Buckeye Burl (Aesculus californica) is an unusual species. Colors range from blue-black to golden whites with a nice mixture in between. Buckeye is a very difficult and expensive wood to mill. Some of the obstacles faced when milling are rocks, sand, dirt, bullets, and nails. When converting a log into usable wood there is usually between 60-75% waste. Buckeye is processed all the way down to half pen blanks to yield everything possible. Buckeye is purchased in raw form by the pound and then trucked to our mill. About a third of the cost of milling is labor, followed by blades. When the wood dries it loses almost all of its weight. A block that weighed 7 pounds wet only weighs a little over a pound when it dried. This is why it is sold by the piece so that you get the best value.
Saleable Buckeye will commonly have bark incursions, live edges, and small voids. These are commonly filled with crushed minerals or left as voids to add natural beauty in finished projects.
