Will swap Sitka Spruce & Spalted Alder

[Jay Sweeney]

I have lots of access to fine Sitka Spruce right from the source - Sitka, Alaska. I also have a lot of spalted red alder. All are dried and sawn into blanks. I would love to swap for what i can't get locally - I would specially like some mulberry, redbud, pistachio, or other unusual woods not usually available.

 

[TimS124]

I have some Pistachio that I can slice into blanks. I'll have to find it first (we moved late last year and lots of my shop supplies are still "somewhere around here").

I also have what I believe is a Silky Oak...it was cut down in the yard of a friend's neighbor many years ago and air dried in my shop. I turns like butter, has a slightly soapy feel to it, glues well, and has great figure like very tiny lacewood.

I've enclosed a photo of a stylus I made from Pistachio and another I made from the silky oak. The darker one is Pistachio...it was very grey and bland before I applied boiled linseed oil...then the figure jumped out and the color changed quite a bit...a very pleasant surprise.

I should be able to slice blanks this coming weekend if you're interested in swapping for either...

I would also be willing to swap for pieces larger than pen blank size if you have some unsliced pieces...

 

[Jay Sweeney]

Sounds like a great trade! Let me know what and how much you would like - length and width. I have some 1" x 5" spruce and 5/8" x 5" spalted alder already cut; I have more stock that I could saw up into different dimensions if it would be convenient. Some of the spruce has some spalting in it...does that interest you at all? I forgot to write that I also have a lot of yellow cedar, with very clear grain. We are in the middle of the Tongass National forest here, so I have a virtually unlimited supply of sitka spruce, yellow cedar, spalted alder, and western hemlock (but nobody likes that stuff). The easiest thing for me would be to fill a USPS flat rate box. As for me, I am a pen turner, so 3/4" x 5 " works best for me.

 

[Jay Sweeney]

Here are pictures of the already-sawn blanks and pens I have made out of local spruce and spalted alder

 

[TimS124]

Spalting is always cool. Bigger is good as well so I can experiment with a bit of whittling or maybe try a bottle stopper or something else a bit different. Sitka Spruce, spalted Alder, heck I'll even try a piece or two of the hemlock.

I can cut what I send into 3/4" x 5" easily.

If you send a private message to me here with your snail mail address and which size flat rate box you want, I'll let you know when it's on its way to you (but I can't cut/pack until I'm back from an urgent family matter mid-week).

Thanks.

 

[Jay Sweeney]

Tim, I will fill up a USPS mailer with different woods and sized and send it off to you. The mailer is 5 3/8 x 8 5/8 x 1 5/8, so I can send 8 1" x 5" blanks, 8 3/4" x 5" blanks. I will include spruce, spalted alder, hemlock & yellow cedar. PM me to let me know where to send it & I will send it off tomorrow!

 

[sbwertz]

I have some mulberry cut from the scar tissue left on the big limbs when the trees are pollarded. Looks a lot like burl. Oops, what happened to the picture link?

 

[sbwertz]

I have some mullberry from pollarded trees.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Z...My_89HoUZL30OHujq_045r7tiSFD-uw=w1360-h768-no

 

[TimS124]

Jay - I sent a PM just now with my address. I need yours too please. I packed a small flat rate box with Pistachio and Silky Oak blanks. There are some thin strips of both woods in there as well...useful for testing finishes without risking a freshly turned pen.

A couple of the Pistachio blanks have fine cracks near one end. I discovered that while labeling and packing them. The blanks are a bit over 5 inches long so hopefully the cracks stay in the excess length blanks usually have. If any of them are considered "rejects", just let me know and I'll slice up some more...they looked small enough I wouldn't toss them but we all have different tolerance levels so just let me know.

Some of the Pistachio blanks are closer to 7/8" square in case you were doing any beefier pens or wanted to bias slightly off center to have more choice in picking up the figure.

Thanks!

 

[TimS124]

Sharon,

Have you made any pens from mulberry scars? I'm curious how those turn out...interesting looking chunks...

 

[liljohn1368]

I have some osage 1" X 1" X 12" that I use for strikers if somebody is interested. It still needs a couple months drying time. But it's cut and waxed.