What was your more expensive piece of timber?

[robutacion]

Hi everyone,

There are thousands of timber tree species from all over the world, some have been recently cut, others have been cut and or processed hundreds of years ago, with obviously, all the other ones in between!

This is a simple question, without any political, critical or prejudicial involvement and/or objective.

As a wood-turner,
- What was your most expensive piece of timber you ever purchased?.
- What were it's dimensions (shape), name, origin and possible age?.
- What did you end-up making out of it?
- Do you have any pics of before and after and maybe a little story about it?

Your contribution will be most appreciated!:D

Cheers:2tsup:
RBTCO

[Pat]

Well I spent $100 on a truck load of turning timbers form a forum member. Commercially about $20 for a Purpleheart blank 5x5x4, which I blew the bowl:gaah: :aargh: Otherwise about the $10 - $15 mark for some Tassie blanks 8x8x3-4 (Myrtle, Blackwood etc.)

[PAH1]

$100 for african blackwood pieces for finials that fit into a small shoebox

[Wayne Blanch]

Generally I am too mean to buy wood:no:, I tend to pick it up all around the place however
I bought a Blackheart Sassafras blank at the last WWW show in Brisbane cost $20.00 turned a bowl, when it got hot and humid here the bowl warped and it now rocks nicely.:doh:

[ss_11000]

most i have spent on a single blank would be a burl i paid $28 for. other than that and a peice of myrtle ($18) i havent spent over $5 for a blank.

[eisbaer]

piece of tulipwood, about 50mm x 50mm x 320mm. Somewhere in the vicinity of $90. Haven't made anything with it yet :) fortunately, it was a present from my wife. I was just with her when she bought it so i know the price it was.

[petersemple]

From memory about $80 for figured maple about 300mm x 600mm x 30mm. It's a guitar top

Peter

[Rum Pig]

$12 CL
I bought that when I received my lathe. I needed something to turn:D
Now that I think about it I don't think I ever finished that piece hmmmmm were do I start to look??

[RETIRED]

Laminated Jarrah Beam.

450mm x 450mm x10.5 metres. $6000.00. freighted from W.A.

[turnerted]

A redgum burl blank 320mm x 50 mm . $40 . I made a shallow bowl/platter out of it . Now my wife won't let me sell it.

Ted

[Wayne Blanch]

Laminated Jarrah Beam.

450mm x 450mm x10.5 metres. $6000.00. freighted from W.A.


Show off!!!:o:D

[underfoot]

not sure if this counts :rolleyes: I had a commission from an airline pilot some years ago,
he supplied the piece of wood??? which he bought at auction for over $3000 (approx, 600x300x250mm) not sure of the species but apparently it was dug up under botany bay when they extended the airport,
the piece was almost black and had the consistency of hard mud, I explained to him the difficulties, but he was adamant (and wealthy)
after many enquiries I eventually had it vacuum chambered in a solution of PEG (polyethylglycol?) which gave it the consistency of acrylic (which I knew how to work)
All ended well, I made a winged figure, he was happy, I got paid.
no pics sorry (pre digital)

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

"Jeweller's grade" Pink Ivory, roughly 200x100x80mm or something like that.

Price? A ludicrous amount. Not in the four figure bracket, but still more than any sane person should pay for what is, basically, just another lump of wood. :-

[Ozkaban]

It's not turning wood, but I was out a trend timbers a few weeks back and there was a stick of cocobolo (if that's how you spell it). It was about 900mm long, maybe 100mm wide and about 20mm thick. The price on it was $395--. I reckon it would probably even still be there...

Cheers,
Dave

[funkychicken]

Wait a second...You guys pay for timber?

[China]

$600.00 for African blackwood, made a set of bagpipes (scots), they came out pretty good

[nalmo]

Bagpipes never turn out good. They are instruments of torture.

[dai sensei]

How about a 50mm dia x 15mm thick disc of timber 150 million years old for $180,000 ?

I organised a drilling contract for boreholes to find bedrock 60-70m down. It went through an ancient river bank and tree. The drillers saved me a piece of the timber that promptly broke into 0 to 15 laminations, it was more like stiff mud than timber, but did have faint growth rings. I stabilized it with thin CA and will probably make a laminated pen out of it.

Does it count?

