I was perusing Facebook marketplace and came across a listing for an "exotic bowl blank" with no info on species. It had shipping as an option and was located in Madison Wisconsin. Upon reading the listing, I found it was listed by the widow of a deceased woodworker.
I decided to message the lady to offer some basic insight into identifying wood and to try to make some suggestions on how she could get answers on species as easy as possible. As it turns out, she has a whole shop to clear out, and some of it is more premium species.
The best thing I've seen in her photos is a stack of lumber labeled "narra". It's lumber, not turning stock. And after sending more detailed photos, it actually looks to be legit pterocarpus indicus. She is mailing me a 6" sample piece to confirm the species, and i told her I'd be interested in buying some if confirmed. At this point, it looks like she might be sitting on thousands of dollars of Narra alone.
She has many other potentially valuable pieces, but most are rough cut and unlabeled or in log form. Her photo quality is also not the greatest. So I'm not able to help out with much more than maybe a dozen pieces, and she has far too much to mail me a sample of every board.
So i was hoping one of you fine gentlemen or gentle ladies who lived near Madison, WI would possibly be able to help her out by inspecting some or all of the pieces in person. Just give her a general idea of which pieces are cheap, moderate, premium, ultra premium, etc. She's possibly sitting on some really valuable wood, and I'd hate for her to get swindled by some greedy jerk who just sees dollar signs. Are there any wood ID gurus in the Madison area?
I decided to message the lady to offer some basic insight into identifying wood and to try to make some suggestions on how she could get answers on species as easy as possible. As it turns out, she has a whole shop to clear out, and some of it is more premium species.
The best thing I've seen in her photos is a stack of lumber labeled "narra". It's lumber, not turning stock. And after sending more detailed photos, it actually looks to be legit pterocarpus indicus. She is mailing me a 6" sample piece to confirm the species, and i told her I'd be interested in buying some if confirmed. At this point, it looks like she might be sitting on thousands of dollars of Narra alone.
She has many other potentially valuable pieces, but most are rough cut and unlabeled or in log form. Her photo quality is also not the greatest. So I'm not able to help out with much more than maybe a dozen pieces, and she has far too much to mail me a sample of every board.
So i was hoping one of you fine gentlemen or gentle ladies who lived near Madison, WI would possibly be able to help her out by inspecting some or all of the pieces in person. Just give her a general idea of which pieces are cheap, moderate, premium, ultra premium, etc. She's possibly sitting on some really valuable wood, and I'd hate for her to get swindled by some greedy jerk who just sees dollar signs. Are there any wood ID gurus in the Madison area?
