Compulsive Spending - I can't help it

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Burl Source

Weird Wood Pusher
Joined
Jun 13, 2011
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When it comes down to it, all of you are just a bunch of enablers.
When it comes to cool and unusual wood, I can't help myself.
Just about all the time that is not spent cutting and sanding wood or posting new stuff, gets spent looking for new wood that I can cut and sand and eventually send to you and other knife makers. In the end I get a thrill seeing it used on really nice knives so please keep posting photos.

This is some of the new stuff. When I saw the pieces in the first photo in person I had to buy more. The second package just showed up today. Now I have to finish cutting it into blocks, then off to K&G for stabilizing. This burl is in the same family as Amboyna Burl but it looks like it might turn out more 3 dimensional and flashier. I won't know for sure until it comes back in a month or so from getting stabilized.

If nobody likes it, that is fine with me. That would mean I would get to keep it all. My wife is already trying to get the big piece. I asked what she would do with it and she said she just likes to look at it.

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I know the problem, but being broke helps....

Stefan
 
Your enabling us to enable you!
I appreciate that!
While cutting this I thought the smell was really familiar. Different than what you normally associate with Amboyna burl which has a distinctive scent.
I finally remembered back several years ago I bought some wood from a veneer company in Thailand. This is the same wood that they sold to me as Golden Amboyna. Ends up stabilizing to be a nice amber color with 3 dimensional figure.
 
Dude... All you can do is try to keep it under control! Thats what i do... Not always possible :D
 
Mark, you're one of the coolest addicts I know! By the way, my saya wood came in safe and sound (enabler!!!). I'll post a pic or two soon, and definitely post ice some work is done with them. They're lookers, for sure!
 
Mark, you're one of the coolest addicts I know! By the way, my saya wood came in safe and sound (enabler!!!). I'll post a pic or two soon, and definitely post ice some work is done with them. They're lookers, for sure!
The walnut has some checks on the edges you will need to work around. Other than that it was some decent wood.
I look forward to seeing what you do with the wood.
 
This is a photo of a cut off from the piece with the guitar outline.
Looks like it will be a clean golden color.
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5 more packages showed up today.
4 were from Hawaii. It is tough to tell by these rough cut slabs, but this is about 10 board feet of really, really, really good Koa.
The smaller burl piece is Black Nargusta burl from Central America. This was a chunk I bought just to see if I like the stuff.

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The koa is still wet so when I sand it, the figure barely shows.
It will look a lot better after it is dry and stabilized.

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This is the Black Nargusta Burl. It is one of the central american woods that is generically called ironwood but is nothing like Desert Ironwood.
I am not sure yet if I like it enough to get more. After I get it stabilized I will make my decision.
There have been plenty of different woods that I thought were ho-hum at first but changed my mind after stabilizing and sanding.
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Really like the before and after pics. Beautiful pieces..
 
Really like the before and after pics. Beautiful pieces..
Sometimes it is tough to tell what is there from looking at rough cut pieces.
I have gotten a little better at guessing over the years.
I cringe when I think back on times I passed on wood that I should have bought.
 
The Nargusta stuff looks cool, especially the pieces with variances in colour i.e. the whiter inclusions for lack of proper terminology... as for the first ones they are a bit weird, almost look like slabs of stones. Bugger, the more I look at them the more they appeal to me though... I like'em!
 
Still haven't decided whether I should love you for spreading the beauty of koa to the world or hate you for plundering the islands ;)

Stefan
 
Still haven't decided whether I should love you for spreading the beauty of koa to the world or hate you for plundering the islands ;)
Stefan
I am just saving the Koa from ending up as ukeleles and guitars.

The wife and I did a road trip yesterday following a rumor about a big slab of old growth lace Redwood burl.
The story behind the slab was that the guy who had it got married 38 years ago.
As a wedding gift the father in law gave them his house and moved into a smaller place because he was widowed and retired.
In the basement he had left a big slab of redwood.
Before he had retired about 10 years earlier he had worked as a logger.
He had cut the slab years earlier intending to make a table.
I told the guy with the wood that it was worth more than he wanted for it.
He said that he had an idea what it was really worth but he felt I would put it to good use.
It wasn't cheap but in my eyes still a bargain.
The slab is about 7 foot by 3 foot and is all lace.
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On our way back I stopped by another guy's place. He used to have a wholesale/retail roadside redwood business but the city changed the zoning and shut him down. He had a couple pieces he had set aside for me a while back. Said he was wondering if I was ever coming by again because it had been over a year since I had seen him last.
The piece on the right is some of the really dense redwood burl.
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I started cutting up the big Redwood slab.
These first ones are all oversized (about 2&1/2" wide).
Once stabilized this will be some really nice burl.
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I started cutting up the big Redwood slab.
These first ones are all oversized (about 2&1/2" wide).
Once stabilized this will be some really nice burl.
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even though I am more a sucker for the darker woods...those 2 in the middle are some nice ones :thumbsup:
 
The 2 in the middle were sanded to 120 grit and sprayed with a light coat of lacquer so I could get a better look. The others are rough cut.
After they get stabilized they will all be a couple shades darker than the middle ones and the figure will show a good metallic flash.
 
Throughout the past several months some of the Koa suppliers are wanting $200 to $300 a board foot for good figured Koa.
You never even see the really good stuff. The loggers tend to keep it stashed until they really need the money.
Then, you don't haggle. You just pay what they ask and say thank you.

This is from the batch that I am drying. Looks like it will be pretty good stuff.
It might not look like much now because it is not dry and only sanded to 120 grit.
But when it gets stabilized and sanded finer, that is when the figure really stands out.

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Doesn't come much better than that.

Stefan
 
Mark, I like the Black Nargusta Burl. Hope it turns out to your liking.wouldn't mind adding that to my collection .
 
Doesn't come much better than that.
Stefan
The guy I bought it from said that they keep this stuff hidden from the locals.

Mark, I like the Black Nargusta Burl. Hope it turns out to your liking.wouldn't mind adding that to my collection .
Fran, You are one of the reasons I bought the Nargusta.
It is about ready to go to K&G for stabilizing. I will send you a note in about a month when it comes back.
 
This should be arriving from Morocco in a couple weeks.
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