[Tony Morton]

Hi All

Where do i start theres a piece of Tassie myrtle about 300x75x 700 somewhere around $300 not used yet a piece of Indian Rosewood about 200x200x40 $110 piece of hard rock maple 4x1 x3foot over $100 fiddleback. Sometimes i think Dope would be cheaper so I'm a wood addict.

cheers Tony

[BobL]

Bagpipes never turn out good. They are instruments of torture.

When I went to school in the 1960's, the worst form of detention was having to sit in the school hall and listen to the Principal practice his bagpipes for a hour. You only did this once - very effective.

[Claw Hama]

My largest commission had about 4, 5m lengths of Tassie Myrtle 700 wide x 60 thick, was about $3000, nice slabs.

[Ed Reiss]

It's not turning wood, but I was out a trend timbers a few weeks back and there was a stick of cocobolo (if that's how you spell it). It was about 900mm long, maybe 100mm wide and about 20mm thick. The price on it was $395--. I reckon it would probably even still be there...

Cheers,
Dave

Sure it is Dave (pic of a piece I did in 1985) ...it turns nicely.

Got 3 logs of the stuff from a guy who was closing down his lumber yard business, 240mm x 240mm x 3048mm, for.........you ready for this......$25 US !!!! Those days, my friends, are loooooong gone:~ Price of wood these days is worse than gold.

[Ozkaban]

Sure it is Dave (pic of a piece I did in 1985) ...it turns nicely.

Got 3 logs of the stuff from a guy who was closing down his lumber yard business, 8mm x 8mm x 3048mm, for.........you ready for this......$25 US !!!! Those days, my friends, are loooooong gone:~ Price of wood these days is worse than gold.

Lovely work Ed!

I more meant that 900x100x20 isn't a terribly useful shape for turning without laminating...

Was that 8mmx8mm? That's awfully thin...

Cheers,
Dave

[Ed Reiss]

Lovely work Ed!

I more meant that 900x100x20 isn't a terribly useful shape for turning without laminating...

Was that 8mmx8mm? That's awfully thin...

Cheers,
Dave

OK my misunderstanding, that is thin, not suitable for turning.:C

...yep, still thinking in inches (lifetime habit), should have been 240mm x 240mm:doh:

[Harry72]

Some clears grade crapiarta pine...

[Andy Mac]

I'm not going to answer, lest my stingy, tight heart be laid open for all to see!:p

Cheers

[Gil Jones]

Can't recall ever actually buying a piece of wood to turn.
I do trade wood with other folks around the country. We just fill the box, and the only cost is the shipping....so that would be around $10.00 USD for what our postal system calls a Flat Rate Box (approx. 11" x 8.5" x 5.5" [279.4mm x 215.9mm x 139.7mm]). They even furnish the box, and will pick it up free if asked to. The weight limit is 70 pounds (31.752kg). The most wood I have ever gotten into one is 23 pounds (10.43kg) of green Pecan. These are the same boxes I used to send the Compact chucks down to DJ in, except that the international weight limit is 20 pounds (9.01kg), and the price is $41.95 USD.
Around here wood grows on trees, so it is pretty easy to find blown or cut down trees for no cost other than the fuel to cut it up, and haul it home.
Cheers,

[China]

Seems like there are a few Sasunnach's among us

[RETIRED]

Poms?

[tea lady]

Got a whole stack of stuff from a forum member for $120, I think it was. Lots of little bits and some big bits. A little block of Lignum vitai in there. Camfor laural, Silky, native cherry, ......I gaze at it and fantisize. :cool:

[paul collins]

wifes ex boss had a statue that he wanted raising about 12 inches off the ground.said he wanted a dark wood,so like a fool i looked around eventually had to say cant get it but i got 3 nice pieces of she oak,that you will like,cost was around $210.00. he said fine,when its done will you paint it balck!!!!!!!! yikes i made it from oregon ,have still got the she oak.no idea what i will do with it.:doh:

[robyn2839]

my dearest piece of timber was when i decided to give up woodwork due to health, and i advertised all my timber for sale and i was stupid enough to give it away for $100 which was double what i was offered, there was huon slab,ironwood slabs,camphor,coachwood,bribie pine,cedar,leatherwood,silky oak,lignum vitae, etc. there was the back of a 4wd full, every time i think about i get off because i sold it for bugger all ,because i was in a vulnerable phase of my life at the time ,someone got a good deal probubly still laughing.......god i,m an idiot........bob

[Gil Jones]

I think "Sasunnach" means Scots??
Which I presume, China, you are comparing to a "penny pincher", or some such kind of frugal person.
Yep, I am that. [everything I own is paid for:)] Don't see much point in paying for something that is free for the taking. Of course, if I ever want some exotic wood, I may need to get off my wallet.

