Search for Interesting Cut-Offs

I primarily make small woodstuffs (my name keychains being the most popular) and I feel really guilty buying a large board of some beautiful exotic or domestic hardwood and then hacking it up into pieces that I can use. I feel that the board should go into a fine piece of furniture.

I then had an idea to email a request to internet lumber dealers for shorts and cut-offs that might otherwise be tossed into a landfill. I also hoped to add to my selection of woods for my customers with some interesting woods from around the world. I currently offer oak, maple, walnut, mesquite, zebrawood, rosewood and purpleheart.

Out of about fifteen requests sent out, I received exactly one (1) response. This was from Toby at Blue Moon Exotics in Ithaca, NY. Website link http://www.bluemoonexoticwood.com/

He put together a 10+ lb. package together of some beautiful genuine Cuban Mahogany, Narra and Alexandrian Laurel. I got the package Monday. Perfect for what I make and some really interesting grains. Toby was also very nice to deal with. Here’s a pic of what I got.

From Other Woodwork

This also led me to add a swap proposal to the LumberJocks Swap Forum. A “Keychain for Scraps” deal.
See here. http://lumberjocks.com/topics/11131

As always, I have gotten a positive response from the LJ community. PapaDan sent me a box just this morning. I can’t wait to see what he has sent.

-Scott

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