Building shit is expensive!

[Kenyth]

I've built functional things, such as a frame for the bed of my truck, a workbench, etc. out of 2X4's. I don't use treated lumber, usually. Probably should have with the truck bed frame. Anyways, it wasn't so much that the wood was expensive (I can buy a 2X4X96" for $1.67 here), but the hardware - I think I paid a dollar a bold the last time I put it together. For me, that is where the expense lies.

When I'm building furniture or other household goods, I usually use oak. In part because I don't really know 100% what the finished product is going to look like. I have used black walnut, I have also used birch. For carving, I actually prefer oak. That gets expensive, but I usually don't have tons of that stuff around, either. AND I'm not building a fence out of the stuff.

Another option I've been enjoying since moving back to the south are going around collecting fallen wood, trees in the aftermath of a storm. I picked up some nice logs after a storm took down a few big trees in the past month or so. I realize I need to let that stuff dry out for a while, but am not really sure how long. They are really nice blocks, and I know I want to carve a bowl out of one, but am kind of at a loss as to where to go from here.

Drying big logs can take a long time IIRC. There was a show on about milling your own lumber once. You strip the bark and then let it sit on a dry level surface for up to a year depending on the wood and conditions. Then, you mill it and let the rough boards dry some more. Then, you plane the boards.

Outside conditions will deteriorate untreated lumber very quickly. Treated lumber is a little bit less than twice as expensive as untreated. You're correct about hardware though. The hinges were more than a third of the cost of the purchase.