# Need a better blank source (wood)



## jgourlay (Feb 23, 2014)

All,

I'm just frustrated.  I prefer turning amboyna burl and snake wood to make Statesman and Majestic pens, and I just can't find blanks.

Either they aren't the fantastic, "curly burly exhibition grade with sap" i"m looking for, but they are big enough.  Or, they look great, but they're just not big enough to reliably make these big pens.  I'm having trouble with both blank splitting while drilling---yes I take slow.  More often, there's just enough runout and imperfection in drilling setup that there is zero extra 'meat' left and so the barrel ends having to be completely straight with no interesting curve.

I need 7/8 or 1" blanks in the top grade material, but can find it.  Help!


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## ed4copies (Feb 23, 2014)

Search for the whole burl.  Buy it by the pound and cut it the way you like. (Wet burl is heavy)

This is god-awful expensive--there will be LOTS of waste.  But, when you want the best, money has to become secondary. 

Oh, and look for wet---great burls sell first---you want dry, ready to turn, you get what nobody bought wet.

FWIW,
Ed


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## Janster (Feb 23, 2014)

....I have great finds at        
sdlmbutler@yahoo.com           Scott will cut to your desired dimensions


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## Jim Burr (Feb 23, 2014)

Remember Joe...Amboyna is a banned export...you get what people have and as it dwindles...the price is crazy!!


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## Wooden_Pen_Turner_11 (Feb 23, 2014)

I've also dealt with Scott and Lynn. In one instance, they had just what I was looking for. In the other, they found it for me! Great people and great prices.


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## robutacion (Feb 23, 2014)

ed4copies said:


> Search for the whole burl.  Buy it by the pound and cut it the way you like. (Wet burl is heavy)
> 
> This is god-awful expensive--there will be LOTS of waste.  But, when you want the best, money has to become secondary.
> 
> ...



Wow, great piece of advice Ed, something that most people never though about but, is a very accurate truth, indeed...!

This is obviously a fact, with the more commercial type business, while the "smaller guys" tend to preserve the wet wood (burl or not) until is condition is more workable.  

There is no doubt that, 99% of pen turners in particular, are only interested in dry wood, something that they can turn as soon as they get it, and that can become a habit that can only cost them good money but also a habit that will endup a disaster with some blanks, as they believe that, everything they buy is dry, ready to go and then, the wood show them different and pens are spoiled...!

There is just not possible to expect big companies to maintain the green woods in storage until they are dry sufficiently for sale, in the old days yes, that was exactly how it was done but not in our days where, woods and burls species with high demand are bough green for any cost by people that have the conditions, money and time, to wait a few years to allow the woods to dry, before they are used in their work.

The mentality is that, and as Ed mentioned, unless they buy it green from the the woods/burls first sale/available to the public, they get nothing of exception interest.  In fact, some people went a step further and contracted the burl hunters to collect the burls for them, exclusively so, only what they don't want, goes on sale...!

Is just the way it is, the higher the price "people" put on some woods and burls heads, the more these things will happen, as money talks...!

On the other hand, there are lots of small guys out there that, have the most amazing woods and even some burls that you never saw in the "commercial" environment, they are sourced locally by themselves as "treasures" and sold in a very small scale to a very limited amount of people that can normally get, the blanks/woods cut to specific sizes/by request, and for a much fairer prices, in my view...!

Go on eBay, look around and ask question to the vendors there, they not always list everything they have, and many of them actually buy some woods they don't have, as some sort of a "wood collection", a very tinny one on that, no one has ever completed a wood collection, and I met very old people that started young, died of very old age and admitted that, they only touched the surface, with the thousands of samples they gathered in their life time.  If you're lucky, they make have what you are looking for, as "excess samples"...!
If you are looking for something specific, ask them if they have it, it may surprise you what the answers will be...!

Good luck,:wink::biggrin:

Cheers
George


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## yorkie (Feb 23, 2014)

Not sure how helpful I'm going to be with this, might drive you more nuts.  

Anyway, I often turn full sized Satesmans and a lot of the time have to settle for 5/8 blanks, because of the type of wood I'm looking for and need it stabilized/dyed etc.  Anyway, I am successful making full sized Statesmans with 5/8 blanks, that are notoriously brittle, about 90% of the time.  

Most people might disagree that you need this stuff but it does make a difference.  I use a Delta 18-900 drill press with 6" quill travel.  It's heavy, solid and unflappable.  I also use spiral fluted bits and step drill in two or three sized bits to the full size I need.  I often have only 1/8 pad!  BTW, I drill at 1460rpms.  Hit dead center on the first hole and know when you're about to exit so the blank doesn't blow.

Not sure if that helps, but it's how I do it.





jgourlay said:


> All,
> 
> I'm just frustrated.  I prefer turning amboyna burl and snake wood to make Statesman and Majestic pens, and I just can't find blanks.
> 
> ...


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## jgourlay (Feb 24, 2014)

Yorkie,

So, I'd like to be able to emulate.  I have a delta drill press that's out .007" @ 3"--lots of wobble.  New DP isn't in the budget. :frown:

That runout would maybe be okay, except the "hit dead center" problem.  How are you doing this?  How are you even defining this?

The blanks I have to work with are:

1.  Not completely straight.
2.  With two ends that are neither the same size nor shape.  For example, one end my be a 3/4" x 11/16" rectangle on end, and a trazezoid on the other--and only one end might be 'square' to imaginary drill axis.
3.  From the description above, you can infer that none of the edges are parallel to the imaginary axis of what will become the hole.
4.  Thus, while the blank is 'big' enough, there is isn't any good way I can see to define "straight", "center", etc.

How should I deal with this?

When I start with a piece of wood large enough that I can get all square without risking finger loss (I have no table saw), I do this on the lathe.  Say I'm making a pepper mill.  I'll start with a 2.5" x 2.5" x 12" blank, joint, thickness, and crosscut.  Then I put the blank in the lathe chuck and bore the hole and that turns out perfectly.

Has not, however, worked well for me with pen blanks for the same reason that chucking a blank into a drill press vise doesn't work:  there are no parallel and plumb faces with edges parallel to the spindle axis that the chuck and index on.  

It has gotten a lot better since I got a 37/64" brad point bit.  I no longer blow out bits.  And I can work with 5/8" blanks in straight grained species:  cocobolo, walnut, mesquite.  But these burls....


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## ed4copies (Feb 24, 2014)

Mount the blank between centers on your lathe and pre-turn it.  Now you have a blank that you can hold in a chuck.


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## WildThings (Feb 24, 2014)

Try woodbarter.com


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## keithbyrd (Feb 24, 2014)

try here - I have bought nothing but good stuff from these folks
https://www.cookwoods.com/shop/cart/?s_cs=1&s=amboyna&x=11&y=15


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