Thread: Spalted maple blanks - ebay

Who would want those ugly diseased looking things?????????













ME!

Very funky indeed....... BUT......... would they get past quaranteen.

I recon they would be likely to burn them on sight.

cheers

Only way I got the Spalted White Oak Burl in was because it was soaked in a stabilizing solution. Unless he was willing to coat it with a cheap lacquer or wax seal it, quaranteen will get it for sure. They have 11 pieces of Osage Orange 3" in diameter and 10" long of mine at the moment. The guy that sent me it was sending stuff through the States and he put some in my box and didn't remove the bark. $42.50 to get it.

I've got some prety wild oak comming from the states & I'm hoping they don't consider it nasty.

cheers

Soundman


Its a lot easier to get it through if the seller tames it first

woodcutta

Is it possible to get this stuff in Australia, as in do we have any native trees that have that Spalting? It looks fantastic on guitars...

Darren sorry too here you lost your O/O blanks! where they much better than what you can get here.Dad has s-- loads O/Orange all from Victoria

Good luck Soundman, hope the nasty oak gets through. Woodcutta is right, if the sender can stabilize it , makes it easier for it to get here. The thing is that you have paid for the timber to comes so if customs nab it you have to weigh up is it worth it to pay for the gamma radiation of it and there is a possibility that it may change the colouration of the timber.

My timber was free with a private swap so if it is destroyed it cost me nothing, but 11 pieces of 3" dia x 10" long, what would it cost to buy it, so the $42.50 is not a big cost I feel.

AwDeOh the Maple in the link is genuine hard maple burl, I looked at the other stuff that was for sale and it is A grade burl. hard maple you would find growing but is not a native. The figure that is shown you may never find elsewhere. If it was sealed or stabilized, it is well worth the money asked of it.

OD the stuff is similar, the stuff from the States is a tighter grain and a bit darker, will keep it in mind if I need to buy some.
Darren

Newby on board here,

Hello from Central Louisiana USA. you all!


I Recently bought 80, 1x1x5" Spalted maple pen blanks on eBay, for carving knife handles.
thinking the worst would be some punky soft places.

i find that lot of them are basically worm wood, signs of termites or worms in many of them, tight filled trails but no sigh of bugs.
i'm worried i might be getting an infestation within 6 months, if there just dormant.

the seller said the wood was 1/2 dry meaning 2-1/2 years.

the mention of your quaranteen laws has me thinking if i make up a batch of 50/50 cheap shellac or varnish and alcohol i might be able to kill the wood be pests?

any other suggestions..

My first port of call would be you handy, dandy, home food irradiator (microwave).
That would perform two functions, 1/ get the blanks dry 2/nuke any remaining pestilence.
there is a mot on this board about microwave drying.
the secret is to be gentle.... 20 to 30 sec at a time.... if the wood is getting tooo hot to touch or mis behaving go easier.

then you could look at stabalisation.
There is a lot on stabalisation on the IAP site.
I'm relatively new to stabilisation, but for thin stuff particularly if you are using CA as a finish thin CA will stabalise most things.
shelac or other varnishes and resins are all suposed to be pretty good, but if you want a good result needs to be done under preasure.
there is a bit here, and lots more on the IAP site.
If you do it right that borer fras should come up good and firm.
Generaly if there is hard packed borer fras in the galleries, they are long gone.

cheers

Originally Posted by bdar

Only way I got the Spalted White Oak Burl in was because it was soaked in a stabilizing solution. Unless he was willing to coat it with a cheap lacquer or wax seal it, quaranteen will get it for sure.

After seeing the episode of "border security" this week, I dont know if coating the thing will always get it through either.

The case was concerning some expensive coffee, that is basically eaten by this possum like animal, then pooed by this animal , then collected processed and packaged. The issue wasnt with the coffee so much (because it gets processed) but packaged with the coffee was a piece of unprocessed poo encased in resin. The customs guys seemed to be very dubious as to whether or not this would be allowed through.

Then again maybe mouldy wood isnt as bad as possum poo

cheers
BD

thanks for the suggestions,
I took all 80 of the blanks and nuked them in my little low wattage coffee warmer microwave for one minuet. worked after testing, wood lost about a pound of weight.

you mentioned cp?
i have not heard of that...unless its the educated name for super glue.
do you have an address for the IAP site.
im a wood carver not much of a turner although i do own a cheap lathe i don't do much with it other than keeping rust off it.
hoping to turn some of these blanks with offset tail stock turning to make tapered knife handles. but cant find anything on a safe setup on that

again.

CA... cyano acrilate...... superglue yep.

IAP web site at www.penturners.org

I can confirm quaranteen arent keen on coatings.... I asked them.

impregnation with resin may be viewed differently.

I can see a number of reasons they wouldn't be keen on anything siscicious encased in resin...
for one it mught be an attempted drug concielment.

cheers