Scored some cool wood... Now help me figure out what to do with it.

Fixall

Active Member
Every couple of months or so, I tag along with my wife while she goes to garage sales and whatnot. The hope is always that I find some nice, old knives, or some good handle material. It doesn't usually work out (except the time I came home with 50lbs of african blackwood, lol), but today was one of the rare successful outings.

I walked away with some birdseye maple, maple burl, redwood, pau ferro, and box elder burl. I was hoping you guys might help me figure out how to make the best use of it all. I have processed logs on my 14" bandsaw into smaller pieces, and then made blocks and scales on the table saw from there... But the only time I've cut a burl, I had a LOT of help figuring out where to make the cuts.

So first question... Is there a minimum weight that K&G needs before they will dye wood, or can I send small amounts to be dyed? In the past, I've always just done clear stabilization.


Birdseye sugar maple. The board measures 13" x 5" x 1". I'm guessing this works just like regular hard maple? My plan was to cut this into three 13" x 1.6" strips, and have one stabilized clear, one black, and maybe one red? Are there colors that work particularly well with birdseye maple? I assume K&G can handle 13" long pieces of wood? The longest piece I've sent in the past was only 6", lol. Do you think this has enough eyes to even bother with?

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Pau ferro. This is the piece of wood that caught my eye. It measures 38" x 5" x .9" (only about half is pictured). I had a brainfart and actually thought this was honduran rosewood when I bought it (they called it bolivian rosewood), lol! Whatever... I think it looks nice, and it should make for some durable handles. I was just going to cut it up into 1.6" x 5.5" blocks and treat it like the dalbergia species (unstabilized and lots of protective equipment when working with it).

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Ok. Now the tricky stuff.


Big leaf maple. 6" x 5" x 9" tall. I've never worked with this before. It seems really soft. I'm guessing if box elder is ok stabilized, this will be just fine though.

My plan was to cut a small slice off the top of the spikey burls to see what is under it. If there are a ton of eyes, I'd slice from the top of the burl, down. If it looks boring under the burl, I would cut blocks from the side that is pictured (if that makes sense?).

I was going to leave some clear, dye some brown, some black, and maybe teal?? I was thinking about double dying some... Are there any combinations that look really snazzy together?


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Box elder burl. 12" long x 7" wide side (3" narrow side) x 2" thick. I've worked with this before. I was just going to cut it into five or six standard sized blocks using the figure you can see from the side. Should I be checking to see what is under the gnarly burl? I was going to dye some this time. Maybe red?

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Unidentified burl. 10" x 6" x 2.5" thick. I'm guessing this is some kind of maple burl by the looks of it. Again... Should I be cutting a slab off the spikey burl to see what is under there? I'm guessing the "eyes" in burls comes from those spikes?

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And last... A nice 12" x 11" x 2" slice of redwood. There is some burl hiding in there too. Any suggestions on how to cut this thing? I'm guessing there probably isn't a lot of usable material in here, but who knows.

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Sorry, that was a lot! Thanks for the help and have a great night!
 
K&G will do smaller amounts. I try to send at least 7 pounds of each, clear, dyed or double dyed, as this should put you over the 10 pounds of finished weight to get the cheapest pricing.

I have sent pieces 12” or 13” long without a problem. As far as double dyed, green/yellow or green/brown have been popular, and I’m not a fan of green. For single colors, turquoise, pink, purple and what they call SB blue have been requested most by customers.

When cutting burls, I always cut so the eyes show. I like the look of the eyes more than the rays. Each of those points will be an eye.
 
K&G will do smaller amounts. I try to send at least 7 pounds of each, clear, dyed or double dyed, as this should put you over the 10 pounds of finished weight to get the cheapest pricing.

I have sent pieces 12” or 13” long without a problem. As far as double dyed, green/yellow or green/brown have been popular, and I’m not a fan of green. For single colors, turquoise, pink, purple and what they call SB blue have been requested most by customers.

When cutting burls, I always cut so the eyes show. I like the look of the eyes more than the rays. Each of those points will be an eye.

Thanks, I really appreciate the info! I'll definitely be taking your advice when it comes to K&G. I was thinking their pricing was for the total weight of the wood, but that makes sense they would charge based on if it's dyed/double dyed or not.

Copy that. In that case, I'll definitely take some slices of the burl to see how it looks under the points. How deep do the eyes usually go? Or does it just depend?
 
It depends. Burls are round in shape usually. The eyes go to the center, so as you cut slices, the edges of the slice will get more ray cuts verses eyes. Here’s a couple pictures that show what I’m talking about. The 2nd picture shows how I cut them. I try to get more face cuts that show the eyes better. There’s more waste this way, but better product, in my opinion.

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It depends. Burls are round in shape usually. The eyes go to the center, so as you cut slices, the edges of the slice will get more ray cuts verses eyes. Here’s a couple pictures that show what I’m talking about. The 2nd picture shows how I cut them. I try to get more face cuts that show the eyes better. There’s more waste this way, but better product, in my opinion.

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Super helpful, thanks!
 
The redwood was a bust (expected), but with what I paid that's no sweat. The wood all came as a package deal and the rest was worth more than I paid.

I cut around the edges to clean up the deep cracks and bark, and it wasn't too promising, lol.

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Since the wood was pretty lame, I just finished cutting it on the bandsaw. Nothing special. If I stabilize it and use the very best parts, there might be enough for a few mediocrely covered slipjoints, lol.

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The maple burl was a lot more promising so I used the table saw after cleaning it up on the bandsaw. Yea... The maple is going to be NICE!

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