Need Assistance Gauging Interest / Pricing of Offcuts

[Conseit68]

As you can see from the below images, I have more wood off-cuts than my shop can handle. I haven't really shipped wood / pen blanks in the past, but did look into flat rate box rates (which seems to be what blank sales ship in around here). All wood is primarily 1" thickness, kiln dried and consists of black walnut, ash, and some cherry.

Question 1 - would interest be in "as is" state? Or cutting down to blank size?

Question 2 - does a box full approach between small, medium, and large flat rate boxes make sense?

Question 3 - Whats reasonable pricing for those types of wood in those quantities?

 

[Dehn0045]

Here are my thoughts:

Since these are pretty common woods, if you have the tools to dimension blanks then you probably have 4/4 scraps of these, but the thicker stuff might be more interesting for a wider audience.

For the 4/4 stuff, I would say dimension it to pen blanks, pack 20 in a small flat rate box (5 of each), and expect to make $5 to $10 on top of shipping.

For the thicker stuff, leave as-is and fill medium flat rate boxes, set the blanks out on a table and snap 1 pic of each numbered box with a ruler (folks like to see what they're getting no matter how generic). For straight grained stuff, I'd say you're looking at about $15 over shipping costs (give or take).

For comparison, you can get a MFRB of maple burl for about $40 plus shipping, and you can get "not so exotic" pen blanks like purpleheart or canarywood for about $1 each. I won't be a buyer, since I already have too many blanks, but figured I'd share my thoughts.

 

[magpens]

I concur with Sam.

There are plenty of recent examples right here ... and even today.

Don't expect to make a lot of money. . Treat it as a shop-clearing, or recycling, exercise for yourself.

Maybe consider donating it to beginner turners for practice pieces .

Some seniors' activity centers might be glad to take it.

 

[Conseit68]

Thanks for the feedback...and not looking to make any real money. I currently found myself in what seems to be a never ending supply and figured if anyone here was interested, then I could assist a fellow turner. I am very much a novice myself...just more than I can handle. I do also have a ton of Purple Heart, Cocobolo, Wenge, Ipe (Evil Stuff) and Red Heart. But not ready to let that go...

 

[magpens]

Not even the Ipe ? (yuck, IMHO, but please do not take any offense at that )

 

[Conseit68]

I don't...it was given to me a while back and aside from making a shower bench...it just sits and laughs at me.

 

[TellicoTurning]

IPE is good stuff... I don't make pens, but have used it in a few other turnings... it's hard, and if I'm not too careful, sometimes get a rash, but the final product is nice.

But, whatever floats your boat.... IPE won't though. :biggrin::biggrin: