# Turning burls...wet or dry ?



## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

I seem to have a growing pile of burls and was thinking about putting some on eBay to see if they would fetch anything. I don't turn much, and don't for sure turn whole burls (seems like a waste of good wood ?) So my question is are dry ones or wet ones going to be more attractive ? I have both. I don't want to offer wet ones and they not sell for much because of it if all I had to do was hold onto to them for awhile longer.
There is probably 400 lbs worth in this one picture of a pile....and I have more. (and am working on cutting more still off a log today, more redbud burl like the other pictures) I have shown the 1/2 one here before, it's just in the picture to show what the whole one will look like inside.


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## Lilty (Dec 20, 2006)

My opinion It really doesn't matter. I must say you have a nice stash and it should bring you a real nice buck.

Dennis


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

Daren Wish I could help but I have never bought wood on the net and actually rarely buy wood other than kiln dried. I think they will sell wet or dry as long as you seal the wet wood and let them know.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

I decided to tear into the one in the picture myself. I am carving it out wet. I still have alot of work to do :huh:. I don't think I can bring myself to do it again though, there sure is a bunch of pretty wood in a pile on the floor of my shop.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

I know what you mean Daren. I have a stash of flame boxelder chunks, not burls but nice pieces. I hate selling them to turners because I know a large percentage of them will end up shavings. 

I can tell you how to get rid of them though. Send pictures to your regular customers - and even the not-so-regular ones but that have bought your unusual stuff in the past. If your experience is like mine you'll never have to bother with ebay. 

Still, it's hard toknow stuff like this is going to end up as curly fries on the floor. If it was me I would just sort of round the corners off a little and shoot some clearcoat on it and call it a paperweight. :laughing:


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

That is some sweet looking wood TT , not just RBE but spalted and crotch too. The only reason I was thinking eBay for the redbud burls is I don't know how to price it ? The maple/catalpa/elm...burls there is a market standard. Redbud burl is just not available for sale _anywhere_. I could sell every piece of today (told many already it was not for sale, the only reason I still have it, it has been eyeballed plenty by my regulars)...but would I sell it for 1/5 what it is worth ? I have even done a google web and image search for "redbud burl"....it's just pictures of me and my burls :laughing:.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Well ya might ebay it anyway. Ebay is so unpredictable about stuff like this. i have even stated in my ebay ads "Since Ebay is so unpredictable I am starting the bids at $xx.xx " which of course is why they have a starting price to begin with, and it could be my imagination but, when I write things like that in the ad I seem to do better." 

It's all a crapshoot but I do much better on CL. If you get flagged don't let it bug you just repost it anyway - you might get flagged once or twice but it takes more and more flags per removal and usually the third time you'll stick.
Pieces like you are selling though - I doubt they would last long anyway. CL is better than Ebay for most stuff. And NO Final Value Fees!


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## hughie (Mar 22, 2008)

Daren,

Selling wet burls here in Oz is standard practice due to cost of drying. Current costs are around $2500 per cubic metre wet and $6000 for dry. Ouch!  

They are normally cut up into blanks and wax coated. If you look at all the importers of Aust burls they state that the burls are wet.

As it is you guys pay a heck of allot for Aussie burls as it is. three or four times more than I pay here.

Also if they are into blanks you can perhaps show off the grain and colour far better.

Dry sells better down here but at a premium


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

I decided not to even sell them. I carved/finished a bowl, my first ever carving. (well I tried :huh. I seem to be the only guy with a truckload of redbud burl...reckon I will stay that way.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

you had got me thinkin about redbud in one of your posts recently and I asked my mom if we had any redbud trees around here. I made sure I threw in that word trees. Paranoid form years gone by. 

Her reply was "you walk by one every time you come in my door." I went out and looked at it and said "the one with the pinkypurple flowers?" She says that's the one. The one with the red . . . buds. So she says the stuff grows wild here but go find 'em when they are in bloom cause they don't stay that way long. So me and Woody went for a walk in one of my woods. Not a single one did we find, but those suckers are ALL OVER town. 

Haven't seen one bigger than the one in my moms yard thogh and it is only about 8 or 9". I'm gonna check the other woods if I get out in them before the blooms drop. 

