A couple months ago, I was contacted by an estate sales broker who was liquidating the estate of a penturner in Columbus, OH. (As far as we can tell, the man was not an IAP member.) I asked Mark James and Mike Broberg to join me to evaluate the potential purchase of the blanks, kits, and tooling. My thinking was that the material might be usable for fundraising, new member goodie boxes, and contest prizes.
We determined that the Blanks had some value, and the entire lot of over 4500 (mostly wood) was purchased. It appears that the bulk of the blanks were purchased in small lots in 2005 - 2007. While many species are well-known to pen turners, there are also odd-lots of lesser seen species. There are considerable qualities (100+) of: Ebony, Rosewood, Cocobolo, Olivewood, etc. As well as smaller amounts of Mallee, Morrell, Amboyna, York Gum, etc.
Being newly retired, Mark foolishly agreed to handle the logistics of this project. It might not sound like a lot of blanks, but it's quite a pile. After a yard sale at his house to clear out all furniture to make room for many boxes of blanks, everything was counted, sorted, and stacked. His wife is now ready for him to relocate (the blanks, I think, not him?
)
The first thing we're going to do is offer some of the choicest material for sale in small lots here in the classifieds. 100% of all proceeds beyond cost will go to support IAP. We're not trying to make a killing on these, just raise a little money, and provide some prizes and welcome gifts.
Mark will be making the sales posts, so watch for those coming soon.
PS: We happened to meet the man's widow while we were there. She was extremely happy that her husband's collection of blanks would be going to people who would use and appreciate them as much as he did.
We determined that the Blanks had some value, and the entire lot of over 4500 (mostly wood) was purchased. It appears that the bulk of the blanks were purchased in small lots in 2005 - 2007. While many species are well-known to pen turners, there are also odd-lots of lesser seen species. There are considerable qualities (100+) of: Ebony, Rosewood, Cocobolo, Olivewood, etc. As well as smaller amounts of Mallee, Morrell, Amboyna, York Gum, etc.
Being newly retired, Mark foolishly agreed to handle the logistics of this project. It might not sound like a lot of blanks, but it's quite a pile. After a yard sale at his house to clear out all furniture to make room for many boxes of blanks, everything was counted, sorted, and stacked. His wife is now ready for him to relocate (the blanks, I think, not him?
) The first thing we're going to do is offer some of the choicest material for sale in small lots here in the classifieds. 100% of all proceeds beyond cost will go to support IAP. We're not trying to make a killing on these, just raise a little money, and provide some prizes and welcome gifts.
Mark will be making the sales posts, so watch for those coming soon.
PS: We happened to meet the man's widow while we were there. She was extremely happy that her husband's collection of blanks would be going to people who would use and appreciate them as much as he did.
