WTB: Small pieces of very high-grade wood.

[Spasticteapot]

I'm working on rebuilding some high-end headphones out of something better than the original nasty plastic, and need a very small amount of very fancy wood to make it out of - just two 4" circles (or 4"+ squares from which I might cut circles) between 3/16" and 3/8" thick of macassar ebony, cocobolo, bloodwood, rengas, redwood burl or just about anything with lots of interesting lines and color that will look good next to polished aluminum.

Because the finished project is effectively a piece of jewelry, it has to be of exceptional quality, and because I'm new to this and have limited access to tools, it needs to be in an easy-to-use format - a combination I've had a great deal of trouble finding. Instead of ordering blind from a catalog or buying a turning block and trying to dry it and slice it myself, I'm hoping that someone might have some leftovers of the appropriate type that they'd be willing to sell me for a reasonable fee.

Thanks!

 

[Cal Weldon]

Call a maker of fine furniture. Around these parts, walnut burl is attractive and not hard to find.

 

[mikejennens]

This may sound kind of odd, but check out some cutting boards in a kitchen department or kitchen store. I bought two nice teak (I think it is teak!?) cutting boards at Target to use on a chip-amp case. Kind of pricey, but nice wood.
Mike

 

[Spasticteapot]

This may sound kind of odd, but check out some cutting boards in a kitchen department or kitchen store. I bought two nice teak (I think it is teak!?) cutting boards at Target to use on a chip-amp case. Kind of pricey, but nice wood.
Mike

I'm looking for something a little fancier - maybe like this:

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[fritz39]

Why not try your local Woodcraft store? They certainly have small pieces for
turning pens and bowls in lots of exotic woods. Also, if your not familiar with
woodworking, they should be able to point out which woods are easier to work
with. A lot of the exotics are hard to work.

 

[woodturner-fran]

IIRC most woodcraft stores have a workshop where they run courses. Often clubs meet there too. Bet you would get help from a woodturner (!) there handy enough.

Fran

 

[Geek]

I haven't done business with them, but others have and have been happy:
Exotic Wood Online - Suppliers of Hardwood Lumber and Veneers

Cheers!

 

[jotom750]

Hi.
I agree with all the above, but if you get stuck I can let you have a bit of Brown Oak for postage costs. It has been seasoning in air for about 4 years, but will need to be acclimatised in your space for a couple of months min. It is not big, semicircular app 4" long and 14" dia. I could cut slices off if you wish.
Regards.

 

[jotom750]

Hi.
Just thought..... Please check that there are no import restrictions, just to be sure.
Regards.

 

[Spasticteapot]

Why not try your local Woodcraft store? They certainly have small pieces for
turning pens and bowls in lots of exotic woods. Also, if your not familiar with
woodworking, they should be able to point out which woods are easier to work
with. A lot of the exotics are hard to work.

I'll take a look at Woodcraft, but they don't list most of the really wild stuff on their website so I'm not too optimistic about finding it in the store. Part of the problem is that color varies wildly within one species of wood - while most bloodwood trees are a sort of reddish brown color, others are a much depper red.

 

[booangler]

I have purchased wood from here. Great supply and some pretty unusual stuff. Give them a call.

 

[brianco]

eBay Store - BELL FOREST PRODUCTS: Turning Stock, Birdseye Maple Lumber, Exotic Turning Stock

 

[Buckapound]

I see you're in Wisconsin. If you get down to Chicagoland, check out Owl Hardwood:

Owl Hardwood Lumber Company

LOTS of nice wood of all kinds. They have one store in Des Plaines and others in Oak Lawn and Lombard. IMO, you can't beat picking it out in person. Last time I was there they had these immense and stunning slabs of curly bubinga. One part of the shop has small pieces of cocobolo, ebony, and other exotics.

--Buckapound

 

[chrismercurio]

check lutherie supply places. they could cut a fingerboard, guitar side, or guitar back into the pieces you want.

here are a couple:

http://alliedlutherie.com/
http://www.lmii.com/
http://www.nwtimber.net/musical-lumber

 

[boywonder]

Spastic: Most (good) hardwood lumber retailers will sell you a few inches (fractions of a board foot) off of a stick, as long as the remaining piece meets the "return to stock" minimum length.

I have a stick of tiger rosewood, and some scraps of pao ferro and bocote, but all of the above are only 3" wide. I would be happy to send you a pair of small pieces 3" x 4"x 3/8 or 3/16" (I have a thickness planer). The bocote scrap is only about 1/8" thick, so that may not work. I also have quarter sawn oak (red & white), sapele and african mahogany scraps out the wazzoo but based on your earlier posts that may be a little pedestrian for your headphone palate........

In the first pic the bocote is the species on top of the chassis, and pao ferro is the piece below the chassis. The chassis is tiger rosewood. The pao ferro and rosewood in the pic are laquered, the bocote is between coats and sanded. The second pic shows bocote laquered; the third pic shows the other rosewood mono chassis. The pics are kind of crappy, taken quickly with an old camera, sorry.

 

[wirewiggler]

Rockler has thin sheets of about any wood you are looking for they have retail stores as well as web based.

Bill

 

[renfrow]

If you're fairly new to woodworking, perhaps you might want to start with some commonly available wood, walnut, cherry, whatever, to make an initial try at building the headphone parts. That way any mistakes you make will be on easily replaced wood... Then, when you're comfortable with the process, make it with the expensive woods. Been there, wish I had done that.

Tom.