Originally posted by just1tym:
^^^^ Beautiful, Afzelia burl is one of my all time favorites! ^^^^
Interesting story. I originally started my wood fetish when looking at all the beautiful figured woods by the major grip dealers, Esmeralda, Larry Davidson, Sarges, Brian Challis and others. I contracted Brian to carve a book matched set of Desert Ironwoods and purchased a 25-30lb block of freshly cut Desert Ironwood cut from a downed tree out west from an online dealer. I had it directly sent to Brian to work his magic. Being a novice, it arrived at Brian"s door and he informed me that first off, it needed to be further dried, and secondly, he would have to find the best way to carve the block to find what I had in mind. Some finely figured wood with some sap to give it a 2-tone appearance..easier said than done I learned. Brian would give me a valuable education and try to get me what I desired, in addition to his main work schedule as a wood artisan contracted by various customers to craft and design wood artwork for their homes and businesses. Grip making was not his main work and afterwards his grips became best sellers and gained notoriety. He had to chop a lot of my Ironwood block just to get a few good pairs to work with, in addition to yielding good book matched pairs...no easy task either, you certainly need to know your way around wood. In the end, he finally managed finding what I requested and crafted this great pair of figured Desert Ironwood grips for me. Since, Brian has carved a few more for me whenever I found some rather unique wood for him to create his magic. I snapped off a photo, which doesn't really do them justice, but I like them...