A Newbie question for blanks

[UWCBrad]

I have been a woodworker for a while and so I have an array of tools, and boards. I find that if I buy blanks they can cost $1 to $11 each, but, if I buy a 10' X 8" X 7/8" board, it is much cheaper.

Besides price, is there a pro or con of doing it this way?
Do blanks need to be dryer or anything else that a board would not be?

I can get most of the same woods in board lengths. Certain ones like Cocobolo and Bethlehem Olive is still a bit difficult.

Thanks for the help

 

[Skie_M]

If you can get the wood you need for blanks locally as boards and then process them yourself, that's definitely the best way to go! The problem is, many of us love to work in exotic woods that are not native the the areas we live in, like ebony, cocobolo, olivewood, ect ... for those we order them online, for the most part, or get very lucky to have a nearby cabinetry shop that has offcuts and discards that we could use!

Kiln and air-dried lumber has a moisture content of around 8% - 12%, which is quite sufficient to be used on your lathe. At those moisture levels, they probably will NOT decrease any further, and thus your project should turn out to be quite stable. Turning woods over 20% moisture down to final measurements should be avoided, as the wood will continue to shrink further as it tries to reach equilibrium with the environmental moisture content around it .... the same goes for wood that has been dried down to under 8% moisture, as that will likely attempt to absorb moisture and "grow" after you've turned it.

The process of sealing and finishing your project when completed should prevent the moisture content of your item from changing, and thus protects the wood and finish from cracks and splits as time passes by, but you should be aware that freezing temperatures can still cause damage, especially with higher moisture content items.

"Green wood", that is to say, freshly cut lumber that hasn't been kiln dried or air dried or been left on the ground where it fell for longer than one year to reach equilibrium, can be turned on a lathe as well. Typically, it cuts easier and much more readily than aged or dried wood, but it finishes poorly, as the wood is much more saturated with water and oils. With modern lathes, green wood is generally only turned to "rough measure" and then dried or aged till it is low enough in moisture content to finish the turning down to final measurements. An additional method that I have heard of is to boil the rough turned blank in water to drive out all the remaining oils and sap, leaving just water soaking the blank, which can then easily be removed by letting it sit on a shelf to air dry or dry it in a kiln. I have also heard of microwaving smaller pieces to drive out the oils and water, but I've never tried any of these methods.


In short ... if you can get your wood in bulk as board feet of lumber, then by all means DO IT! But if you're looking for something exotic, well, that's a special order kinda thing ... Last I checked at the local lumberyard, I can order Ebony for my projects .... but the minimum order for it would be 100 board feet at 90 dollars per board feet... I'll take a 4-pack of pen blanks for 12 bucks, please! I worked out the cost of Bethlehem Olivewood in board feet as well, just because I wanted to know ... it's around 128 dollars a foot!

 

[tomtedesco]

Another reason to purchase boards to make your own blanks is allowing you to decide the grain pattern you wish to cut out. You can cut across the grain, with the grain, or at an angle to the grain.

 

[jttheclockman]

Brad welcome to the site. May not have caught your intro thread.

You got very good information Skie and others. The thing and it has been mentioned already is that you can control the look of a blank more by the cut you make which the other way you are limited as to what the vendor has to offer and sometimes the end product does not look like the photo. But the flip side to this is you now have so much left over. If you do other projects then it could be OK but if you are like me I get bored after the first pen I made and need to use different materials. But I also do so many other things to use the wood on. So it is an individual thing when it comes to buying blanks or making your own. Room for both avenues in this hobby. Good luck.

 

[liljohn1368]

The only reason I see you need to buy by the blank is. If you just need just one....

 

[SteveG]

This comment has already been partially answered, so some duplication.

Since most really 'hot' looking woods/blanks are simply not found locally (for all of us), we search/buy online. But even if you find a nice board online, for example, only part of that board will be at the extreme, hi-end grade. Other parts cut from that board will be mid-to-hi-end. Much of the yield will be mid-to-average. some will simply be off-cuts, and although saved by you, never used. So you can try buying the 'nice' lumber, intending to cull out the best and the mid-grade blanks. Then weigh that against buying only individual A+ and better blanks. See which works out best for you. Personally, I tend to consider an A+ blank as the lowest grade I will use (some, but few exceptions to this 'rule'). So I will go with buying individually photographed blanks, bought at a much higher unit cost. I pay the price, and get exactly what I want (almost always).

 

[UWCBrad]

This comment has already been partially answered, so some duplication.

Since most really 'hot' looking woods/blanks are simply not found locally (for all of us), we search/buy online. But even if you find a nice board online, for example, only part of that board will be at the extreme, hi-end grade. Other parts cut from that board will be mid-to-hi-end. Much of the yield will be mid-to-average. some will simply be off-cuts, and although saved by you, never used. So you can try buying the 'nice' lumber, intending to cull out the best and the mid-grade blanks. Then weigh that against buying only individual A+ and better blanks. See which works out best for you. Personally, I tend to consider an A+ blank as the lowest grade I will use (some, but few exceptions to this 'rule'). So I will go with buying individually photographed blanks, bought at a much higher unit cost. I pay the price, and get exactly what I want (almost always).

