A little pissed

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

Brewmeister35

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
424
Location
Newaygo, MI, USA.
I paid big $$$ for some prime amboyna blanks that were stabilized from bob's exotic woods. I cut the first one today and guess what? It's still wood inside. No penetration at all. Just a little shiny hard clear material outside. Sure fooled me. $35 for 4 pen blanks. Oh and no warranty because I cut a piece! Anyone have a way to test how stabilized a blank is without cutting it? :(
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
I have bought from them before through E-Bay (not their store site though). I bought some oliepod. I was not impressed with the stabilization or the wood. Some pieces warped and cracked while sitting in my shop. So much for top notch stabilization. The wood looked nothing like the picture. (Yes, I know that the picture was taken with mineral spirits added.) However, after I finished the pen, I was not impressed. I might as well made a pen out of some ordinary scrap of wood. Having said that, their pictures of the wood on E-Bay are very nice.
 
Is that the one out of Madison, IN??? If so consider it a loss and don't look back. Stick with the sellers on here for good quality, price and customer service. Nolan and Chris are my favorites and give you great quality, price, fast shipping and awesome customer service.

If you have to have stabilized you can look at CSUSA but I have not always been happy with the blanks there as I had several maple burls that had large inclusions hidden in the stabilization crystals.
 
Yes, it's the one in Madison. I do like the idea of buying here, but was hoping to play around with more stabilized. I had the same issue with CSU's stabilized blanks. You have to buy 3 to get a good one lol. Point taken. I have found some great deals, but I will never trust this guy again.
 
Frank: The vendor's name was mentioned in the first post.....Bob's Exotic Woods out of Madison, Indiana.

I thought about sending the guy a link to this thread so he knew he was getting some bad press and discovered some interesting information. The guy has over two thousand feedback comments on eBay with a 99.4% approval rating. I looked at some of the more recent negative comments and most of them didn't seem like they valid complaints. Bottom line.....this guy "appears" to be a pretty good seller.....nobody is perfect. I will say that his responses to the negative eBay comments were pretty aggressive and suggest this guy might be difficult to deal with one on one.

It was not clear to me from the original post whether the vendor was contacted to discuss the problem or Brewmeister just assumed that no remediation would be forthcoming??
 
Originally posted by Brewmeister35
<br />I paid big $$$ for some prime amboyna blanks that were stabilized from bob's exotic woods. I cut the first one today and guess what? It's still wood inside. No penetration at all. Just a little shiny hard clear material outside. Sure fooled me. $35 for 4 pen blanks. Oh and no warranty because I cut a piece! Anyone have a way to test how stabilized a blank is without cutting it? [:(!]
Click to expand...
Sorry, I can't answer your question about testing a blank other than sanding an edge on a disc sander and having a look.

Your post has me really curious though, so I've just got to ask... why buy stabalized amboyna burl? I'm still wet behind the ears as a turner but I bought a 10 pound burl several months back, cut it up into blanks and have made literally dozens of pens from them, all without one mishap so don't understand the need to stabalize.

As far as I'm concerned, as eluded to in a previous post, amboyna burls are pretty dense to begin with and the times I had a pretty wild looking blank, I just gave it a shot of CA just in case.

Give Nolan a shot, I'm sure he'd jump at $8.75 per blank. Probably jump for a lot less![:)]
 
These people (Bob and Geraldine of Bob's Exotic Woods) have left a bad taste in my mouth, as well. I bought some "two-toned amboyna burl" from them, and though the wood was very nice, it certainly wasn't what I consider two-tone amboyna---unless red and redder is considered two-tone. I gave them positive feedback, but mentioned that I didn't think that it was a good example of two-tone. Their return feedback was something to the effect of "okay customer, but always has a negative comment". This was the first time I had criticized their offerings, and their feedback left a real feeling of ill will. So guess what? I'll never do business with them again, and will get the word out to others, as well. If you go to their ebay "store", you'll notice that their photography isn't very representative of the products they're selling, as well. Just my opinion.
 
Originally posted by Gary Max
<br />The guy has 8 negitive feedback responces in the last 30 days.
Just think of the ones who just walk away mad.
Click to expand...
Gary, Did you notice that 6 of the 8 were from the same person on the same day? Another was from a person is Austraila complaining about the overseas postage. From the feedback I saw, I would take a chance buying from the guy.
 
Brewmeister35 ... Sorry you had a bad experience with the dude on e-bay. You can complain through e-bay but since you cut one piece it would fall into his "policy" rules and probably not get you any where. At least you have brought it to OUR attention here on the Forum. I am sure that will give many here reason enough to not use them at all.

Texatdurango asks, "why buy stabilized amboyna burl?" My answer would be that all woods are completely protected from water, oils, sweat, dirt, UV damage, just to name a few. It becomes easier to turn and far less trouble to finish. For the punky woods like Spalted Alder or Ambrosia Maple the wood becomes very stable and far less prone to chip outs and splitting. Internal voids are filled solid 99% of the time. To my way of looking at the results, it just makes difficult woods usable. It also makes all woods have a deeper depth to their colors, etc. Look at some of the woods that have been double dyed and stabilized ... fantastic results IMHO.

