Buying Wood

I have had no problem with my ittems, but the thing to watch for is shipping. Sometimes you can pay more to ship it than the wood cost. Denny

Echo others, I have a list of sources I have used in the past Bizwood, HensleyandonWoodworks, Chits Exotic, funwoodsawmill. woodbay (a local to me) and wooden-animal (usually winter sales only)

I bought a couple of blanks from a guy named Rob, in Canada... should be pretty easy to search ebay for..

His wood was as listed, his shipping was what I considered normal and his service was exceptional..

I was fairly new to green wood and one of the blanks had a small crack in it.. As we were emailing back and forth talking about how to turn green, I asked him how to glue the crack or whatever..

He sent me another blank, at his expense, without me asking for it... I was very impressed.. Mac

I've purchased bowl blanks from several sources on ebay. Had one problem, which was quickly resolved. (The vendor sent another piece, plus some additional 'goodies' for my trouble.) One of the best I've dealt with is NCWood. Gary is the owner I think. His blanks have always been as advertised, and he ships the next day or so. Plus he'll combine pieces to save shipping costs. And isn't loathe to go an extra step to ensure customer satisfaction. No affiliation, etc. Tom Weber in Merritt Island, Florida

I've bought quite a few pen blanks off eBay (and even sold a few tamarind blanks there) and, for the most part, have been satisfied or better.

I DID buy some curly hickory that isn't very showy. Yes, as a technical issue, it IS sort of curly ... but the waves are so flat looking that the sticks just fizzle, not sizzle.

OTOH I've gotten some exotic stuff that was a great deal better than I expected, also ... from the same vendor.

We cannot guarantee what the next vendor will ship ... but I think most of us will do a search on "pen blanks", "bowl blanks" or "turning blanks" once in a while just to see what turns up.

Bill

is a good source as well. They are under $2 each. Based in Halifax, NS.

Strange. I just perused their site and even the pen blanks (.75"x.75"x6") were more than $2.

I've purchased MANY blanks off of ebay, no problems so far. You have to be careful, as you can loose any potential savings when you get dinged with shipping.. always get a quote before bidding.

I get good rates and prompt shipping from a seller called TheWoodGuy

and also RiversEdgeExotics has quoted me reasonable shipping Good luck! Mike