Knifeshow Stupidity

[Drew Riley]

The only version of this i get isn't as immediately damaging to health, just my mental well being.

At Blade this year I brought some really rare and high quality pieces, master grade African Blackwood burl, micro curly rosewood, blood red amboyna burl, cocobolo burl, all of it.

And the most annoying comment you get all the time is people picking them up and explaining how "yeah my brother got a huge slab of this exact wood, just like this, probably more figured though."

Not sure why the urge to believe your local woodshop had a blackwood burl slab is so strong, but man people want to tell you.

Pretty sure I have 3 or 4 African Blackwood Burl trees in my backyard. I'd cut one of them down, but I found a solid African Blackwood Burl coffee table at the thrift store the other day for $3, so I'm just gonna cut that up.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Pretty sure I have 3 or 4 African Blackwood Burl trees in my backyard. I'd cut one of them down, but I found a solid African Blackwood Burl coffee table at the thrift store the other day for $3, so I'm just gonna cut that up.

You joke, but this is so many peoples reaction for some reason. When i first started this I tried to convince people that no, your local thrift store does not have some of the rarest, most expensive wood slabs on earth sitting around. But now I just go "uh huh, nice, you should sell those~"

For some reason, seeing woods like this always awakens the urge in people.

 

[daily_grind]

Greenberg Woods , that's the "Dunning-Kruger Effect." I recognize it, because sometimes in retrospect, I realize that I was the dummy.
And wow, that really does look like my coffee table ...

 

[thebrain]

Unrelated to knife shows but my wife once worked at a factory that made exotic wood interior trim for luxury cars, like shift knobs and steering wheel inserts. Very nice birds eye in exotic woods, I always wish I could have had my choice of their regects. Her supervisor traveled once a month to his native Japan for meetings and whatnot, his business card was three ply walnut veneer, he chose walnut because it is rare in Japan and therefore more impressive to his fellow Japanese business men.

 

[Sharp & Fiery]

You joke, but this is so many peoples reaction for some reason. When i first started this I tried to convince people that no, your local thrift store does not have some of the rarest, most expensive wood slabs on earth sitting around. But now I just go "uh huh, nice, you should sell those~"

For some reason, seeing woods like this always awakens the urge in people.

Goodness! I’ve got some of that in my woodpile out back…you want it?

 

[Lorien]

You joke, but this is so many peoples reaction for some reason. When i first started this I tried to convince people that no, your local thrift store does not have some of the rarest, most expensive wood slabs on earth sitting around. But now I just go "uh huh, nice, you should sell those~"

For some reason, seeing woods like this always awakens the urge in people.

good lord, man.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

good lord, man.

Now I just find it kind of funny. This interesting thing is, when I first started out and had woods like maple burl, redwood burl, and regular grain Rosewood, it made sense. You totally could find those woods at a thrift store if you got lucky.

But very time the woods I stocked got more unusual, but the comments didn't change. That was a little odd

 

[Lorien]

'good lord' as in- that is some sick wood!

 

[David Mary]

I'm guessing your average consumer can't distinguish between one "fancy grain wood" and another.

 

[ScarFoot]

Some of the fancy grain wood I got from Greenberg at Bladeshow. Of course I’m going to use it to make doorstops for my house that was carved from a solid piece of African Blackwood burl but it’s still pretty nice…

 

[C_Claycomb]

ScarFoot , I too bought Afzelia, Amboyna and acacia! Only mine were and still are blocks…and I got one curly narra

 

[Taz]

Amboyna and Afzelia! LOL. I already have some Acacia here from Ben.

 

[Alex Topfer]

I'm guessing your average consumer can't distinguish between one "fancy grain wood" and another.

Even among wood workers a lot of people struggle to distinguish different woods. Like Taz's photo there, i would believe that the far left is brown mallee, which is a eucalyptus not acacia. Identifying trees is hard without access to flowers and leaves, even them sometimes you need to resort to genetic testing

 

[David Mary]

Fair point. Though I didn't get the impression Taz was including acacia in the pic.

 

[Taz]

Left 2 are amboyna, right 3 are the Afzelia. The acacia isn't pictured.

 

[ScarFoot]

ScarFoot , I too bought Afzelia, Amboyna and acacia! Only mine were and still are blocks…and I got one curly narra

I bought all of that in hopes that some day I’ll be able to make knives nice enough to use it on.

 

[Taz]

Other stuff from Greenberg woods! Spalted maple on the bottom and top 2 are Golden Curly Acacia. Curly Acacia reminds me a lot of Curly Koa!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

That's because it is genus acacia.

 

[Taz]

That would explain it I guess! LOL. never got into the genus of trees!

 

[C_Claycomb]

I bought all of that in hopes that some day I’ll be able to make knives nice enough to use it on.

Me too!!!
Of course, if we listened to Ben, we would use (and buy) his fancy wood much sooner/quicker, and not save it for the day we are good enough to make something worthy of it! It might be good advice, but me thinks he might have ulterior motives!