turningblanks.net - good people, bad stock

[Last Visible Canary]

I purchased a set of 8 turning blanks from turningblanks.net, and 5 of them had obvious powderpost beetle exit holes. most of the holes were covered in wax, meaning they were present when handled by the crew, but some of them were eaten through the wax. I've had them sequestered in a sealed box, and have checked them twice since, each time finding a beetle roaming around lookin for a mate to lay more eggs.

I'm positive that if I were to ask them to replace the stock, they would. Nothing about my interactions with them thus far (I've informed them of some of the issues, and just sent them an email with a picture of the active beetles) has told me that they would do anything less, however...

if they are waxing stock that has obvious beetle infestation without treating the wood for the infestation, I kinda have to tell people to avoid them at all costs. getting a piece of wood that's infested with larvae could decimate your entire stock if you have mostly wood they like (in this case they're all over the beech).

So, turningblanks.net is staffed by awesome accommodating folks, but their stock is dangerous. If your willing to go through the hassle of taking the wax off, treating the wood for the bugs and resealing it, the prices are awesome.

if your looking for stock you can use right out of the box, pay extra for places like west penn's hardwoods.

this has been edited (but not erased) because I was completely inexperienced with buying green wood at the time. turningblank.net has some of the most amazing green wood blanks on available at some of the lowest prices - wood beetles and all. You just have to be willing to use the wood filler, quarenteen the stock, and for your troubles you get absolutely stunning figure, grain patterns, and color.

 

[Mike0922]

I know this is an old post, but I wanted to chime in. I’m Mike, co-owner of Got Wood? Just wanted to say that I wish that the above issue had been brought to our attention at the time the problem occurred. We always stand behind our products and will always make things right. The issue mentioned here is one that we work very hard to prevent, as stopping the spread of wood boring pests is of very high importance. With problems like chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, emerald ash borers and thousand cankers disease killing our domestic hardwoods both in the past and today, being cautious is very important. It is obvious that we did indeed mess up in this situation. If, however, the person who originally posted this is still available, we would still like to make things right. Even better, though, that this has happened years after this purchase was made. We are now also a supplier of knife handle blank material, so we can replace these pieces with something much more well suited to knife making rather than wood turning.