Desert Ironwood Burl (Swirly & Eye Burl)

[DoubleDave]

Hi guys,

I recently purchased some larger pieces of Desert Ironwood Burl and yesterday cut the first one up.

I got 40 blanks from the piece, these are all 0.7*0.7*4.9"

In total I got 18 with very nice eye burl figuring and 22 with mostly swirly burl with some eyes here and there.

The swirly burl (19-40) I will be selling for $12 each and the eye burl (1-18) will go for $18 each.
PayPal preferred. Shipping as an non-insured letter will be $5 regardless of how many you buy.
Shipment as a trackable, insured package will be extra (guesstimate around $30).

Free trackable, insured shipping on any order of 12 blanks or more.

Just in case someone in interested in buying them all at once I would do that for $500 including package shipment.

These were cut on a bandsaw and then sprayed with some lacquer finish to seal the wood.

gr. Dave

 

[DoubleDave]

Yikes. Not a single post or PM.
That can't be good. Feedback would be appreciated.

gr. Dave

 

[BSea]

I think part of the problem is the size. The are slightly smaller than what is typical for pen blanks. Most are at least .75" or larger. I won't buy anything that nice unless it's .75" X .75" X 5.25. This lets me do a custom finial I know I could use a piece of another blank, but then the cost really goes up. Also, many people want to use something that nice for a full sized pen. The size is just too small for an Emperor pen.

Another is the shipping cost. I know you offered $5 shipping. But the value of the package is such that I think most would want tracking. So that really makes the price per blank pretty high.

 

[hcpens]

Price is good! Will have to see what is available on the 1st of July.

 

[DoubleDave]

I think part of the problem is the size. The are slightly smaller than what is typical for pen blanks. Most are at least .75" or larger. I won't buy anything that nice unless it's .75" X .75" X 5.25. This lets me do a custom finial I know I could use a piece of another blank, but then the cost really goes up. Also, many people want to use something that nice for a full sized pen. The size is just too small for an Emperor pen.

Another is the shipping cost. I know you offered $5 shipping. But the value of the package is such that I think most would want tracking. So that really makes the price per blank pretty high.

Understood and thanks for the feedback.
I went back and forth on the size, the burl slab was 3" thick so I could either
make that into 3 blanks or 4, would I have made 3 the price would be 25% higher.

It's entirely possible I misjudged that. I have one more burl slab exactly the same
size so I do not want to mess up.

I could cut blanks from the second slab that are 0.9x0.8x6" but then
the cost for the average blank would be ~$18. Do you think that would
work better?

Shipping is understood, not really much I can do about that,
I will add free trackable, insured shipping on any order over 12 blanks.

gr. Dave

 

[BSea]

Understood and thanks for the feedback.
I went back and forth on the size, the burl slab was 3" thick so I could either
make that into 3 blanks or 4, would I have made 3 the price would be 25% higher.

It's entirely possible I misjudged that. I have one more burl slab exactly the same
size so I do not want to mess up.

I could cut blanks from the second slab that are 0.9x0.8x6" but then
the cost for the average blank would be ~$18. Do you think that would
work better?

Shipping is understood, not really much I can do about that,
I will add free trackable, insured shipping on any order over 12 blanks.

gr. Dave

My comments were just speculation based on my personal preference on blank sizes. I'd give it several more days to see how sales do over the weekend. The size is big enough for many sizes of pens. The blanks do look prime.

And you're right, you can't do much about the shipping.

 

[greggas]

Another issue may be that I am not sure you have Desert Ironwood Olneya tesota

That does not look like what I have come to know as Olneya Tesota over the years which comes from the Sonora Desert. I believe that Olneya Tesota is what most folks think of "Desert Ironwood" as. Several years ago I bought a large chunk of "Desert Ironwood" from a dealer only to find out that it was not ( but looked very similar to your pics so perhaps there is another wood with the same common name??)

 

[DoubleDave]

Hi Greg,

I do not consider myself an expert on Desert Ironwood Burl, but it does look very similar to
lots of pictures I find on the interwebs.

I did just recheck the invoice from the dealer I bought it from (he has been selling wood
for many, many years) and it does specifically mention Olneya tesota.

gr. Dave

EDIT: I just realised that all these post are against forum rules. Sorry about that!
I will refrain from further posts that are against the rules.

 

[Chris Bar]

Too far on the high side. Perhaps blanks have increased quite a bit since I bought any (last year most recent) but seems these out of range. Turner investing in the lathe and all the accessories, should be the one making a reasonable return, but this is prempted by cost of these blanks. Thought I would pick some up but there are much more reasonable prices out there. Good luck.