How to Shop a Halloween Spooktacular Sale Smartly

A wood sale can turn out to be akin to a treasure hunt. With slender stock boards, dramatic grain droptops, burls and blanks all on discount, it is very easy to load your cart with discounted-looking pieces and leave them collecting dust on the shelves. The exotic woods sale of Exotic Wood Zone takes place from October 26 to November 1 and the discounts offered for selected wooden items is 60%. This guide helps you figure out how to use the wood categories to buy useful wood.

To shop the Halloween wood sale wisely, first consider your project needs, not the sale price. Each of your projects should be assigned to an appropriate sale category, with exotic seconds if appearance defects won’t matter; thin stock lumber for inlay work, boxes, and smaller woodworking projects; droptops, guitar sets and body blanks for guitars; lumber and cutting board blanks for boards and furniture; and turning, bowl, pen and knife blanks for lathe and bench. Make sure the dimensions and pictures of the actual item that you want to buy are correct, get your practice material through Dollar Deals, and spend $99 or more for a chance to win the free mystery gift until November 1.

What the Halloween Spooktacular Sale Includes

There is a small number of deal categories in which all deals can be easily put for the sake of convenient planning once you understand the purpose of every category.

• Blanks: Bowl Blanks, Turning Blanks, and Pen & Knife Blanks.
• Instrument wood: Guitar Sets, Fingerboards, Body Blanks, and Bold Grain Guitar Droptops.
• Lumber: Lumbers, Cutting Board Blanks, and Thin Stock Lumbers.
• Value and showpiece picks: Exotic Seconds Wood, Dollar Deals, Halloween Steal Deals, and Australian Burls.

Every offer runs from October 26 to November 1, and orders of $99 or more come with a free mystery gift. Discounts reach up to 65% off on categories such as Guitar Sets and Exotic Seconds Wood, and the Halloween Steal Deals go up to 60% off. The table below shows each category’s top discount and what it is best for.

Start With a Project List, Not the Discount

The most common error people make during the sale week is purchasing items simply because the price seems attractive to them. A more productive approach involves writing down a brief list prior to opening the sale website: the projects to be constructed in the following months, their desired sizes, and the type of wood needed. The list will allow you to easily determine if a particular sales category is relevant or not, and proceed without hesitation.

Thin Stock Lumbers: Small Boards, Big Range

Thin stock is lumber cut to slim thicknesses for detailed work, and Thin Stock Lumbers are up to 43% off in this sale. Exotic Wood Zone’s thin dimensional lumber collection covers boards from 1/8" to 1/2", is kiln-dried and surfaced for consistent thickness, and includes species such as Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Padauk and Sapele. Typical uses include boxes, inlays, decorative banding and small instrument parts.

In purchasing thin wood stock, the first things to check are width and length, before considering thickness. A board of proper thickness that is just one-half inch narrower than your template is not a deal. Purchasing several thicknesses of the same type of wood will allow you to try out a procedure before applying it on your final wood piece.

Lumbers and Cutting Board Blanks: Size Your Stock to the Build

Lumber (25% discount available) and cutting board blanks (30% discount available) are the stars of this sale. You can use lumber for furniture components, boxes, and large projects. Cutting board blanks are cut according to the board's size, so you need to measure your final product and compare the result with the item's description on the web. Be sure to include some extra thickness and length for flattening and trimming, as the board that fits perfectly in terms of size doesn't have a margin for error.

For lumber, you will also need to choose the thickness. Hardwoods are usually sold by quarters of an inch, meaning that 4/4 would be about an inch and 8/4 two inches before surface planing. Choose the thickness depending on the use of the material and not on which option sounds more economical. Check the listing for exact specifications.

Instrument Wood: Droptops, Guitar Sets, Body Blanks and Fingerboards

Droptops are thin figured panels glued to the top of solid-body guitars just for aesthetics, and these Bold Grain Guitar Droptops are available at a discount of up to 60%. Titles include length, width, and thickness, so make sure the sizes fit your template before worrying about the appearance.

For sets of guitars (up to 65% off), fingerboards (up to 50% off), and body blanks (up to 30% off), start with checking if the sizes fit, and only then pick the species and appearance. For a body blank, use your template to see if there's enough wood for the shape, and some additional wood for joints and trims. Fingerboards will depend on whether you need a slotted or unslotted fingerboard.

Blanks for the Lathe and Bench

The sale covers bowl blanks (up to 47% off), turning blanks (up to 50% off), and pen and knife blanks (up to 63% off) for the lathe and bench. Measure your finished project and add margin for waste, truing and sanding before you pick a size. Check that the blank fits your lathe’s capacity or your tool setup, and read the product page for drying details. If you will not start a project right away, sealing end grain helps reduce checking while the blank waits on your shelf.

Australian Burls and Halloween Steal Deals: Buy for Character

Being wild by nature, Burl grain is what makes such attractive bowls, pens, and decorative pieces. It also means that the items made from this wood are unique and may even have voids, bark inclusions, or small cracks. Take a careful look at the pictures of the exact item and choose the one whose design you could be proud of. Australian Burls are up to 40% off and the Halloween Steal Deals go up to 60% off, so both are good places to look for showpiece buys.

Dollar Deals: Cheap Wood for Practice and Testing

Dollar Deals start at just $1 and are best utilized as practice wood. You can use them to test out a species that you have not used before, see how a certain finish will react, set up a jig, or learn a particular joint before attempting on better wood.

Exotic Seconds Wood: Imperfect on Purpose

Seconds are pieces with small natural flaws, and Exotic Seconds Wood is up to 65% off in this sale. According to the Exotic Wood Zone, the second cut wood is wood that can contain color variation, knots or deformed grain, but will still retain all the strength, workability, and tonal quality needed for high-end woodworking. They therefore represent a good investment when you are going to remove the defect, cover it, incorporate it into the design or hide it in your build.

Take extra care when the imperfection is situated in an area of importance. In case of a guitar, for instance, it is advisable to inspect well the knots or grain distortions in the vicinity of a neck joint and bridge area before making the decision to purchase. Look at the pictures, measure the length of the clear piece of the wood and decide where exactly it comes from.

A Simple 6-Step Plan for Sale Week

1. List your projects. Note the finished size and the species for each one.
2. Match projects to sale categories. Use the table above to decide where each one belongs.
3. Read the dimensions. Compare length, width and thickness against your templates and tools.
4. Study the photos. For burls, seconds and figured tops, judge the exact piece shown.
5. Add test material. Pick a few low-cost pieces to practise on.
6. Order before November 1. Allow time for processing and shipping so the wood arrives when you are ready to build.

Common Sale Mistakes to Avoid

• Buying a species you have no plan for just because it is marked down.
• Ignoring thickness or width and discovering the board is too small at the bench.
• Using a second with a flaw in a structural area without checking it first.
• Skipping the photos on burls and figured tops, where every piece differs.
• Waiting until the last day and missing the pieces you wanted most.

Final Thoughts

Good preparation goes hand-in-hand with a good wood sale. Learn your projects, choose your category wisely, verify your measurements and pictures, make use of the inexpensive prices as part of your training, and you will end the week with woods you cannot wait to start building with rather than a bunch of purchases you impulsively bought. The Halloween Spooktacular Sale runs until November 1, so check out the categories on the Exotic Wood Zone, fill up your shopping cart based on your next projects, and grab your free gift with an order of $99 or more.