That makes a lot of sense. I have not bought too many blanks, most are from Cormark (Cormark International, Exotic Wood Import and Sales) when I went there a few weeks ago. Awesome selection (I know they supply Woodcraft and other big stores, but they also sell and ship from for orders over $100. If you stop there, you can pick from their cut off bins and only pay a set fee per pound, great deal.
The lumber I have access to is Wenge, Bubinga, Mahogany, Jatoba, Cyprus, Padouk, Walnut, Tigerwood, Sapele, etc) But These are for projects, and may not be A+ like you mentioned.

Where are the best places to get top quality woods?

 

[Skie_M]

Most American lumber yards will give you access to varieties of Walnut, Cherry, Maple, Oak, Ash, Poplar, Mahogany, Cedar, various types of Pine, and perhaps a small selection of locally available woods.

If you want to get the "top quality" stuff, however, you are typically going to be making your selection from individually photographed and premium priced blanks one at a time, and buying them from an online vendor or at a specialty woodworking store in person.

Otherwise, you can make a selection based on a representative photo of the wood species that you are ordering and grab a few at a time, hoping that one or more may be what you are looking for .... in other words, a gamble.

I bought a 4-blank selection of Bethlehem Olivewood last year. 2 of them were a fairly non-descript straight grained style of blank, while one was of a diagonal cut. The 4th was a burl cut. Burls in olivewood are gorgeous, and tend to turn quite spectacularly (but not without some possible difficulties), and due to their relative rarity in woods, happen to command a much higher price. A diagonal cut is also a little rarer than straight grain cuts, as there is necessarily some additional waste created by cutting the wood at an angle rather than with the grain.

While the straight grained blanks created some lovely pens, which I sell at around 45 dollars, the diagonal grained pen sold much faster and at the higher price of 70 dollars, while I wisely kept the burl cut for a special recipient even though it could have commanded a price in excess of 100 dollars.

Thus, you can see that even within the exact same wood species, the end price that a customer would be willing to pay can vary wildly, even though the EXACT SAME pen style was turned (Comfort Grip, no rubber grip, replace clip with 24Kt gold plated cross) for all 4 pens.

But to answer your question ... the "best place to go" simply doesn't exist. All we can tell you is to look around, use your best judgement, and hope for the best! I gambled a bit later last year on a 1-pound bag of offcuts of the same Bethlehem Olivewood, and got 3 pieces of burl and consider it worth the price I paid just for that, even though 2 of those pieces weren't large enough to get a 2-barrel pen out of them. Even the 5 pieces of diagonal cut were worth what I paid for the whole pack, and I still have some of that pack still left un-worked...

 

[SteveG]

This comment has already been partially answered, so some duplication.

Since most really 'hot' looking woods/blanks are simply not found locally (for all of us), we search/buy online. But even if you find a nice board online, for example, only part of that board will be at the extreme, hi-end grade. Other parts cut from that board will be mid-to-hi-end. Much of the yield will be mid-to-average. some will simply be off-cuts, and although saved by you, never used. So you can try buying the 'nice' lumber, intending to cull out the best and the mid-grade blanks. Then weigh that against buying only individual A+ and better blanks. See which works out best for you. Personally, I tend to consider an A+ blank as the lowest grade I will use (some, but few exceptions to this 'rule'). So I will go with buying individually photographed blanks, bought at a much higher unit cost. I pay the price, and get exactly what I want (almost always).

That makes a lot of sense. I have not bought too many blanks, most are from Cormark (Cormark International, Exotic Wood Import and Sales) when I went there a few weeks ago. Awesome selection (I know they supply Woodcraft and other big stores, but they also sell and ship from for orders over $100. If you stop there, you can pick from their cut off bins and only pay a set fee per pound, great deal.
The lumber I have access to is Wenge, Bubinga, Mahogany, Jatoba, Cyprus, Padouk, Walnut, Tigerwood, Sapele, etc) But These are for projects, and may not be A+ like you mentioned.

Where are the best places to get top quality woods?

One place I shop online for pieces larger than pen blanks is Cooks Woods. The lumber is not cheap, but there is a wide selection. There are a number of vendors here on IAP that have great blanks to offer.

One of my BEST sources for both very nice burls and non-wood blanks has been by jumping in on the occasional sell off by individual members here. (Many of us have this disease that causes us to buy approximately ten times the number of pen blanks that we could possibly turn in a life-time.) Sooner or later, something happens to trigger one of these ones to sell off their stash to get down to the amount they can actually turn in their remaining lifetime! It just so happens that I am about to do just that, and have many hundreds of blank materials to offer. This is probably a month or two away, but is going to be a great opportunity, because I have some really nice stuff! :biggrin::biggrin:

 

[Catski1]

I know Tropical Exotic Hardwoods in Carlsbad California does shipping and they have very nice selections. I'll add as a disclaimer I am friends with the owner, his sons, and one of my good friends works there. They sell wood to cue makers, furniture makers, etc.
I will send you the phone number if you'd like. I'm not trying to advertise as that may be against the forum/community policies. But I have bought cocobolo there, and planned on buying a piece of Gabon Ebony.
Whatever you choose. I wish you luck in your endeavors. All the best. Cheers.