Many members don't worry about what they're paying for a wood blank or a board, as long as it looks good and it's within their budget. If that's the case with you, that's your prerogative and there's nothing wrong with it; sellers love you. Still others see a blank of wood that has tons of figure and sizzle or eyes and automatically assume the price must be in line with what is selling on ebay or surely someone on WB would say something, but we don't like to price someone else's wood even if we think the price is ridiculous. And let's face it, like it or hate it eBay is a major market maker.
The biggest issue I have with "over-priced" wood is this: There's a lot of new members many of whom are getting into call making and turning in general, and they have no idea what a fair or reasonable price is for a blank. And frankly it's hard to establish sometimes. So for those that at least want to know what they're paying per BF for a blank or a board, you can use this formula to figure it out and compare to any other blank of the same species/quality no matter the size. This doesn't take into account any variable such as premiuims added for rarity in size alone. For example, curly koa is expensive even in pen blank sizes, but larger pieces demand an additional premium on top of the BF price - and that's just one variable. Examples are the best way to learn so let's look at a typical turning blank:
View attachment 106726
a=7 7⁄8
b=27⁄8
c=7 7⁄8
The formula for finding the board feet in a square or rectangle is l x w x h in inches ÷ 144 or l x w x h in feet ÷ 12. Fractions must be converted to decimals. Thus, 7.875 X 7.875 X 2.875 = 178.29/144 = 1.238125BF If the seller is charging $35 for the blank then the last step in finding the $BF is to divide the BF into the price of the blank.
35/1.238125= $28.268BF
Is the blank worth over $28BF? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't - you have to decide. But at least now you know you have a low water gauge with which to measure the tide so you don't run aground, or a high water gauge so you don't go over the falls.
Burls: Even the dimension blanks you're eyeing on that auction site were bought and resold by the pound because they started life as part of an odd geometric shape, the board feet of which was nearly impossible to quantify easily. It can be done right down to the exact square inch believe it or not, but it takes too much time and is far too laborious when you're buying a container of them and no one has the time to do that. In addition to that, over time as these burls sit on shelves and in crates in storage and begin to dry, a MC adjustment must be added if they're sold at less weight than when they were bought. The reason for this is obvious. If I paid $5 lb for a 10 pound cap, I paid $50 for it. If I sell it for $10 lb immediately I doubled my money. If I sell it for $10 lb 2 years later but it weighs 30% less than when I bought it, I might not be making enough profit to stay afloat unless I add the weight loss charge. Who says money doesn't evaporate into thin air?
In addition to these variable, exotic burls are purchased by the KG which must be converted into pounds if resold to Americans and of course this is not difficult, but it's something to be aware of if you ever buy burls in any large quantity to resell and you don't want to lose your shirt. For years I thought buying and selling burl by the pound was just a way for burl purveyors to make money by obscuring the buyer's ability to convert it into BF. but this is not the case. Buying and selling burl by the kg/pound is a very accurate method once you learn the ropes and in fact, it's the only accurate and feasible way to do it on any large scale.
Hopefully this article will help you get a better grasp on what you're paying for that chunk of woody love. Don't be afraid to ask the seller to negotiate on the price if you think he is not being fair. "No, I'm sorry I just don't have the room" never killed anyone. But "Sure, I can do that!" is always a nice surprise.
So I took Kevin's example and placed into a spreadsheet app that you can use...If your like me and you do not like math we now have help! Besides marrying an accountant I also learned how to use excel. This will work with both fraction and decimal. If you find any problems let me know....happy calculating
