Probably a specialist hardwood importer/supplier is the best place to go.
As you say, it's a pretty esoteric world, so you've got to do a bit of
reading up on what you want before you get there, and then you may have a
bit of a chance when they ask you questions like whether you want boards
supplied waney edge, etc...

Best thing is to go down to a supplier and have a look around and discuss
requirements with them - I've found them to be quite accomodating in the
past. After walking through the normal sheds and BMs with rows of stacked,
machined softwood there is something quite wholesome about going to a
supplier seeing what are basically trees just sawn through and stacked.
Gets you back in touch with what you're creating stuff from - bit like
difference between seeing a butcher jointing up a carcass and seeing it
stacked in plastic containers on supermarket shelves (apols if you're
veggie - in that case it's like prepared salads versus a greengrocer's
stall!!!).

I'm an omnivore - I know what you mean.


Whereabouts are you?

Southampton - will travel to get good wood / advice


SL Hardwoods in Croydon were good for me when I had a big project underway.
I don't currently have tablesaws, planers, planer/thicknessers, etc (nor
have space for them at the moment) so had to get the timber machined by
them - this is unfortunately a very expensive way to buy hardwood.

We have a B&Q Warehouse just up the road and I got them to cut some ply
wood for me. The service was generally very good and the accuracy was
fantastic (better than 1mm all round even though they claim 5mm). In
fact the only thing that let it down was the guy had trouble
understanding grain direction and size on one small fascia piece - he
first cut it to cm rather than mm even though every measurement was in
mm then, when trying to correct his mistake, he cut it with the grain
running in the wrong direction.

However,
they accepted a cutting list, pointed out where some of the specs needed to
be changed (outside the max widths of commonly available timber of the
species I was after) and then priced the whole lot up & supplied it machined
bang on spec.

They've got me hooked, and I'll be back to them. The Christmas card was the
icing on the cake!



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