BOB HAINSTOCK
I live ion the neighborhood of the bitdseye trees. And have turned some of it. I have seen some with ten to twenty eyes in a piece the size your looking for, and have some pen blanks, 1/2x1/2xb 2in with as many as twenty nine eyes in it. My wxpierence is you have to look at it to be sure. It is absolutly striking when turned, especially on the bias. If i ever get through the tutorial on shrinking pix, i,ll get some pix on the site.
Try bell forrest products on line, call them and talk to boonr, or eric, mention that your a turner and see what they say. Their # is 906 486 4769. It might be a better deal than on their web site. And, i could be wrong. They host our turners club meetings, and give us a nice discount. There primary woods are curly and birds eye.
I might mention that the pen blank i was talking about came off the end of a log that went for ten,k st auction.