a commisary boat with all the camping gear, he had an outboard usually. When White River was dammed to create Table Rock Lake, neighbor made his version of a lake boat but the aluminum models came along and wooden boat building was done there abouts. Hence some left over lumber.

      And for the record I am a local cabinet shop though that's been mostly on paper since the recession. Thanks for your input, I apologize for rambling.

      1. User avater
        coonass | Apr 21, 2016 09:01pm | #17

        Nice ramble! The stuff you have is probably in the $10 and above range. I got to work with some cypress that a farmer dug out of his soybean field. He had a spot where nothing would grow so he got a backhoe and dug up these cypress logs that had gotten buried when the Mississippi flooded. It was tight grained with hints of green, red and purple in the boards from the mineral content.

        KK

  7. user-5487038 | Apr 22, 2016 07:28pm | #18

    Cypress

    There a guys who specialize in unique cypress, try googling  "sinker cypress"  or something in that realm and you'll get a bunch of hits. Call them and make a deal. Good thing about these guys is.....they have the ability to come get it or arrange transport.

    A easy solution is contact an expert.

  8. oldhand | Apr 23, 2016 09:49am | #19

    o.k.,

    I'm listing all these suggestions and will at some point do a "marketing blitz" .Your suggestion seems obvious but probably I would have overlooked it without the reminder. Thanks!

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