Makeing blanks

Al killian

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1,940
Location
Floydada, Tx
I have a bunch of poplar,pine,birch and cherry that is getting ready to get milled and will have some smaller peices let over and want to make some blanks. Which woods would be worth makeing into blanks and what size are needed for blanks? They will be kiln dried with the lumber, if that is better. Also how do you price the blanks once there ready?
 
Blanks for what? If you are talking about pen blanks, 3/4"X3/4"X5" is considered standard. Highly figured woods are the biggest demand. More ordinary and/or plain looking woods sell very cheap. I don't believe you would have many, if any, takers for pine pen blanks.
 
Of those four wood choices, I think the cherry is the only one likely to appeal very much to turners. The birch might, but it doesn't seem to be used much for turning. As Frank mentioned, most pen turners are looking for nicely figured wood, and a lot of guys have enough scrap "plain" woods like cherry, walnut and maple that they don't buy a lot of plain pen blanks.

For bowl, vase and hollow form blanks, if possible I'd suggest not kiln drying the wood. Green wood is easier to turn, and I think most turners prefer it to dried wood. (Not all, but most.)

What sort of blank sizes do you think you'll have? I have a hard time finding deep blanks...many are in the 2" to 3" thickness range, and I want the 6" to 8" stuff for doing deeper hollow forms. For example, a 10" diameter x 8" tall blank would be ideal for me right now. I can get 10" x 3" all day long, but the deeper ones are harder to come by.
 
Vaughn, If the weather breaks I will go and see what I have in the woods. The ground is soaked and we had massive winds this winter and there is quite a few trees down.
 
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