One of the reasons I got into woodworking originally was the beauty of the material itself. I remember making simple things in shop in 7th grade and being completely blown away by the wood after it had been sanded, stained and shellacked. Today was a frustrating day at work, so I stopped on my way home at Global Wood. They have some amazing stuff there, most of it rough sawn and and a lot of it in flitches.
I spent a long time wandering the aisles looking at all different kinds of wood. They have giant slabs, exquisite lutherie sets, exotic and rare turning blanks (buckeye burl? Camphor Burl? piles of both, and tons of others). All the usuals like hard maple (in plain, fiddleback and birdseye), quilted and plain western maple, cherry, pine (boards and slabs) and more.
Probably 50 flitches of California Claro Walnut, including this monster here. It’s every bit of 5′ wide and 4″ thick, maybe 10′ long.
In the end I bought $8 worth of interesting off cuts. A small piece of claro with an interesting bit of figure and grain, and a small piece of fiddleback mahogany. I’m thinking of making a new handle for a beat up saw I got on ebay recently, but that’s another story.
Here are a few more gratuitous pictures of beautiful wood.
This is about 4″ thick, with an amazing lace burl figure.
For whatever reason, this caught my eye. Generally this leads to problems.