That's some awesome looking wood Daren I can't understand why you think you'd have a hard time sellin it.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

TexasTimbers said:


> That's some awesome looking wood Daren I can't understand why you think you'd have a hard time sellin it.


Maybe you don't understand...I have 24" burled up logs. My problem is parting with it . I gave it a moments thought, but changed my mind. Why in the world a woodworker would ever buy a mill I do not know :wallbash:. I know you have your "stash" (and I know how to get to your place :shifty It's one of those things.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

i am. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S-L-O-W sometimes . . . . . . . . . . . . ​ 
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But I eventually get there . . . "stash". I get it! :wallbash: ​


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## littlebuddha (Aug 25, 2007)

Daren, TT you 2 guys have to stand out on this forum as the most horride of guys, you are both a pain in the butt. Oh and i think you must both be ugly, being american is a small excuss, but helps a little. I think it is very wrong that you both get so much wood and that it is some gorgous stuff, people like you 2 should be band for life and kept at least a mile away from anything that looks like a piece of wood, it makes me sick to my tummy that you have it and i don't, i think i am Jelous, :icon_cry: i cannot spell it and don't care i am upset, and you 2 guys don't care, i want your wood give it to me. If i had a dummy i would throw it out of my pram:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: LB.
Hey guys do something with your photos so that they don't look so good, or paint the wood first:yes: cheers guys


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

LB, if you really want a belly ache chew on this, every piece of wood I have ever shown here...was headed to a burn pile in the country . If I did not know what to look for and by hook or crook salvage it ignorant people would have burned it as rubbish. I used the word ignorant on purpose, they are not malicious just uninformed. With all the pretty and valuable pieces I have sawn over the years I still get a belly ache knowing that within 100 miles of me there is 1000X going to waste than I will ever have the opportunity to save urban logging . 

It's not like these trees are standing in the forest minding their own business and someone chops them down just because they are cool. 
In fact the very burl that is in this thread was growing exactly 3 blocks from me ,right down the road on my own street. To add more (this may turn into a rant, sorry) I looked in my gallery here there is a picture I posted Jan 9 2007 of one of the 2 trees that I got just a few days ago, the smaller of the 2. I have been watching them for many years. When I spot a tree like this I stop and leave my business card and ask if the tree is ever going to be removed for any reason _please_ call me, don't haul it away I will take it....Well I got a call alright, but not from the homeowner, just a friend of mine who happened by and saw a guy cutting them down. At least one of the members here can verify this part because it was discussed in a PM. I spent all afternoon/evening Saturday chasing these logs. When I got the call I was eating lunch, I left my sandwich on the plate and jumped in the truck. I talked to the homeowner, they told me to talk to the tree service. The tree service was out of town (municipal BURN pile) hauling the limbs off, I could not find him. I will shorten the story, it was dark before they were "spoken for" . No one could figure out why I even wanted them, I was made to feel like an annoyance by the homeowner for bugging them about them (stopping by twice and calling twice in one day over a couple ugly trees they hated and wanted gone). The tree service was a little stand offish about letting me have them because he was being paid to remove them entirely (I told him to leave the logs, I would fetch them) and was afraid the people would want part of their money back for a job 1/2 done. It was a joke, I have to do this dance quite often. It really gets goofy when no one sees any value in a tree until I inquire...then they get dollar signs in their eyes "Hey, that is the sawmill guy. I was going to burn it, but if he wants it it must be worth something !" (then the ignorant people want to be paid, or worse yet "hang on to it"-which 99% of the time means let it lay and rot) 

So that is an explanation of why you should not think myself and TT (and others like us) to be ugly and horrid. I beat my head against the wall on a daily basis for the chance to save trees like I show here. It is heart breaking to me to drive by a tree I have been watching and see a stump, knowing the fate of the wood, lost forever.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

LB I have told you more than once if you will pay the shipping I will send you some of my own personal stash. You can't beat that. I send free chunks of wood to alot of members and never toot my horn about it. I get PMs and emails frequently from members complimenting the wood and saying when they get the dough . . . well I always end up sending them a chunk or two gratis for the cost of shipping. Heck at first I was PAYING shipping but I had to quit that the boss said "At least make them pay the shipping we'll go broke!" 

