Wood blank availability

[MelbournePhill]

What kinds of wooden blanks available to you in your local area, not special order just our local store? Being Australian I have a couple of species of Gum available to me and a couple of foreign types. Maybe we could get an indigenous wood blank swap going.

 

[Jarod888]

We have lots of wood locally available in Colorado.
Silver maple
Honey locust
Aspen
Cottonwood
Box elder and flame box elder (it has red streaks running through it)

A blank swap is a great idea, but I think shipping would make it too expensive for most.

 

[Woodchipper]

Customs would get involved regarding invasive critters, etc.

 

[egnald]

That sounds wonderful, however, as John (Woodchipper) noted, such an exchange would probably be more difficult (and likely expensive) than we would expect due to customs, tariffs, and shipping costs.

There are some awesome timbers in your part of the world that I would love to get my hands on though. Hairy Oak is one of my favorites, especially when it is diagonal or cross cut. Like the one in this linked post by one of your fellow Australians, Casey Giddins (CjG78). The grain is simply amazing. There are a lot of other unique timbers in Australia and New Zealand that we rarely have access to here in the USA.

Here in the USA, most of the woods that are indigenous are quite unremarkable, however there are a few that can be stunning such as Claro Walnut, Sonoran Desert Ironwood and the curly and burls from Koa, Redwood, Madrone, Maple, and Chittum (American Smoketree).

Dave

 

[Alan Morrison]

When I lived in Australia someone from the UK posted a wooden object to me, which was stopped by Australian Post. I had to pay $40 to get it gamma rayed.
That will be the issue getting blanks into Australia....no issue getting them sent from there.

Any Beaufort Ink kits that you would like for a swap????

 

[MelbournePhill]

Being a young bloke, who hasn't tried this before and doesn't know how difficult it may be I'm still game to try it. I'll check out the supply at my local shop tomorrow, report back and let you know what is available.