KCWG exotic/rare wood sale

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  • GrumpyDad
    Established Member
    • Jul 2020
    • 163
    • Midwest
    • Ryobi BT3100, BT3000, Sawstop PCS

    KCWG exotic/rare wood sale

    This weekend at the Kansas City woodworkers guild...


    For those of you who came and purchased wood on January 30th, you will know how unique
    and amazing this wood collection is. To give you all a background, the collection was amassed over a 25-year timeframe by an internationally known flautist, Felix Skowronek. While being a philharmonic and ensemble artist for his entire career, he also took up the hobby of making wooden flutes and has been attributed for having brought the wooden flute back into popularity here in the US. When he passed away in 2006, his collection fell into his daughter’s hands. Andrea Skowronek is a well-known artist in her own right, having led several modern dance troupes around the country, including here in Kansas City. She is also an adjunct professor of dance at Kansas State University but resides here in Kansas City. She contacted the Guild to seek help in selling off her father’s collection of Australian hardwoods. Because the hardwoods (roughly 60+ different species totaling over 4000 pounds) are in billets measuring 1.5 square by 8”- 24” long, makes them perfect for turning or any other idea one might have to use it for. Myself, I saw tremendous value
    in many pieces that can be easily machined to use for knife scales or tool handles. One must realize that this wood has been in indoor conditions for the last 50 years and is dry as it could possibly be. Mr. Skowronek would travel to Australia over a period of more than 20 years, find a forester, locate the desired species he wanted, have the tree felled, milled and processed then shipped here to the US. His collection is massive and there is still easily over 3000 pounds of wood still available for purchase. We have had several folks from the IWCS contact us wanting to obtain some of this wood for their collections. There are close to 40 different species of Eucalyptus and well over 20 different species of Acacia in the collection. Mr. Skowronek was also quite fond of Mountain Mahogany gathered mostly in Oregon. This Mountain Mahogany is not really a mahogany species but is a relative of the rose family. Most importantly, this wood has a strong color resemblance to cherry and is a bit harder than cherry. It is a beautiful wood when turned, sanded and polished. One doesn’t often see Mountain Mahogany being sold commercially since it grows
    above 4000 feet and is not an easy tree to turn into lumber since it grows much like a bush and doesn’t grow large enough to produce dimension lumber. It’s also tough to get it down from those elevations in Oregon. I have read that Oregonians like to use it for smoking meat, much like we do with cherry, hickory and applewood.
    If you missed the sale on January 30th, don’t worry. The Kansas City Woodturner’s Club is going to hold a sale at the shop on February 27th and they intend to invite all the wood turning clubs in a 4-state region to come and take advantage of an exceedingly rare opportunity to get their hands on some truly exotic species. We will close the shop to normal shop activity on that Saturday to accommodate this sale. Open shop will resume at 2:00 that day, so make it in if you can. You will never find this type of wood for the price we will be selling it at. Don’t miss out on this incredible
    opportunity.
    Harumpf!
    GrumpyDad
  • GrumpyDad
    Established Member
    • Jul 2020
    • 163
    • Midwest
    • Ryobi BT3100, BT3000, Sawstop PCS

    #2
    I have seen this collection up close. It is amazing
    Harumpf!
    GrumpyDad

    Comment

    • leehljp
      Just me
      • Dec 2002
      • 8429
      • Tunica, MS
      • BT3000/3100

      #3
      I would love to attend that. If it were next weekend, it might would have been possible, as I will probably be visiting my daughter over that weekend in Springfield.
      Hank Lee

      Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!

      Comment

      • AlnaWoods
        Handtools only
        • May 2021
        • 2
        • Mid-coast Maine
        • Dewalt DWE 7480

        #4
        GD - being over (barely) two months out from your KC sale of this wood lot, I expect you may have depleted the stock. If not, I would be interested in what might be available and at what price. My daughter, an opera singer who coincidentally sang at KC opera, married a concert violinist and conductor from Rome. He is the current music director of the Salzburger Mozarteum Philharmonic Orchestra in Austria and I have on occasion made him various instruments for his collection. This would provide yet another possibility if any is still available. Thank you in advance and be well, Tom Aldrich
        FYI: https://www.kansascity.com/entertain...136588943.html

        Comment

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