Blue Pine

[troy_curtis]

I am slowly working on my first intarsia project. Most the buildings are complete, the land is all finished. I took the advice of many of you and decided to make the water with blue pine. I found 2 sites that sell it. Ordered a board from each. Just got them both. I will be posting some thoughts on both these companies, sharing how easy/hard they were to order from, a price comparison, quality of product, and other personal thoughts. One board came from Ocooch Hardwoods and the other was from The Handsome Woodman. I hope that my review of both these companies help other newbies like me when it comes to buying blue pine.

[troy_curtis]

The first 2 pictures are the Handsome Woodman Board. It was 3 feet long. Most the board had some very nice bluish/gray streaks in it. The nice thing about this board is I got to view it before I bought it. On their website thehandsomewoodman.com you can look at the individual boards and then select to buy them. If you notice in the pictures this board does have a few knots in the wood. Also notice that there is a big section of natural pine coloration. I picked this board mainly because I knew I will be cutting it up for intarsia work. My hope was that it would have big enough areas of the bluish/gray to meet my needs. I am not a bit disappointed with my selection. My only frustration with this company was their ordering process was a bit slow. Once you pice the wood they dont bill you for it until they have priced the shipping fee. Once they do that they email you the total price and you can then set up a payment. I called them and made my payment over the phone. The cost for the wood was a bit higher than Ocooch price. I paid $22.21 for the wood and shipping cost. Then again, the wood was a foot longer than the other one.

[troy_curtis]

The bottom picture was from Ocooch Hardwoods. http://ocoochhardwoods.com/ This piece of wood was selected by size and thickness, but sight unseen. I was pretty nervous ordering the wood without actually seeing what the board would look like. When I first opened the package I thought I had really messed up. The first side I saw was mostly regular pine colored wood with a few gray streaks in it. Then I turned the wood over and saw what you see in the photo. This piece of wood is pretty solid for its bluish/gray color. It was $18 for the wood and shipping. Of the two companies I will probably buy mostly from this one for the reason that it was pretty simple to select and to make the order. On the order form was a place to put comments. I told them what I needed and feel they met that need. I will still use the Handsome Woodman browsing their selections for that piece of wood that looks good. Overall, I am happy with both companies....now I am off from here to go do some cutting.