[RETIRED]

Seems like there are a few Sasunnach's among us<table id="entries"><tbody><tr><td class="index">1. </td> <td class="word"> Sassanach </td> <td class="tools" id="tools_2969782"> 15 up (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sassanach#), 1 down (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sassanach#) http://www.urbandictionary.com/images/thumbsup.gif (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sassanach#)http://www.urbandictionary.com/images/thumbsdown.gif (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sassanach#) </td> </tr> <tr> <td>
</td> <td class="text" colspan="2"> Word used in the English spoken in Scotland, which is directly from the Scottish(Gaelic) language. Sassanach literally meaning Saxon. This originally meant an Englishman. Then as Scottish(Gaelic) lost it's footing as the majority language of Scotland(geographically and 'de facto'), Scottish(Gaelic) speakers used the word to describe anyone who spoke any Anglian based language(i.e. the English language as spoken in England, Hiberno-English, Scoto-English/Lallans/('Scots') e.t.c) Nowadays, it has become common in Scoto-English/Lallans ('Scots'), and is used to refer to English people. Although not explicitly derogatory, some people (notably the English) consider it to be so.
</td></tr></tbody></table>
I think you meant Scots?

[NeilS]

It was a gift, so it cost me nothing, but it came at a cost.

My young friend was undertaking the first comprehensive on-the-ground geological survey of the Gawler Craton, a vast remote area in Central South Australia. One of his solo two-week 'expeditions' took him through the sand dune country which has no roads, tracks or human habitation for many hundreds of kilometres. Difficult country to traverse in which a 10-tyre puncture day is a good day. If you have ever removed a heavy-duty 4WD tyre from its rim and then replaced it by yourself once, let alone up to 14 times in one day, you can appreciate the difficulty of travelling through this country.

In a remote area on this trip he came across the remnants of a large Western Myall stand. The tree trunks had all weathered (sand blasted) away over the centuries leaving just the root formation exposed. He selected a manageable root burl to bring back for me. It wasn't the purpose of his expedition but it was retrieved with some difficulty and considerable effort on his part, and he could have jettisoned it many times to lighten the vehicle just a bit to reduce the frequency of his punctures, but he didn't. A valuable bit of wood.

Western Myall (Acacia papyrocarpa) lives for up to 1000 years and has a density of 1235 kg/m3. My piece would have been dead for at least 250 years and going by its size would have lived for at least 500 years, perhaps 750 years. The wood was preferred by desert aboriginal people for fire making. It burns longer than almost any other wood and was ideal for carrying fire between camps. The fact that the Myall root cluster from which mine came was still so intact indicates that there never had been any human habitation in the area (perhaps no local surface water), making it just that bit extra special for me. Perhaps not seen by human eyes until then.

The best I can do for a photo is a WIP shot (not so close up) taken for the exhibition into which the piece went.

Neil

[Ed Reiss]

Fascinating story Neil, and from the looks of the piece on the lathe you did it justice.

[steck]

My single most expensive piece of timber for wood turning was a Tiger Myrtle Blank that I picked up in Tassie for $46. It was a blank 20cm X 7cm.
Waxed and wet, it was very easy to work and polished up nicely.
Interestingly, that 4.6kg blank now weighs a tad under 550Grams.
Should I ask for a $40 refund?????

[China]

Thanks saved me the trouble


china

[tea lady]

I don't want to pay too much for wood until I can be sure I can do something with it. :C

Loved the story Neil. Story wood is best I reckon.

[chippy 71]

Laminated Jarrah Beam.

450mm x 450mm x10.5 metres. $6000.00. freighted from W.A.


Sheeeesh.........to what use did you put that?:oo:

Colin.

[RETIRED]

The inner support for a spiral staircase.

[chippy 71]

The inner support for a spiral staircase.

Aaah........that would work and look good.:2tsup:

I couldn't think of a use for a beam that size.:doh:

Colin.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

The inner support for a spiral staircase.

I imagine that's before you put your costs or installation costs into it? Yowsers!


Nowadays, it has become common in Scoto-English/Lallans ('Scots'), and is used to refer to English people. Although not explicitly derogatory, some people (notably the English) consider it to be so.
[...]
I think you meant Scots?


