Do you want this old piece of wood...???

[robutacion]

That is what Ken from the firewood processing plant asked me when I stopped by the day before yesterday, coming back from Merissa's infusion treatment.

I never took the trailer because, it has been raining for a few days, not too heavy that day but enough to drive in the mud with a full trailer.

Anyway, I had a couple of his chainsaw 20" bars that had too narrow groove for the chain he wanted to use, OK with well used chains but not for new chains he cuts and puts together itself, I offer to fix them and so I did.

I told him that I was going to have a quick look at the new woods that come in since my last time there, the rain was light and so, I got going in the mud. I looked back and saw Ken walking towards me with something looking pretty damn wet and dark in his hands, I could see the "spikes" so I guessed that was some sort of burl.

I looked at me and said, "do you want this old piece of wood..?" he said that, it was buried under some logs that recently got cleaned up, the bobcat driver spotted it and remembered what I once told him, "any pieces with spikes on them are burls and I want them all, reward will be offered...!"

This was not the first good piece he picked up and put aside for me and in fact, I have already rewarded him with a few dollars, a hand made pen and a promise of a fruit bowl that I have turned and finished for him, I had it with me that day but, and because of the rain, we wasn't working so, Ken will pass it on for me.

Ken knew that I would be happy with it, he just can't see any value in such an old piece of wood that has been buried for quite some time, the bottom (about 1" thick) of it was rotten but the rest was wet but good.

I never took any pics of the piece (about 16" diameter x about 5" deep), as soon as we got home that day, I took it to the bandsaw and sliced it all up in 1" slices, after I blew all the wet soil out of it.

I could tell that was water logged and old, it looked from Black Poplar but, it can't be, the meaty part is very different, no holes and absolutely stunning colours. I'm not sure if they will require stabilization but I won't mind if they do after dry.

I have also managed to get a few good pieces for casting, they will be dried in the oven soon but the blanks, I will let them dry naturally to prevent to endup with split bananas, with the Summer not being far, they will be dry fairly fast...!

So, what am I so excited...?? well, I don't know yet what burl is but, doesn't matter, I will make so unique Resifills out of it and the full-size blanks, apart from keeping a couple for my private collection, the rest will be shared/sold to my IAP friends, I will not list them, they are only for IAP members...!

What price..??? don't know yet, I will wait until they dry and see what I will endup with, I know, they will be pretty yummy...!:wink::biggrin:

I took some pics today so, here it goes...!

Cheers
George

 

[iMattDaddy]

Well they sure look like they'll make some great pens. great find.

 

[robutacion]

Well they sure look like they'll make some great pens. great find.

Thanks mate...!

I was sanding these blanks last night for some waxing today after I decided to put them in the oven with other blanks I needed dry however, I took these out after 18 hours or so at about 50°celsius hoping they wouldn't transform into bananas, even then I had 3 that I had to cut as shorts they curled far too much.

The idea was to get as much water from the wood as I could, I have an order request for some of these blanks and I didn't wanted to make the order too heavy.

I was starting to believe this burl was from a Tortuosa Willow burl tree but, after got it out of the oven, I could tell that I was wrong, it has small areas with burl eyes like the Peppercorn burl but the rest is very different and that puzzles me.

Some blanks seem to have lost more water than others, they are not yet as dry as I wanted but, they are OK to be posted and dry after arriving at their destination, that acclimatizing is always recommended, anyway.

Cheers
George

 

[bpgoldo]

George, be sure to let you "fans" know when that wood is going onto the site. Got money. Fingers itchy. Need woods!

 

[robutacion]

George, be sure to let you "fans" know when that wood is going onto the site. Got money. Fingers itchy. Need woods!

Don't worry mate, I was just this afternoon sorting those blanks after they spent 18 in the oven just to drop down the amount of water they had, they are still not dry and I;m not going to wait until they finish drying here, they are going to be sold here on IAP to my "fans" and let you guys take care of them.

When I got them out of the oven 2 of the full size blanks were looking like bananas so, I have to cut them shorter just to save something out of them but since out of the oven(a few days ago) I have sanded them to correct sizes and give them a light coat of wax of one face only (for the pics) one of the blanks I got out of the oven had a little bend but nothing to worry about, it was still OK when I sanded it on the drum sander but this afternoon while sorting them, that blanks way worse than a banana, you can see the straight sanding marks from the 36 grit sandpaper but the wood ain't far from making a 90° angle, amazing there are however stunning blanks, for sure...!

I see they want to curl so, I had to strap them all together tight until I make those packs, I can then tape those ones with at least another 3 burl blanks to maker a 4 pack, they won't curl that way...!

The other wood that will be sold not totally dry is the Red Malle burl blanks, the burl was removed about 6 months ago and I only cut it into pen blanks in the beginning of August so, they will need a little more time, they are also stunning...!

There is not enough to sell them in packs of 4 so, I'm thinking is make a mix pack with burl blanks, one of each type, this one included, obviously...!

