NGLJ
Member
Last Saturday morning a woodworking buddy phoned me and asked if I wanted to go to a custom woodworking shop that was re-locating. They were selling some of the wood. When I explained that I turned pens I was directed to what was left of the "exotics". Wish I had known earlier. I asked about prices and the guy handed me a 5 gallon bucket - $20 CDN for a bucket full! I filled my bucket with olive wood, wenge, rosewood, figured walnut, aromatic cedar, yew and blue corian. I had way more than $20 and gave him $40. Of course, I could not wait to give them a try. So far, I have used the olive wood and yew. I have turned olive before from purchased blanks but this wood was much harder. It turned and finished beautifully (see attached). Supposedly it was from a 3000 year old tree, which accounts for the quality. Olive grows very slowly giving a very tight grain. Apparently, there had been much more of it but I was too late - sigh! I had never turned yew before. Being one of the hardest softwoods I was curious as to how it would turn out. I wasn't disappointed (see attached). I have never turned corian, and that might be next. My buddy bought some amazing figured walnut. I am waiting for the offcuts to try 
