Photos fron online dealers......

[Odie]

I an communicating with an online dealer of wood. This person usually posts good photos of the piece, except almost never a photo of the end grain. All photos of different angles are good to see, but from my POV, the end grain is among the most important. From your POV, what are you looking for before making an online purchase of wood?

-----odie-----

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

Holy smokes! I would want photos of both sides of end grain and top & bottom photos. I have a hard enough time deciding which blank to turn first when I rough out several dozen blanks. I can only imagine you have developed some Superman powers after buying wood online for a while, but sellers could sure help you to see into the wood via more photos.

 

[Tim Leiter]

Odie I have some marblewood and some black and white ebony pen blanks that look good on the outside but are plain, single color on the inside where the pen or seam ripper will be. I do not like the plain wood that I end up with. End grain photos would be nice.
Tim.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Most end grain is covered with a good layer of wax or anchorseal on a large percentage
of turning blanks inventoried by dealers catering to the wood turning world. Taking the time
to present these images would provide very little detail hidden under the sealing compound.
An X-ray or MRI image would provide information hidden inside a typical wood blank.
There are no guarantees imprinted on the seed when the tree is planted.

 

[Arkriver]

Yes you need the end grain picture. If there is a crack that is where it is most likely. The only time I would not worry about the end grain is if you are dealing with a dealer you trust and you can return the wood

 

[Bill Boehme]

The only wood that I have purchased online is from australianburls.com. They have always provided good pictures, but they have recently upgraded their website to make it even better. To see an example of how they are now doing it, click on this link and scroll down to the images. Click on any image and you will see the reverse side. There isn't any end grain in burls so this doesn't quite answer the question.