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I have been shaving with a straight for about a year and was starting to get interested in making brushes. I was wondering if anyone has some good places I can get exotic wood that I can use to make brush handles. Any suggestions would be very appreciated and also if this is in the incorrect location please move me to the correct one. Thanks
I don't know where you live but most decent sized towns have at least one lumber supplier that sells exotic wood and often times you can get some trim pieces for a good buy. I know there are places on line that sell the really exotic stuff but they can be pretty expensive.
Lots of great woods on the bay,BUT,very few woods are applicable to wet applications no matter what type of finish is applied.
Stick with the high oil content woods such as The delbergias (Rosewood,Cocobolo Etc) Lignum,Ebony is always a good bet because of it's density.
Try to buy well seasoned or Kiln dried material (Moisture < 10%).
Than you have the resin impreganated stuff,thats a whole differant convo.
Rockler and Woodcraft sell 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x whatever in exotics. Prices are reasonable. Other good ones are Olivewood, Bubinga, African Blackwood (my favorite), Desert Ironwood, etc. Because these are turning blanks, they usually are not dried, and are coated with wax. I have never had problems with that. There are several other online sources for turning supplies.
Check out Penn State Industries and Packard Woodworks - they specialize in woodturning. In addition to tools and supplies they sell turning blanks. They have lots of stuff, unfortunatly a lot of their wood comes as pen blanks which of course would be too small. Look at the blanks they sell for pepper mills, however - these are larger and may yield 2-3 brush handles each (I think, I do not remember the exact size)