Joseph,
Learn to identify species as quickly as you can ... once you put the word out that you are looking for interesting wood to work with, it'll come to you faster than you can turn it.
At this moment I have a dozen (or more) pieces of tamarind heartwood 3" x
6" x 42" in my basement ... most of them as curly as it is possible to hope for. Those are actual measurements ... not so-called 'nominal' sizes.
A Brother in my congregation brought me a short sawed off hunk and asked me if it would be okay to burn in his fireplace. Before I even knew the species, I looked at the grain and felt the heft and told him "Sure, you can burn this in your fireplace. But if you do, I'll have to kill you. Don't worry ... you'll thank me later." (It helps if both persons are firm believers in resurrection.)
It seems they are used in crates shipped from Brazil by a large automotive company. He brings me the whole crate, I have to disassemble it. (and yeah ... tamarind can definitely hang on to a nail!)
At about the same time, MY company started getting 1 x 3"s of the same wood used as spacers between wheels.
Can you say "ultimate workbench"? I thought you could. Tamarind is LOTS stronger than oak.
A lady living nearby has offered me 4 black walnut trees, with the largest being about 30" diameter and the others in the 18" range.
In the year and a half that I have been turning, I have been 'gifted' cherry (huge stump), pearwood (whole tree), walnut (large chunk), ash (whole tree), maple (3' dia. limb from wind damage), apple (whole tree), box elder ((large sections), tamarind (slabs) and birch (whole tree) so far. I probably left a couple species off.
In fact, my storage space now requires that I be selective in what I accept!
If you're hungry for wood, let others know that you are looking ... and then get busy making room for it!
Bill