Sources To Find Blanks

[Mike Hollis]

Looking for a source to find some blanks that are 5x5x5 long, or longer. Tried Bell Forest Products but it seems the longest the sell is 3” (ie: 5x5x3). Who do you all recommend?


Thanks,

Mike

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

That is a pretty thick blank for most commercial suppliers. OTH, the woods are full of them. Sawing up a tree trunk into blanks is probably the easiest way

[Mike Hollis]

I agree, and I have 12 logs (various hardwoods) in the back. I’m going to pay a guy to bring over his Wood-Mizer to mill them up for me, but I don’t want to wait a couple of years for things to dry.

[tom lucas]

Can you use bowl blanks? End grain oriented differently, but it can be cut to size. Also big beams could be cut down easily on a bandsaw.

[Dave Fritz]

Probably not something you'd want to do but how about a glue up? I've seen some nice lamps done that way.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Paying a guy to mill them? Waiting till dry? Unless the logs are a lot larger than 18 inches in diameter, there isn't much reason to mill them. And there is not reason to wit until dry to rough turn them. Even logs up to 24 inches, till you split off the sap wood and clip off the corners, you will be down to a 9 or 10 inch thick blank with maybe a useable 16 inch diameter.

[John K Jordan]

Looking for a source to find some blanks that are 5x5x5 long, or longer. Tried Bell Forest Products but it seems the longest the sell is 3” (ie: 5x5x3). Who do you all recommend?


Thanks,

Mike

How many blanks are you looking for? 2? 50?
What species?
What do you want to make?

I have a sawmill but usually use it for larger blanks than that. For 5x5 I’ll use a chain saw if necessary then cut to size on the shop bandsaw. I dry almost all blanks before turning. I have blanks that size but don’t sell. There is a place in TN, Jefferies Woodworks, that sometimes has large blanks, you might call.

That size does take a while to dry, quicker for some species. But again, what do you want to turn? If you need them dry there are ways to dry more quickly depending on a what you are doing. Maybe explain more.

Note that even of you saw 5” thick slabs and cut them into 5x5 blanks they may take years to air dry, again, depending on the species AND the environment. You might check into kiln drying but I think they mostly do thinner boards. I cut a lot of blanks that size and larger and air dry - I track the drying by weight. I dry all mine on my shop with heat and air which controls the humidity.

[Melvin Feng]

I agree, and I have 12 logs (various hardwoods) in the back. I’m going to pay a guy to bring over his Wood-Mizer to mill them up for me, but I don’t want to wait a couple of years for things to dry.

If you are interested in making small bowls, then you can do some twice turning with green wood to start with, and you can either process your logs by yourself using a chainsaw and bandsaw (if you have one), or have them milled to dimension for you green, and then turn.

I think twice turning would be the easiest for you if you don't want to wait years for the wood to dry. I typically can finish turn my bowls in about 6 months, and depending on species and size, sometimes less.

[Thomas Canfield]

Try Cook Woods, cookwood.com They have a lot of larger blocks and should be able to help you.

[Jim Hipp]

https://www.cookwoods.com/ is what you use