I cannot believe that Pat got that glorious piece of wood so cheaply ... George you are out of your mind !!!!
I reckon there are over 250 5 inch long pen-sized blanks there, and an olive wood blank should fetch at least $4, so that means a total of more than $1000.00
Aussie dollars, but who cares now. . OK, so someone has to cut it into blank-sized pieces.
At that rate, you will die poor but well-loved, George !!!!
Hold on your horses my friend, that blank (and no other) I would sell for AU$15.00 per kilo to anyone who would want it, plus shipping off-course, other blanks of that size (not that I cut many that size) would either be more or less depending on its grade and drying condition/stage. The grade would have to do with the quality of the blanks, no cracks (almost impossible with Olive wood), little cracks, large cracks and or crevasses.
The blank that I sold to Pat is grade 2, there is only one in stock that I would call grade 1 and a couple of grade 3, no cracks or defects with a good grain, would be in the "Gem" classification (my term) that others would call "Exhibition grade", if they are truthful with the grades.
Now, according to my calculations and depending upon the type of machine used to slice that blank up, using a normal thickness bandsaw blade, one would get about 110 pen blanks of 21mm square x 130mm long out of those, the amount that would have no cracks/flaws is impossible for me to say without slicing it all up but I would risk to say about 70% would be clean, what grain? that is another issue, I sell clean Olive blanks for approx AU$1.30 until very recently they were AU$1 each sold in boxes of 10
Now, the Olive "Pretty" pen blanks and the Olive burl blanks are sold in packs of 4 for AU$10.00 a pack and the Olive wood "Gems" are sold in packs of 4 blanks at AU$12.00 a pack and everything in between, these have been priced like this for some years now.
Clean and quality grain in Olive wood, results in a great percentage of waste and lower grades however and for these last 10 years, I have been providing Olive wood prices that you simply can't find anywhere and why...? because I have made a promise to myself to stop the rip-off that was the cost of buying Olive wood blanks in stores or through people claiming the wood was grown and coming from the Holy Land, I recall well regular pen blanks being sold at AU$5+ not including shipping.
Anyone that wanted Olive wood but not necessarily or required to have been grown in Holy Land, started you have the opportunity to buy it from me at a lot more fair and realistic prices, the over commercialization and propaganda associated with what we know as BOW (Bethlehem Olive Wood) was getting out of hand, when I start calling the attention to the Olive blanks buyer's here (Australia) and overseas, of the lies they have been told and explored from, with the consequent supply of thousands of blanks from Australia to anywhere, for the low price of AU$1 each + shipping, things started to change and we now are buying BOW blanks for a fraction of the price, have you asked yourself, why...?
Anyway, those that followed me from years ago know well the problem I have with the issue and how I exposed it all, I've made lots of enemies sure, but I have had many thanking me for making them aware of what was going on and the possibility to start using quality Olive blanks for the fraction of the price they were paying before.
Oh geezz, even today and after all these years, with the situation completely changed, I still get a knot in my gut, thinking/discussing it, that will not change, regardless...!
Coming back to the blank value you think it's worth, I only wish that my wood's would fetch such prices, or that I would have the audacity of charging that much but the reality is very different and even the best quality wood/burl/etc., I get, I sell them at a fair prices why, because I want to and I can...!
I doubt I would have made the value of the blank approx. AU$170 in pen blanks, unless I would cast the cracked ones but, I'm over that so, not everything is cut into pen blanks because, and as I made reference to it previously, I have a number of wood turner's that rely on me to supply the larger blanks they need and I always like to have some cut for someone with a need or a want of something larger and that is exactly the case with Pat Keefe where, he expressed to me that he always dreamed of turning a large bowl out of Olive wood and that I could help him with and after I sold him a smaller Olive blank as part of a bigger order, I decided to make this one off offer to Pat, and help him realise something that is important to him, I've lost absolutely nothing instead I feel grateful and pleased...!
I have a few more blanks of that size, grade1 and 3, similar in sizes and weights, if I recall correctly, you can have any of them for the prices I'm willing to give/quote you, please have a look at the pics attached and make the decision if you are interested.
And so that you and other folks don't start to make assumptions, for the weight of 12kg to any Overseas destinations such as USA, CANADA and UK, the only shipping option is Express Courier International (I will not use Economy shipping for such a parcel size and value) and the cost will be AU$247.00 + blank cost, and that is why...!
PS: I don't know where I put the pics of the other grade 3 blank, I have to check what I did with it...! Blank #1 is grade 3 and blank #2 is grade 1
Cheers
George