Prices of wood

[northie66]

When you are into intarsia, is it expensive because of the different types of wood?  Seems like it would be.

[daneklund]

Hi Janet
If you have to buy a lot of an exotic, yes it can get expensive.  BUT, the two places here that I get from will just cut off what you want as long as it leaves the board at least 4' long.  You typically do not use very much wood for a project either.  Judy Gale Roberts uses primarily western red cedar because the colors range from very dark to very light.  I can not find much of a selection of the western red cedar here so I elected to start using other woods for the colors.  Start with some of your local hardwoods available and try those first.  Cheers.

[dgman]

Janet, It doesn't have to be. Judy Gale Roberts started off using mostly western red ceder. There are many shades in wrc from very light to very dark. You can also use domestic hardwoods like maple, walnut, cherry and oak. Also pine and poplar.
So it does not have to be expensive.

[campasano]

Janet, if you have a cabinet maker near you, ask them for their scrap pieces. I had one near my home and he was happy to give me his scrap pieces. Unfortunately he relocated to a different state but the good thing is that he gave me his entire inventory of wood, which filled up the bed of my pick-up truck.I will not have to buy wood for a long time. I got some oak, walnut, cedar,poplar, birch, ash and other species.

Mike

[Intarsia92]

A good source of wood, if you want to use Cedar, is Dog Eared fence boards for places like Home Depot or Lowes. You can usually find it in all the various shades of brown. Poplar is another reasonable price wood, I use a lot.

[pieter]

Janet, I ussually look at what my local wood working store has in stock, when ever I get a chance to get there and see if I may be able to use.  Most of the time I just buy one board foot, and as long as there is at least 4' left, they will cut it off for me.  That way I do not spend a lot and only periodically.  In the mean time I use the easily local woods, poplar, redoak, cedar, pine, etc.  I have as much fun looking for "that" wood as I do working it to make the project.

Pieter

[heiko rettberg]

Hi Janet,

for your first intasia projekt you can take Pine and stain it. It is not expensive, and looks good.

Happy cutting

Heiko

[wdkits1]

Hi Janet
You don't have to use expensive exotics to do intarsia. but for me that is one of the most appealing parts of the whole intarsia process. Yes, many of the woods that I use are very expensive( example--$60.00 bf for ebony) but when I create my commissioned intarsia projects  my clients expect that the woods that I use are natural color( not stained, painted or dyed. The same goes for the Intarsia project kits that I have produced since 1992. which I am sure have introduced many folks to  Natural colored intarsia art (over 15,000 kits so far).  When first learning intarsia it is  permissible to use cheaper woods but you will soon find out that woods like red cedar and pine simply do not hold their color over the long haul. I ran an article in issue 34 of Scrollsaw Woodworks and Crafts that has a chart which shows many of the woods that I use for my Intarsia.
 http://www.scrollsawer.com/techniques/selecting-intarsia-wood.html
.
 I am constantly searching for new woods to use in my projects and feel that this is just part of  doing business and creating the best possible product.