John Keeton
01-08-2012, 1:11 PM
Most of you know my addiction to Claro Walnut and BLM burls (Don't look down on me! You all have your own secret addictions - I have seen them!!;))
After "show and tell" at our December turning club meeting, a couple of the club members ask if I could check with Mike Smith on a group buy of burl. I polled the club, and after getting a fair amount of interest, I contacted Mike to see what we could do. He had recently acquired several large burled logs, and thought we could work something out. He first suggested we could meet halfway, then as the idea developed, and the club interest increased, Mike agreed to just bring a load of wood to KY!!!!
I agreed to put him up for a couple of nights, which worked out pretty good for me, too! Ms. Keeton cooked a pork loin one night and BBQ ribs the next!!:)
Mike arrived Friday around noon. I arranged for a couple of members to be here at 1pm to help unload the wood. We used one side of our garage for the burls, BLM, and Ambrosia Maple, among a few other things. The Claro we put in the storage section of my shop building so guys would be able to get to all of it.
I failed to take any pics of the "before", as we started having club members arrive while we were unloading, and it was fairly continuous Friday afternoon ending at dark. The following morning, the first group arrived around 9:30am and continued until mid afternoon.
My guess is that Mike brought around $5,500 worth of wood!!!!:eek: He left with $3,500 less than he brought!!!:eek::eek: Needless to say, the club members were excited about the opportunity.
This is what the "after" looked like in the garage - that is some firewood stacked to the far right. The carved burl bowl on the right is a project Mike was working on - kind of an interesting use of a burl!
218972
This is the Claro stock that was left -
218973 218974
Mike was very appreciative of the club and left several burls and blanks for us to use as raffles, etc.
218975
And, of course, Mike left with some of my money, too!!! I have a BUNCH of burls, so I ended up with four 16", and a couple 14" BLM platter blanks, a pile of Claro (to go with the shelf full I already have!), some 14x14x6 BLM blanks, some highly figured BLM, a 14" burl bowl blank, a cherry platter blank (on top), and a chunk of Ambrosia. Oh yeah, couldn't resist the flat burl!
218977
We got Mike loaded back up this morning, and he headed back out to N. Car. Those crates and boxes were filled to the brim when he got here! There wasn't much left to load up!
218976
While he was here, we did locate a couple of wood sources for him, and I told him he could have a large Osage tree off our place, so I expect he will be back in a couple months! This could get expensive for me!!!:o
After "show and tell" at our December turning club meeting, a couple of the club members ask if I could check with Mike Smith on a group buy of burl. I polled the club, and after getting a fair amount of interest, I contacted Mike to see what we could do. He had recently acquired several large burled logs, and thought we could work something out. He first suggested we could meet halfway, then as the idea developed, and the club interest increased, Mike agreed to just bring a load of wood to KY!!!!
I agreed to put him up for a couple of nights, which worked out pretty good for me, too! Ms. Keeton cooked a pork loin one night and BBQ ribs the next!!:)
Mike arrived Friday around noon. I arranged for a couple of members to be here at 1pm to help unload the wood. We used one side of our garage for the burls, BLM, and Ambrosia Maple, among a few other things. The Claro we put in the storage section of my shop building so guys would be able to get to all of it.
I failed to take any pics of the "before", as we started having club members arrive while we were unloading, and it was fairly continuous Friday afternoon ending at dark. The following morning, the first group arrived around 9:30am and continued until mid afternoon.
My guess is that Mike brought around $5,500 worth of wood!!!!:eek: He left with $3,500 less than he brought!!!:eek::eek: Needless to say, the club members were excited about the opportunity.
This is what the "after" looked like in the garage - that is some firewood stacked to the far right. The carved burl bowl on the right is a project Mike was working on - kind of an interesting use of a burl!
218972
This is the Claro stock that was left -
218973 218974
Mike was very appreciative of the club and left several burls and blanks for us to use as raffles, etc.
218975
And, of course, Mike left with some of my money, too!!! I have a BUNCH of burls, so I ended up with four 16", and a couple 14" BLM platter blanks, a pile of Claro (to go with the shelf full I already have!), some 14x14x6 BLM blanks, some highly figured BLM, a 14" burl bowl blank, a cherry platter blank (on top), and a chunk of Ambrosia. Oh yeah, couldn't resist the flat burl!
218977
We got Mike loaded back up this morning, and he headed back out to N. Car. Those crates and boxes were filled to the brim when he got here! There wasn't much left to load up!
218976
While he was here, we did locate a couple of wood sources for him, and I told him he could have a large Osage tree off our place, so I expect he will be back in a couple months! This could get expensive for me!!!:o