New Halfmoon Boxes 7/18/05
I have six Halfmoon Boxes as of July 2005. This is probably the most I've ever had at one time. These range in size from only 9" tall, to the largest I've ever made, at 18" tall.
I am working on a new box that will be similar to two previous ones, "Bull's-Eye" and "Omega". The new box will be about 18" tall .The body will be made of cherry ply, with ebony hinges latches, and feet. The trays will be made of curly maple. The image below is of the "Omega", which sold last November. I hope to finish the new one in August.
(Please note that the thuya burl info below is out of date, but many visitors to my site have found it interesting, so I am leaving it, for now. I have been waiting over a year for a large shipment of thuya burls from Morocco, but it keeps being delayed. I still have a little wood left from the original burl and from a few smaller ones I bought later. If you are interested in a thuya burl box, please give me a call or send an e-mail. Thanks!)
I recently bought a beautiful Thuya Burl from my friends at Cormark International. Thuya burls come from Morocco, where they grow on the roots of trees that were cut long ago in the mountainous deserts of this area. It is a quite involved process to find the burls, dig them out of the ground, clean them up, then ship them to the United States. By the time they arrive here they are extremely expensive, and sold by the pound. But, their beauty is worth the expense! The burl I selected is one of the very best (and largest) from Cormark's first shipment of 6000 lbs. of Thuya burls.
The photos above show the burl resting on the tailgate of my truck. You can't tell from these photos, but the grain of the burl is full of wonderful swirls, eyes, and curls. When finished, Thuya burl looks somewhat similar to redwood burl but is more golden brown in color and less red. The wood is much denser and harder than redwood, feels much smoother and takes a deeper polish. Thuya is in the cedar family, and when freshly cut has the aroma of freshly sharpened pencils.
This photo gives an idea of the intense figure in the burl. However, this photo was taken of a chain-sawn surface heavily coated in wax. Just imagine what the wood will look like when it is sanded smooth and hand-rubbed with oil!
I bought a smaller burl last summer, made a few boxes from it and sold them very quickly. This burl is much larger, weighing over 100 lbs., so I will be able to make several boxes from it, mostly in the larger sizes. Before I can make boxes, though, the wood has to be sawn into thinner slabs and allowed to dry fully. It will be a few months before I'm able to start making boxes, depending on how much moisture is in the wood when I begin to dry it. The expense of the Thuya burl will put boxes made from it into the +75% price bracket. If you are interested in pre-ordering one of these boxes, or would like to be notified when some of the boxes are ready, please contact me by e-mail or phone.
Thuya Update: 01/12/03
I have resawn the burl and stickered it up to dry. It was fairly dry already (18% moisture content), so I expect to be able to begin making boxes from it in a couple of months. The image below shows the stacks of sawn lumber ready to be dried.
The burl provided enough material for 20 boxes: BX-19 (1), BX-18 (3), BX-17 (4), BX-08 (4), BX-05 (1), BX-04 (2), BX-02 (2), BX-01 (3). All of these boxes are available for pre-order at this time. Need some extra encouragement? Look at the next image!
This is a scan of a slice of the burl directly from the resaw, no sanding, planing, or finish applied. The vertical lines you see are saw marks. Burl just doesn't get much better than this, folks!
As of 6/1/03, the thuya burl is dry and ready for use. I have already made some boxes with it, and there are currently some listed in Boxes Available... The wood looks great ! Check out the image on the Wood Selection page. This wood is well worth the expense, effort, and wait!
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