The Forestry Forum

So I normally sell pine by the board foot at .80 cents a bf. Today I received an order for 12" or wider pine but only 1/2" thick. Selling this by the bf is just more work for the same money so I'm curious how others charge for something like this?
Thanks

I would be at $0.64/square foot on that and explain to the customer the downside of something that wide and thin. 

For anything under one inch, I charge as if it was one inch.  One person argued that  sawing 2 inch (vs 1 inch) should be cheaper.  Yeah, it less passes with the mill, but it is twice the weight to stack.  To me, a big concern,  if you re working by yourself. 

   I'm with 6acres. When sawing I charge by the bf and tell the customer anything less than an inch is treated as it were a full inch and a square foot is treated as a bf. I'd use the same policy for selling.

Requests for thin wood make my antennae go up.  Happy to give what the customer wants but like to make sure expectations are met.  In my experience (portable sawing) someone asking for thin rough sawn lumber is usually naive about behavior of wood.   Thinks for example all that happens when wood dries is that it shrinks in thickness just a little. 

So I ask what it is going to be used for and take it from there.  Just making sure there isn't disappointment on their end. 

   Good point about determining the final use plans. Customers often have no idea about wood qualities and idiosyncrasies.

   I had a friend ask for a 1/2" live edge board for a Lichtenberg burning/engraving project so I cut him one Saturday but cut the one next to it a full 1" and took him both of them Sunday and advised him to be sure to get them stickered soon and keep weight on them to help prevent that thin one from curling/cupping on him.

Thanks for the replies and insight!
I'm going to be sure to let the customer know of the downsides of using thin wide boards and I will charge by the square foot instead of bf. I think that's the only way that I can come ahead sawing this.