Domestic Burls and "Exotics"

[John Eberly]

I have learned a lot about exotic wood from around the world through this forum. I own little bits of trees from several continents and have made a lot of nice writing instruments from them.

I really enjoy using local materials as well, and I've found some local oak and beech burls that make pens to rival anything from "down under" or elsewhere in my opinion.

What are the other "uncommon common" domestic woods that are available, and where are the best sources you've found?

 

[bobskio2003]

Boy that is a tough question because what is uncommon is usually things you don't usually find available, commercially. Anytime you find a burl that is uncommon. Some trees burl more often than others so the ones that don't usual burl are more uncommon yet. Then there is the whole thing about the species itself. Some are uncommon but have minimal use for pen making. Another "uncommon" deals with trees with stories behind them (example trees from Monticello). As with many things related to wood, "uncommon" is in the eyes of the beholder (or the hands of the holder). Bob I.

 

[Munsterlander]

Interesting topic. I sort of went crazy when I first got into this and bought hundreds of dollars worth of wood from all over the world - some of which I liked and some of which I didn't. Then more recently I picked up some figured maple (some with ambrosia coloring) from The Rivers Edge Exotics on ebay (good people) and danged if it didn't make just as nice a looking pen as, say, effusa or brown mallee from Australia, and was significantly less expensive and easier to work with. Friend of mine at work gave me a board of cherry that was quite curly at one end - made a stunning pen. There's been a few posts along these lines the past 2 years that I've been on the forum with people pointing out that there's some fantastic stuff here in good ol' North America - and I have to agree. At this point I'm seriously considering narrowing my types of wood significantly down to things I know I like to work with and that customers consistently like - I'm betting I could probably be perfectly happy with maybe 20-25 total, instead of the 200some I have right now. A few would still be non-North American (I can't keep a good rosy pink ivory pen in stock, amboyna burl, BOW, ABW, few others), but the attraction of yet another exotic from some place halfway around the world is pretty much gone for me... ymmv, of course.

 

[Munsterlander]

Bobskio2003's post reminded me - check out his July "new contest" thread - the variety in North America is pretty crazy.

 

[Larry in Harrow]

Hi John,
I too think that some of our North American woods rival any of the world's species. My favorite is Cherry Burl. Beautiful figure, good mid range colour, hard and smells great when being machined.

 

[low_48]

Black ash burl is a beauty, cherry root, mesquite burl, buckeye burl.....The list is endless as far as I am concerned. I can supply some pretty unusual colored domestic blanks, send me a private email.

 

[1080Wayne]

In my opinion , most N American species can be found with characteristics which make attractive pens . You just have to decide which of those features you (or your customers) really like .
Some species have a strong heartwood/sapwood boundary e.g. black walnut ; some tend towards black line spalting (e.g sugar maple or paper birch) ; some will occasionally have intense black spalted areas (e.g big leaf maple or persimmon) ; some will occasionally spalt pink (paper birch) or green (aspen poplar) ; some light coloured woods will have small dark knots (e.g. Saskatoon serviceberry) ; larger knots in most species will show the beginnings of crotch figure around them ; large branches will frequently have curl figure along with the crotch because the wood on the underside of the branch is in compression ; insect damage can be interesting (e.g. `ambrosia` maple or a dark line in black cherry ) ; mineral staining (e.g blue-black stain of white oak by iron rust ); some have great contrast between bark and sapwood if you can incorporate both into a pen (e.g. American holly or pin oak ) . The list is probably endless - I just listed some of my favourites .
And you are not the only one who likes the native woods - I`m willing to bet that many of your customers will too . I did an experiment at the very small shows I`ve been to in the last 2 months . I split my display into two parts - half made from materials with a strong local flavour , and the other half plastic and non-local woods . Both halves similar in pen type ( slims , Euros and Sierra`s) and price range . When someone approached , I told them how the display was set up , and then kept my mouth shut , other than responding to a specific question .
Sales were slow , as has been reported by many , BUT: 78% were local materials .
Hope the above will give you something to digest that is less fattening than turkey and stuffing . Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year .

Wayne

 

[Kalai]

Hi John, I have not worked with very much North American woods but I have seen some nice ones, don't forget that Hawaii is part of the United States and Hawaii has some real rare and exotic woods that only grow in Hawaii and no where else in the world, some of these woods you can find from local sources or even ebay, but I pride myself on my collection of Hawaiian woods. I started turning when I was 12 and also started collecting Hawaiian woods at that age too, I have a very large ammount of Hawaiian woods and I sell and work them for as a living, I can say I have some Hawaiian woods that you can only find from me, there is a slight chance of getting it from others but it is a very slim chance, I have woods like Aalii, Noni, Kopiko, Nau paka, oh ya and Koa too.
I think if you found people like me over there on the Main land then you can get some jewls that are not on the market, I do not sell rare woods like the ones I mentioned on a regular basis or I would run out real fast, I let it out slowly and only to certain people (IAP people are certain people), one good source is the International Wood Collecters Society. If you join them you can get a list of members and trade and find wood sources.
Let me know if you have any questions about any Hawaiian woods or if you need any, aloha.

Chris "Kalai"

 

[dankc908]

I picked up some figured maple (some with ambrosia coloring) from The Rivers Edge Exotics on ebay (good people)

Mike,

Can you give me the Seller ID for The Rivers Edge Exotics? I have been trying to find them on e-Bay and am having no luck. :redface:

Dan