What would you do with it?

[Walt Nicholson]

This keeps popping up on our local CL every few weeks. Its listed as an 800 lb maple burl. The guy started at $2,000 and is now down to $1,000 or "make offer". So, my question just for fun, is what is it really worth and what would you do with it if you had it in your shop? :D

[david brum]

A quick glance at Veneer Supplies shows AAA grade maple burl going for around $8/square foot for 1/42" thick veneer. Makes you wonder how many slices of veneer you could get out of that piece.

I'm pulling this out of the air, but say you had a fancy veneer cutter and you could take 50 slices, each slice being 16 square feet @8/sq ft= $6400. That's a totally uneducated guess, but at least shows that it could be worth a bunch to a veneer guy.

[Bret Duffin]

I don't know what it's worth but I would like to have it. I still have some of my Western Big Leaf Maple Burl stash that I collected over thirty years ago and have been steadily using it up. It's really wild and unique stuff that I use for inlays and lathe turnings. The one in question would make a nice single piece or many smaller pieces.

I think you should buy it and then send it to me for rigorous testing. I'll give you a full report! Ha.

Bret

[Dennis Ford]

It is worth whatever he can get for it. Burl bowl blanks are often sold on ebay, they go for anywhere from $10 - $100 each. This piece would make several of them. If I had it, would try to come up with an idea to use it whole as a sculpture. If that failed, I would make several wood turnings from it. If it was local to me, I would pay ~$200 (more if a sculpture idea came to me).