Two lumber questions for you ...

[TarheelTurk]

First sorry I been looking and commenting jus hasn't posted here in a while ... My first question is has anyone had any experience using Cypress for pot calls ? Is it soft like cedar or harder type wood ?

A local guy w/ a saw mill has some ( rough cut ) he is asking $2and some change per board ft. , I don't understand "board foot" so any help is greatly appreciated Thanks ...Jason

[Onpoint]

Cypress is very hard. I climb and trim trees for a living and cypress is so hard that I can't even hardly get my spikes to dig into it.

[RickC]

I've seen a formula somewhere thats used to figure board feet prices. I'll check a couple sites I would have come across it at and post it here.

[RickC]

Found it, I hope.
The one I found im my notes is (T x W x L) ÷ 12 x price

[justturnin]

A board foot is 12"x12"x1" = 144cuin

So a pot call being 4x4x1=16cuin.  Take the 16/144 = .111board feet. So you can get, in theory, 9 pot call blanks out of 1 board foot.

[BOB_HARWELL]

  2" X 8" X 8',,, 2X8 = 16 X 96 = 1536 divided by 144 = 10.6 board feet.

              Bob

[TarheelTurk]

Ok I see now , THANK y'all a bunch, the gentleman quickly tried explaining it on the phone but I couldn't completely get what he was saying, but seeing it written out makes sense, a thanks for letting me know that cypress is that hard , may still try a few to see what it sounds like Thanks again, Jason

[Redfish71]

Cypress is not a very hard wood, it ranks 570 on the janka scale it is a similar to poplar in hardness. It does make a decent pot call, very easy to turn and it is a nice looking wood. You are going to be looking at 4/4 wood from a sawmill which is 1" thick they break it down in 1/4" increments. I don't know where you are in nc but I have been buying mine for $1.35 a bf ( board ft).

Dave

[lightsoutcalls]

I have a cypress box call made by a guy by the name of Chad Griep about 7-8 years ago.  It is a great sounding call.  I've never tried to use climbing spikes on one, but the box call I have seems to be pretty lightweight (soft). 

[whitemarlin]

cypress is a soft wood the janka chart shows it at 570 and cedar is 900. check out this link to see the janka chart. http://tinytimbers.com/janka.htm 
hope that helps

[Onpoint]

I don't understand why it's so hard to spike into.. I had to climb and trim a big cypress Thursday and this thing was hard as a brick... I ended up throwin my rope around a limb above me and pullin myself up with it.. I done a couple oaks that same day and has no problem spiking into them.

[TarheelTurk]

Thanks wendell and everyone and Thanks for the chart , I had seen it before on here and couldn't remember what the name was or where I seen it, I'm in central NC so I'm assuming that's why it's a lil higher here. I'm prolly gonna def try it in a call if I see a decent looking piece, and yeah he did say his stuff was rough cut lumber. I had been out to his place and looked at exactly what he has there yet though.

[TarheelTurk]

My girlfriends dad does tree work also but as far as I'm aware cypress isn't native to my area here in the central part of nc /va border man.