I have some small quantity of new burl pieces from the local area, one is the Red Mallee burl and the other is the Brown Mallee burl, there is also the Cork tree burl, the Tasmanian Oak burl, the Poplar tree burl, the Peppercorn tree burl, Colonial Red Gum burl, Olive tree burl if I'm not forgetting any...!

I will have these packs ready soon as when I do, I will list them on IAP...!

Cheers
George

 

[1080Wayne]

Hope you , Marissa and your buildings have come through the storm safely George . I really sympathize with you having to deal with all of that new heavy green wood . Take it easy on your back , and have fun identifying the new unknowns .

 

[robutacion]

Hope you , Marissa and your buildings have come through the storm safely George . I really sympathize with you having to deal with all of that new heavy green wood . Take it easy on your back , and have fun identifying the new unknowns .

Hi Wayne,

Thank for your concern, most appreciated...!

Well, we are in the middle of what the weather-man have been calling the "perfect storm" and far for seeing the end of it, the whole SA lost power yesterday at 3:50pm after the lightning and will have destroyed about 2 dozen of the major power supply into the state so, it was dark and cold to a lot of people but we did OK because, I had purchased a fair size generator a few weeks back because of the constant power failures so, I had everything ready by lunch time and waiting to see what happened so when the power went out, in about 15 minutes I had power to the house and TV, microwave and main computer were on I had also a 60W light on to light up the areas needed so, and from what I saw looking outside, we may have been the only house in town with power to the fundamentals...!

The power come on (quite surprisingly) at about midday when we had just minutes before heard in the news that would be another 24 hours before the power would come on again, we later found out that, some parts of this state will be still in the dark and cold for the next 24 hours, I feel sorry for those folks, particularly those that had already had their houses/sheds/businesses flooded, lost roofs, had their cars smashed by fallen trees and everyone else in between, I can say that so far we have been lucky, nothing has been damaged and we are fairly far up from the rivers levels so floods to our location would be almost impossible however, there are people/houses in this town fairly low and maybe prone to some flooding if the drainage fails at the crucial times.

The weather has cooled down considerably these last couple of days and while we could have had a small fan heater running out of the generator, we were once again blessed because we use firewood as a source of heat in the Winter and there is no shortage of firewood in our place.

With all this said, we are going to have another nasty weather front expected in our area from 6 to 9:00 pm tonight so, power is still on and everything is running as normal, lets hope I can say the same 24 hours from now but, we should be OK, 50% preparation and the 50% pure luck, so far...!

Cheers
George

 

[mark james]

Glad to hear that you have power! Hopefully not too many pen blanks went into the fireplace ! (yes, I know - NOT).

And it is always a mixed blessing when you were able to take precautions and others did/could not.

Stay safe! Mark - Say Hi To Merissa!

 

[robutacion]

Glad to hear that you have power! Hopefully not too many pen blanks went into the fireplace ! (yes, I know - NOT).

And it is always a mixed blessing when you were able to take precautions and others did/could not.

Stay safe! Mark - Say Hi To Merissa!

Hi James,

Thanks for your post and concern, today being Friday the 30/9 at 2:30 afternoon and almost 48 hours since it all started and about 15 hours since the last weather warning for this region, I'm glad to announce that, the power never went down since it was connected, the town have missed most of the strong 120km per/h wind that some folks further North have been experiencing, strong winds last night but nothing to worry much about.

From what we can gather, the very worse area affected was about 80km North of us, there were a few places near the coastline only 20 or so km from us that had a few problem with flooding but nothing compared with further North.

The weather is still unstable and we are not sure if the big storm as passed as it will linger a little longer but so far, so good.

I should correct a typo mistake I made yesterday in my post, I meant to say that I purchased the generator a few YEAR"s back and not a few weeks, about 5 years ago, if I recall correctly.

I'm not sure of the true reason's why others don't have a small generator for situations like these, some people will have that sort of equipment as their camping gear set-ups and other people may not feel absolutely necessary to invest of such piece of equipment that has so many uses, in fact, I used this same generator to supply 240V in places like our wood storage paddock, and other places were electric tools were required and no power available nearby so and in my view, a piece of equipment that some may feel the need for and others wouldn't bother.

It come's back to the sort of "piece of mind" one wants to have, I'm unable to prevent many situations to occur but I can take some action to assist and or minimize certain situations, I always been like that but didn't always help, unfortunately...!

OK so, we may have dodged the bullet this time, let's hope we can get always these sort of results...!

Thank's for the concern guys and gal's

PS: Oh...! as for the need to burn pen blanks as firewood, I'm still a long way for that to happen but at this moment, if I had to, I have a good couple of days supply of old cut blanks, short's and blanks that I rejected for the packs, I'm not sure what will be the use of them but, I wouldn't be too upset if I had to used them as firewood to supply heat to us...!

Cheers
George