Just scored a large amount of redwood burl slabs for a reasonable price (gloat). Found the ad on craigslist Bay Area. Drove up to Santa Rosa two times to get it all (north of San Francisco, within the narrow strip of land where the redwood grows). Most of it has been cut, sanded and finished for clocks. A disgusting shiny polyurethane was used. Suprisingly, it sands off quickly using a ROS with 80 grit without much clogging. It also planes fairly well (powermatic 20 inch), I first do a few passes on the back to make it parallel to the smooth side and then a few passes on the front. ROS with 180 and then
320 makes it pretty smooth. Need to get some more wire brushes for my angle grinder to take care of the 2-3 inch sides. Was thinking that I would have to live to be 175 to use it all (or get sick of it if that is possible) so I am looking to trade some for other interesting woods. I would like to start out local since shipping will be relatively costly. Anybody in the SF bay area interested in trading burl for interesting wood? If there are more than a few interested, perhaps we can all get together at the same time and do a bigger swap (and perhaps down a little BBQ)? I went to the Western Design Conference in Cody, WY last September and saw lots of mesquite and osage orange usage, that's generally what I am looking for, burl or rustic stuff or turning stock or ???. Anybody know of a relatively cheap way to ship a 100 lb. box of wood? If it is not too bad, maybe some long distance trades?Jaime (in the Santa Cruz mountains of Northern California)