I don't give away large amounts and not boards (I do sell for 50% off here and it's a true 50% off) , but for members of this board I have always been an easy touch. So I am resolved of any title of wood _Bah Humbug!-_ness.

But you crack me up man. I love your humor. But if you won't shell out some shipping charges (You've never even asked me what they would be!) to get some free wood then quit crying my man. :laughing:


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## littlebuddha (Aug 25, 2007)

Daren TT i think you guys are ace, dont get me wrong im jokeing and enveyous that you can get hold of some great wood, and im also happy to see trees put to good use if they have to come down. when they take them down here it gets mulched up which is a waste and it makes me wana kick out. And tt the shipping charges would be to high for me to get some of that nice stuff from you but do appre the fact you would send some. Daren you can rant as much as you like about wood buddy im all for it and what you do, now im off for my dinner before i get it in the neck by her in doors as well as you guys. kiss kiss:laughing: LB.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Well, I ain't saying $19 is chump change, but that's what it would cost you to get a 1 pound chunk to 10 Downing Street. $24 would get you 2 pounds and a whopping $35 would get you a 5 pound monster.

I remember when Margaret Thatcher was PM of GB, she was always in the news and it would show the reporter "Bill Blaze at 10 Downing Street where Prime Minister Thacther has welcomed the President of the United States, and her good friend, Ronald Reagan." 

i never forgot her address. I guess old Harold Brown or whatever his name is has that address now. 

Anyway. If you want some, start saving.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Oh, I forgot to add I would like to be paid with out of print currency, face value, from the King George V era in VG or better condition. :laughing:


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## littlebuddha (Aug 25, 2007)

TT would White five pounds be okay, i had a dvd sent from the states a couple weeks back 19$ or to go first class was 22$, and thats for a bit of plastic, if your prices of post are correct someone is making a lot of money somewhere..LB:thumbsup:


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

I didn't inflate them is all. Anytime you order off ebay/websites etc. you also usually pay a built-in handling charge. i do it too when i sell on ebay off my website etc. There is no way around charging it when mass selling or you lose lots of money on your time and packing materials etc. when i ship a flat mailer that costs me 8.95 I charge $12.50 - $12.95 and all said and done I break even on the s/h. 

Unless a product is way over priced, you have to charge handling when mailing alot. Cost of doing business. 

Send me a PM w/ your address and how many pounds you want - roughly. Might not be exact but I can get it within a few ounces.


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

I've sent my articles on CD to Mark Baker at Woodturning and don't remember having to pay that much. He wants me to write another so i guess I better get busy. Maybe I'll find out the price has gone up that much. 
I did take some photos of work and my friend Marion Randolph in his shop. Mark was interested in them for a gallery page. Hope he runs it. you'll enjoy the photos of Marion's home made lathe.
I don't get the quality of wood that Daren gets but I have a yard full and it's going bad. Wish everyone could easily stop by and get some. I've offered my local turners but rarely does anyone come buy. I just got 3 fairly large basswood logs that I hope to rip up into carving size blanks and dry them.


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## allenn (Apr 13, 2008)

*wood going bad for lack of interest?*

Howdy,

I live in northern Colorado, and lots of stuff won't grow well, or fast, here. I have some urban salvage, some in chainsaw cut slabs, some in chainsaw cut limb chunks, some in bandmill cut air-dried lumber. I'd be willing to trade some of my stuff for some of anybody else's. Here's how I propose to do it.
If you're interested, send me a pm with a picture and/or description of what you have, and what you'd like to see of mine. I'd respond in kind.
If we both agree, we'd trade.
The Post Office has a Priority Large Flate Rate Box (the box is free) 12 x 12 x 6, that ships up to 70 pounds anywhere in the lower 48 for $12.95. really. 
They also have two smaller boxes, 14 x 12 x 3 1/2, and 11 x 8 1/2 x 5 1/2, up to 70 pounds, anywhere in U.S, $8.95.
You'd send me one of yours, and I'd send you one of mine.
I have chunks of apple, slabs and lumber of elm, and lumber of honeylocust.
Let me know if you're interested.

Thanks,

allen norris


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## woodchip (Jan 14, 2008)

TT, How much would you be asking for some of the spalted red box elder? That is some beautiful wood.


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