The good folks at Gallery Hardwoods HAVE TO AND MUST do a fantastic job as much of their stabilization is done for the music industry. Spend a few minutes looking at their finished examples and see the difference in the guitars they cut out for builders ... http://www.galleryhardwoods.com/

These folks do an immense amount of work for the many pen turners out there and I have yet to see any of their work that was the least bit bad ... http://www.stabilizedwood.com/clear.shtml

Just look at what these pistol grips look like after being stabilized ... http://www.clccustomgrips.com/

There are others that perform the services of stabilization, but I just don't have their URL's to post right now, sorry.

Just don't even think of asking these professionals how they work their magic. The processes they use are proprietary and they WILL NOT tell you anything. I know that one of them uses a vacuum container that would cost around $25,000 to buy today. The vapor pump alone is the price of a small yacht and it is the heart of the process. So why would anyone think that they would be discussing their "secrets?"
 
Regarding his rating... I have given him great reviews in the past. It has only been within the past few months that he started stabilizing. He does have some great wood and all different sizes. I tried to ask him about his stabilizing before I purchased them and he would not answer my question. I accept my loss[B)] and if anyone purchases from him, best of luck.. you've been warned [;)]. I will not completely bash the man's business, only his stabilizing. Like I said, he does have some beautiful wood at decent prices.
 
Originally posted by Texatdurango

Give Nolan a shot, I'm sure he'd jump at $8.75 per blank. Probably jump for a lot less![:)]
Click to expand...



Actually that in very near my per pound price.

Sorry to hear of your bad experience, were you going to stabilized for finishing reasons? That way you dont have to add an additional finish? I think maybe Amboyna is so dense that the material is unable to penetrate like trying to stabilize snakewood.
 
Yes Nolan, It was for finishing reasons. I have a problem finding some of the nicer woods in a size large enough for the bigger pens. These blanks were 1x1. Bigger than needed, but plenty to work with.
 
Originally posted by Brewmeister35
<br />Yes Nolan, It was for finishing reasons. I have a problem finding some of the nicer woods in a size large enough for the bigger pens. These blanks were 1x1. Bigger than needed, but plenty to work with.
Click to expand...

Well if I ever list anything that interest you keep in mind I mill almost everything in larger sizes to include jumbo pen blanks and also I cut my bottle stopper / game call blanks 1 5/8 x 6 so they can be cut into 4 pieces to make 3/4 pen blanks if sobody wanted to.
 
I bought some stabilized oliepod from him. Gave good feedback when I got them and "thought" they looked great. Couldnt turn them for a week since I was leaving town. I was not impressed when I turned one. I still have the others buried somewhere in my garage. I put a not in my ebay buyers list to remind myself on him.
 
Amboyna can be and is stabilized. A lot of fly rod builders are really anal about only using stabilized wood for reel seat inserts and Amboyna is extremely popular with them.
 
Well if I ever list anything that interest you keep in mind I mill almost everything in larger sizes to include jumbo pen blanks and also I cut my bottle stopper / game call blanks 1 5/8 x 6 so they can be cut into 4 pieces to make 3/4 pen blanks if sobody wanted to.
Click to expand...

Interesting thread. Two things........

First - I've never purchased anything from Nolan that wasn't top quality and very fairly priced. He's a terrific source. Can't go wrong.

Secondly - Anyone who reacts to negative feedback the way that guy from Bob's Exotic Woods did, that should be a heads up that he makes more mistakes than he should to turn a buck. Why not refund? Because he's probably on a very tight budget spread.

I'm also surprised at the aggressive response to qualified positive feedback - he has difficulty admitting that he may have made a mistake and is less concerned about honest customer concerns than writing them off for future business.

Sad, sad, sad............my advice is to simply not purchase from him and to tell others of the problem you have had (as you did in this forum).[B)]

Best wishes,
Roger Garrett
 
Originally posted by RogerGarrett
<br />
Well if I ever list anything that interest you keep in mind I mill almost everything in larger sizes to include jumbo pen blanks and also I cut my bottle stopper / game call blanks 1 5/8 x 6 so they can be cut into 4 pieces to make 3/4 pen blanks if sobody wanted to.
Click to expand...

Interesting thread. Two things........

First - I've never purchased anything from Nolan that wasn't top quality and very fairly priced. He's a terrific source. Can't go wrong.

Secondly - Anyone who reacts to negative feedback the way that guy from Bob's Exotic Woods did, that should be a heads up that he makes more mistakes than he should to turn a buck. Why not refund? Because he's probably on a very tight budget spread.

I'm also surprised at the aggressive response to qualified positive feedback - he has difficulty admitting that he may have made a mistake and is less concerned about honest customer concerns than writing them off for future business.

Sad, sad, sad............my advice is to simply not purchase from him and to tell others of the problem you have had (as you did in this forum).[B)]

Best wishes,
Roger Garrett
Click to expand...

Roger, perfectly said.....Ditto my comments and thoughts, avoid him.
 
i've actually came close to buying some wood from bob's. i don't know why, but there was always something lingering in my mind telling me not to. i'm glad i didn't
my business is going nolan! here i come!
 
this is really strange...i have bought from them probably 45 to 50 different times and never had a problem over the last couple years...and most of it has been amboyna...you do have to carefully read his listing about ..if its same pcs or representative of pics....this probably didnt help any but its my .02 cents worth
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom