Desert Ironwood blanks available

[BruceA]

Desert Ironwood blanks have been increasingly harder to find, but I just noticed that Arizona Silhouette has a SALE on them for $ 2.25!

Looks like Bill has a big stash of "Qty. 696" at the moment. It doesn't say "burl", but that price is still worth considering.

FYI...!!

Bruce in TN.

 

[TomW]

Yep, 4 arrived today!

Tom

 

[Manny]

I just ordered a few sticks of the "Blyth" desert Ironwood. Supposible they have more of a 2- tone look.


tom shoot some pics. The AZ web site does not have any


Manny

 

[CSue]

I bought a few of them from Bill. They are nice looking pieces of DI but not alot of figure or contrast. Maybe it will show more after I turn and finish them. My customer didn't specify DI burl. And AZ site was the only one that had some available at the time.

Is it true no one is allowed to gather DI from live plants - only dead wood found on ground?

 

[skywizzard]

Here is pen in "blyth" desert ironwood, Black Ti. It does have more contrast, and a lot more variation than the standard desert ironwood. I did this one for my son, he saw the blyth desert ironwood and loved it. The blank was from AS.

 

[Manny]

I bought a few of them from Bill. They are nice looking pieces of DI but not alot of figure or contrast. Maybe it will show more after I turn and finish them. My customer didn't specify DI burl. And AZ site was the only one that had some available at the time.

Is it true no one is allowed to gather DI from live plants - only dead wood found on ground?

Here is a quote from the desert museum

The Desert Museum is in the Tucson Mountain Park on land administrated by Pima County, so we cannot sell or give away plant material from here. As far as purchasing material from somewhere else, please call the Arizona Department of Agriculture to find out any laws pertaining to it. I know that there must be a lot of ironwood that is plowed up legally for development. Hopefully you can obtain what you need from that. -John

I think live trees are taken down for developement. I hear you must be licensed to harvest the dead wood legally but not confirmed.

Wow nice pen thanks Sky for the pics. AZ does have pictures of the Blyth DIW.

I was asking Tom to send some pics of the 2$ stuff.

Thanks Csue


Manny

 

[CSue]

Thanks Manny.

 

[Munsterlander]

Just a plug for non-burled DI. Of course the burl is incredible and I tend to buy a lot of it, but the thing I've noticed is that with "plain" DI you get more of the effect of at one angle the wood just looks brown, and then you tilt it and the whole thing goes golden - an incredible effect that consistently generates a big wow! from a customer. With the burl you tend to always see a lot of the gold - and it is awesome - but doesn't generate that surprise wow factor as much. Thanks for the tip, I'll be ordering some!

And BTW, AS does have pictures of their blanks or sample pens made with the blanks, but you have to go to the right page...

 

[KenV]

The DI blanks I have gotten from Bill have done quite nicely when finished with a good polish. Getting the polish is key as some will let you look 4 feet into the wood of a pen.

Bill also has stabalized dyed maple on his sale page for a good price. The stabalized dyed spalted maples have an attractive effect that many like.

Note that Dessert Iron Wood is a light cream as sap wood and does not develop the brown color until quite large. The smaller light/white wood is also hard and polishes well but has a different effect with light. Also a nice effect on a larger pen.

 

[Manny]

The DI blanks I have gotten from Bill have done quite nicely when finished with a good polish. Getting the polish is key as some will let you look 4 feet into the wood of a pen.

Bill also has stabalized dyed maple on his sale page for a good price. The stabalized dyed spalted maples have an attractive effect that many like.

Note that Dessert Iron Wood is a light cream as sap wood and does not develop the brown color until quite large. The smaller light/white wood is also hard and polishes well but has a different effect with light. Also a nice effect on a larger pen.

Sweet thanks

 

[Manny]

Here is the photo of the Blythe DIW I got from AZ. They ship fast maybe cause I am in Scal but still 2days is quick.


Manny

 

[Manny]

I like the 2 tone but think that the darker DIW definitely has more depth

 

[wolftat]

Another difference in DIW is the trees that get watered regularly tend to not have much of the brown wood just a lot of the creamy white wood. This was explained to me by a couple of Arizona Rangers that stop by our ranch once in a while. They brought me a couple logs of the white DIW and it looks pretty cool but is hard to get a picture of what it does. It is supposed to be illegal to remove any plants from the Sonoran desert, live or dead. They take it pretty serious out there too.