I get most of my woods and stock from Ebay. Back when I lived in Maryland, there was a craft-woods store but, up here, I live in the middle of miles of the stuff.
Usually I buy blocks then break them down into smaller blocks and consume them as necessary. Sometimes I get a new block of something in case I’m making something larger (like, say a scabbard for a seax) in which case I break off the pieces I need and then store the rest in smaller chunks.
So, I had this largeish chunk of maple that I thought I’d break down for display stands or scabbards, and I bandsawed it in half down the middle… and: magic!
I swear it looked like more or less ordinary maple on both sides of the block, it was only crazy beautiful on the inside. I suppose if I had been able to read it better, I’d have known. It’s now a bit too thin to put on the lathe, but it’s going to make some nice knife handles!
It looks like an intelligent, but rather drool-y llama, lifting one hoof to emphasise a point it is making.
Yes beautiful.
It’s spalted – partially colonized by a fungus.
Maple is surely the flamboyant drama queen of woods. It fails in the most spectacular ways, and I feel a little guilty for loving it so much. It feels like I’m falling for cheap thrills. But I can’t help it!
When I was a teenager in western Oregon, one of the things to do was to take maple burls, basically big tumorous warts on the sides of the large maples that grow there. I have this vague notion that they might be failed attempts at root masses. There was anyways a surprising amount of sheer piracy involved.
Anyways, a slice of burl 6 feet across and 6 inches thick was worth Real Money, because you could make tables and stuff out of it. Polish the slab up and bury it in an 1/8 inch of some clear plastic, and you’ve got a kind of coffee table that appeals to a lot of people. I never liked that look.
I basically just like to fondle lightly oiled maples surfaces and lose myself in the patterns.
I’m wondering if you could find anything interesting going through cord wood? Probably not worth it if you don’t have a wood burning stove or whatever, but if you had some use for the uninteresting pieces…
I’m just thinking that knife handles and such are pretty small as far as most lumber is concerned, and maybe there is the possibility of finding some really nice pieces in some stuff that is to small/odd to have general value outside of firewood.
Or, going off of what Andrew Molitor mentioned, maybe you can keep an eye out for burls? I grew up in PA, and I have a vague memory of going to craft shows and such where various items (pipes? bowls?) carved from burls weren’t uncommon, but I have no idea if they were locally sourced or purchased from afar.
You’ve got a decent bit of woodland property, no? might be worth hiking through when you’re otherwise bored, and keeping an eye for interesting looking trees or tree parts.
Since you seem to be getting pretty good results with your resin-impregnating setup, I feel that opens up a lot of materials that might otherwise be too fragile. weird chunk of bark? shelf fungus? weird bit of worm-chewed wood?
Spalted maple! It’s beautiful – the pattern looks a bit like a Beardsley face. What a fabulous find.
It’s wonderful.
Is the wood you sent me similar? I have so many ideas, if only I can sit on my butt again.
Gilliell@#6:
Is the wood you sent me similar? I have so many ideas, if only I can sit on my butt again.
That’s some of it, yes. I sent you some spalted maple, and some maple burl. I think also some boxwood burl. Mostly, I picked up a few chunks off my scrap shelf; I don’t really remember.
I very seldom throw away a chunk of wood; if I have a piece that’s more than 1″ by anything, i put it on the shelf because you never know when you need a spacer or an ebony washer or something…
lochaber@#4:
I’m wondering if you could find anything interesting going through cord wood? Probably not worth it if you don’t have a wood burning stove or whatever, but if you had some use for the uninteresting pieces…
I definitely could! In fact, I live across the street from a saw mill that shut down last year, and there is a gigantic pile of lots just sitting there; I’m pretty sure if I offer the owner $100 he’ll let me take whatever I identify. There is a lot of maple and cherry there, as well as some walnut and oak.
I’m really not fond of chainsaws, and I like working with smallish pieces of wood rather than whole logs. The tech you need to chop those puppies up is really terrifying to me. On the other hand, I let one of the neighbors use an acre of my back lot for a hardwood chipping mill. I bet if I ask him to set aside a couple of burls for me, I’ll have all the burl I can handle. There is an old grain crib in the barn that is dry; I use it to store wood to age and dry – if I throw a few chunks of burl back there for a year they’ll be good.
Andrew Molitor@#3:
When I was a teenager in western Oregon, one of the things to do was to take maple burls, basically big tumorous warts on the sides of the large maples that grow there. I have this vague notion that they might be failed attempts at root masses.
It used to be a “thing” to get redwood burls and put them in a dish of water, and they’d sprout. I believe that is one of the unofficial propagation methods of the species (get tall, fall over, burl grows roots, and you have a new clone of your tree!)
That is dim memory from national geographic in the 60s so I may be wrong.