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)