Huh? If I call someone a sassenach, it's derogatory. :D

... and somehow I think he got it right the first time. :wink:

[Wayne Blanch]

Sheeeesh.........to what use did you put that?:oo:

Colin.
He made Tooth picks:D Tooth pick???:oo:
Sorry, couldn't resist:doh:

[RETIRED]

I imagine that's before you put your costs or installation costs into it? Yowsers!Yep.



Huh? If I call someone a sassenach, it's derogatory. :D

... and somehow I think he got it right the first time. :wink:I must admit that when asked for my name I say " Robertson."

They generally ask, "which one."

To which I reply, " E.R.T, not the sassanach one."

Might have to stop it now.:wink:

[Tiger]

Most expensive timber I bought was a piece of Radiata Pine:U, it measured 70 by 35 by 1000. Paid oh about $2.00 for it and even then I think I overpaid for what I got.

[labrat]

Two small book matched pieces of Arizona desert iron wood for the scales on a knife handle.The cost after posting from the US was < $50. I believe it is probably the most beautiful timber in the world. It is only able to be sorced from deadfall as the trees are now rare and protected.The sales pitch explains that there is no more deadfall above ground and the timber being sold has been dug up from as much as 2 meters deep they do not give an estimate of age of the timber.

[BobL]

Two small book matched pieces of Arizona desert iron wood for the scales on a knife handle.The cost after posting from the US was < $50. I believe it is probably the most beautiful timber in the world. It is only able to be sorced from deadfall as the trees are now rare and protected.The sales pitch explains that there is no more deadfall above ground and the timber being sold has been dug up from as much as 2 meters deep they do not give an estimate of age of the timber.

Pics?

I paid $8 for this piece of curly jarrah to make this 1/2" shoulder plane.
http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachments/f44/35085d1164432380-my-second-plane-whole.jpg

While not really classifiable as timber you may want to check out this world's most expensive wood (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f14/worlds-most-expensive-wood-97898/) post.

[hughie]

Hmm, paid for, not sure. But I did have some 100 year old Lignum Vitae from and elderly relative who came a shore after 15 years before the mast in 1890. He was a shipwright and used it for bearings etc. Died around 1963 at 100+

I have one small piece left, darned if I know what to make out of it.

[Manuka Jock]

My most expensive pieces were two NZ Kauri planks , 10ft x18in x 2in . Approximate value NZ $1600 so I'm told. :)
Cost to me , nothing .
A mate gave them to me :2tsup:.

So far , gave a blank to a turner mate and made 4 large platters out of one plank .

I have yet to buy wood for turning

This is one of the platters , 425 mm dia.
Another mate/distant kinsman carved it .

[Manuka Jock]

Bagpipes never turn out good. They are instruments of torture.

:oo: bluddy heathen :((


:D

[orificiam]

I got This piece of Queen Ebony from a Friend as a gift
100x100x350mm Beautiful wood to turn. Very heavy.
So far I've Made 4 Lidded Boxes and some pens.
Cheers Tony.:)

[Rifleman1776]

I'm with funkychicken. I rarely pay for wood. I scrounge for it, cut some of my own but most is just given to me. Some comes from my woodturning club where we have a drawing each month.
Not wood, but I have paid about $20.00 for a single pen blank. It was a cast with a snakeskin inside.
I once, and only once, bought a hunk of some kind of palm. Forget what I paid but it was too much. Stuff was so hard as to be unturnable. I gave it away.

[robo hippy]

Well, you wanted a story:

There was a post here (Sawmill Creek) that the US Forrest Service, in Las Vegas, Nevada, was going to harvest some Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolia) which is a wood you never find on the open market. It is generally protected because it is very slow growing, and is an important browse food for the wildlife in winter. It prefers high mountain desert in the western US. The Forrest Service was thinning for fire safety (for those gazillionaires who have the big houses in the mountains that they visit for a week or so per year, and tend to have more dollars than they do sense), and were going to cut it up for fire wood.

What better excuse for a road trip. I had always wanted some, and the few pieces that came up in the turning club raffles always vanished first. I called a buddy, and we grabbed our chainsaws, and headed south, about 800 miles.

We had one interesting stop on the way down. Going through a small town in the Nevada desert, late at night, I was going a bit over the speed limit, and after seeing a sign for slower speed, I let off the gas, and then saw two police officers on the side of the road. Of course, we got pulled over.

Where are you guys going?

To Las Vegas.

Why?

