Me and the wife are both wood carvers and wood turners. We are always looking for wood to use in our endavers. We are especially looking for unusual things like burls and spalted items. If you have a good source you would be willing to share we would appreciate it. We belong to both wood carving and turning clubs and would be interested in rather large amounts of wood. Would travel to and cut up especiallly interesting burls and wood. Thanks David

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), December 11, 2001

Answers

Have you tried using rhododendron yet as a good burled wood to make canes and walking sticks and the like out of? My uncle rough fashioned a rhodo hiking stick for us many years ago, and it is still much used. It is a very tough, but easily worked wood.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 11, 2001.

David, have you ever used or seen the wood from grapefruit trees? I have never seen it used but have heard that it is gorgeous and is often used for making bowls, and small boxes for jewelry, etc.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), December 11, 2001.

David: Where are you located? I have a good source in Charolette of basswood, cherry, etc. The guy gives away all the extra pieces. He deals in JUST specialty woods. If your in/ near NC, give me a holler.

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), December 11, 2001.

Oh yeah- if your anywhere on eastern seaboard NY to NC, i could bring you some, possibly, as I go to NY often.

-- Me again (Vantravlrs@aol.com), December 11, 2001.

Here in central Indiana you can get a lot of kinds of hard wood at local saw mills. I know of one mill operator that loves nice wood and will save really good stuff for people like you at no extra cost. He just likes to see it to a good use.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), December 11, 2001.

Forgot to give our location. We live in extreme North Alabama. We are will ing to either pick up or pay for shipping. We just need suppliers. Thanks David

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), December 11, 2001.

Hey, there's an auction going on in Frederick, MD on Friday. The annual Contractor's industrial consignment auction. I went last year and they had an entire warehouse full of rough sawn lumber of every shape, size, make and model. American Mahogany, Spalted maple, Quarter Sawn Oak, Cherry, Osage Orange, Walnut, you name it.

Last year, I bought a couple of big, thick, 4'x1'x6" pieces of walnut for about $10 The stuff was all going incredibly cheap. If you want, email me your contact info and I'll see if I can help you get some, I plan to be at the auction on Friday.

Cheers,

< br>Chuck

-- chuck in MD (woah@mission4me.com), December 11, 2001.

Don't overlook the possibility of "trash tree" takedown for the wood (and maybe a bit of profit). Mimosa is a beautiful white wood that can be harvested (with a landowner's overflowing gratitude) if it gets weedy or out of control on a property - which it often does, in the south. Ditto Mullberry, in places where those luscious fruits are more of a staining nightmare than a food source. Many of these fast growing "nuisance" trees have been amateurishly trimmed back before in the misguided hope of "starving out" the root, only to spring back vigorously, producing strange and unusual root knots and trunk-base swirlies.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), December 12, 2001.

You also may want to try Mesquite wood or ebony, both extremely hard woods found in the desert southwest. And if you make a mistake with the mesquite, you can throw a bar-b-que with the mistakes.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), December 12, 2001.

Have you contacted local tree surgeons, city or county councils, electrical companies - anyone who might have a reason cut trees? Also possibly firewood suppliers - what you want is the stuff that's really too hard and cross-grained for them to deal with economically. Also logging companies - sounds like some of what you want would be in the tree tops or roots they leave behind.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 12, 2001.

Sorry - more thoughts - also property developers, builders, heavy- machinery operators - anyone who might be involved in clearing land or just knocking over a tree or two so a building or extension can go up. Council, again - if they issue building or development permits they are probably required to publicise it somehow, so if you could tap into that information flow you could look and see if there is standing wood you could use. Could actually look good for them if a developer could say the wood they had to clear is being made use of by local wood-carvers - get the tree-huggers and local cocktail set on side.

Considered a small ad in a small, cheap local newspaper every couple of months? Local papers are also interested in local-interest stories, and they might support your ads with a one-off story about what you're doing. Try to have your ad say or imply "if you don't have anything for me now, save the ad on your pinboard or stick it to the fridge - something may come up next month". Tie it in to the idea of conservation - using or re-using rather than just getting rid of.

Places that have been logged over may well still have tree-tops and root-balls in brush piles - maybe well-seasoned by now.

I'd be surprised if a lot of local farmers didn't have downed wood, well-seasoned, somewhere on their property - wood that's in fact too hard and possibly too big for them to make use of themselves, but if you were prepared to go in there with a chainsaw and several well- sharpened chains they might be glad to let you. In fact, they might help you get a couple of items - stuff that's not worth getting as firewood could be worth the effort as raw materials for art; and then that could leave them with something that's been started enough to be worth finishing as firewood.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 12, 2001.