While we're talking about blanks ...

[cdcarter]

The "day in a life" thread got me thinking about turning stock. I started out buying pre-cut blanks, and I still do when the wood I want is most easily accessible that way. But increasingly, I'm buying down at the lumber yard and even scavenging downed trees. Have a bunch of cherry logs drying even now, and some of it looks darned interesting. Is this a typical progression?

Even when I buy at the store, I'm gravitating to larger pieces. The less it's been cut, the less it costs. And as I turn more big-bore pens, it's easier to cut my own blanks a little bigger.

I guess the question of mixing your own acrylics comes into play, too, but I don't do acrylics.

 

[txbatons]

Carl - I did the opposite. I started scavenging right out of the shoot and purchased stock boards and cut my own blanks. Only recently have I been buying pre-cut blanks and that's because I don't have access to wood from Hawaii or Brazil or Israel, etc.

I'm sure I'm not the only one whose heart pumps a tad faster as soon as I see a pile of tree limbs and trunk pieces stacked at the curb in the neighborhood. Just yesterday, we were on our way to church and I saw such a pile and The One Who Keeps Me Clean warned me not to stop and dig thru the pile in my Sunday clothes! I worried all during church about what type of wood that was and whether it'd be there when I got back (like someone else would want it!).

[]

 

[ahoiberg]

carl, pretty natural progression, I'd say. it's only natural for us woodworkers to want huge pieces of wood and downed trees.
more wood = more things we can make = happy wood worker = happy relatives of wood worker = guess it's time to find more wood.