We are going to get some turning wood? (note, Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert, and there is almost no wood there, and being from Oregon, where there is a lot of wood, this sounded suspicious).

Do you have any weapons in the car?

Well, we have a couple of chainsaws.

We smell marijuana.

What?????

We smell marijuana in the car, and we want to search it for that, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Note; I go by 'robo hippy', and I was kind of a hippy, but gave up all of my bad habits, except for sugar, over 20 years ago.

Well, they searched the van, and let us go with a warning to be more careful about our speed.

The next morning, we went to the Forrest Service office, to check in. My buddy had to show them how to write a fire wood cutting permit, some thing that they had never done. $20 per cord of wood, and 2 chord limit. We were escorted to one area where they would be cutting, and 2 of their guys went with us to show us what we could cut. We were at 8500 feet elevation just outside of town. Growing at that elevation, the trees grow very slow, and because of extreme conditions, nothing got over about 20 feet tall. Most of the mountain mahogany I had seen was barely beyond shrub size. A few of the trees there were up to 20 inch diameter. We cut a bunch down, and brushed it out (cut the branches down), then came back the next day to load it up. We rented a U-Haul truck that would hold about 5700 pounds of weight. It wasn't more than about 1/3 of the way full before it was weighted down. We filled my van up with as much as it would hold as well. Some 8,000 pounds total.

Cost? Well, gas about $800 to $1000 as the truck ate a lot of gas, 3 nights of motels about $600, meals about $300, truck rental, $1500. Total cost, over $3000. But well worth it, for a wood score of a life time.

The wood is called Mountain Mahogany because of the red color. Density is about 1.2. Hardness is 18 on the Janka scale, with Lignum being 20, and bubinga being 12. It is the only freshly cut green wood that I have turned where I needed to wear a dust mask. I have traded a bit of it all over. I did send some to Australia to a guy who makes penny whistles. I will have the fret board of a custom guitar made from it. Excellent for boxes, violin pegs, and anything where hard smooth grained wood is needed.

robo hippy

[NeilS]

Great story, Robo Hippy, thanks for sharing it.

.....

[rsser]

Yeah, +1 to Neil and Robo Hippy's stories.

I have walked past a small burl on a Snow Gum several times and reckon it might be a corker. Slow growing too and dense. But it's in a National Park and my conscience, and/or a fine, might make it really expensive.

Which again raises the question 'what's expensive?'. In time, my most costly would be a cheap offcut of figured blackwood that took ages to figure out how to get the best from.

[rsser]

PS, Bob, that's a ripper of a plane. Lovely work.

[mkypenturner]

mine would have to be either the 40 x 40 x 300 kingwood for $130 + gst or the
70 x 70 x 300 amboyna burl i payed about $150

[Gil Jones]

I hardly ever buy wood as it seems to grow on trees around here.
However, last year I wanted a bit of African Blackwood for finials, and bought my first piece of it (2" x 2" x 13.5") for $24 USD. Then found 2 pieces of it (1.5" x 1.5" x 10") on sale for $6 USD each.
Sometimes I trade wood for the cost of shipping which is usually interesting, and sometimes nice folks (like Joe Greiner) actually coerce me into taking the wood for free. Thanks, Joe, for the two nice log pieces of green Live Oak, and thanks to Ern for the Aussie wood pen blanks (beautiful wood).
cheers,
Gil

[swallow]

Can't remember what I paid for it but it was alot. It was a piece of coco-bolo 8 foot long by 4.5" thick and twenty inches wide. It was used to make the risers for tournament archery bows. It has a nice smell when being cut or planed, smells like MONEY being turned into dust..

[rsser]

Lol.

[Tim the Timber Turner]

900 dollars plus GST each, for 5 Yellow Sirus? laminated bowl blanks 850 x 850 x 155 mm.

Each one weighed 65kg.

I didn't purchase them, only did the turning.

I would have had to pay for a replacement if I had stuffed one up.

They were a commission for the SA Water building in Victoria Square in Adelaide.

After turning they were engraved with the names of 5 SA resevroirs and hung on the wall outside the meeting rooms.

Cheers

Tim:)

[labrat]

Hi Tim, I remember reading the article and wondering at the time what if there was a mishap, would you have survived uninjured and how would you have been able to get another piece that matched the others. The few tool handles I turn up (I use the term "turn" in its loosest sense) are made as a relaxation. There would have been nothing relaxing about doing something on that scale. I think that would have to be an Australian record for expensive timber. All the best. Jeff