Ok guys when I finally get my big lathe I really want to start turning some lamps but finding the wood to do it is the hard part. Where will I go to find some dry walnut big enough to make a lamp out of? (doesn't necessarily have to be walnut either) but as long as it is kiln dried.

Cameron

You're pretty far away from civilization, but I suspect that there are a few timber dealers in your area who sell walnut and other domestic woods.

But if you are willing to drive a bit - I've bought walnut scraps from Vermont Bowl Company in Wilmington (west of Brattleboro).  They are small, but the can be glued up to make larger blanks.

Another option for both domestic and exotic timber is Berkshire Lumber in Sheffield, MA (on the Connecticut border south of Great Barrington).

Cameron Baxter wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2017 at 12:44am:


What size blanks are you looking for?

Cameron. If you do some research you may find plans for making up lamp blanks out of a variety of woods, giving you some fancy shapes & forms on the finished surface.

You might find sone nominal 4x4 mahogany or redwood at a local lumber store.  Some areas have stores that cater to woodworkers and they carry 4x4 dry stock for table legs.  There is a good store in near Knoxville TN if you are in this area.  On line you can sometimes find heavy stock.  At different times the store here has ash, maple, walnut and sometimes other species in the 4x4.  Ash is a good choice if you can use a light colored wood because it dries fast and they cut a lot of baseball bat blanks.    Another source for interesting large pieces of wood might be a salvage yard.  Thick pieces of walnut and oak are pretty expensive because of the very long time to dry them.  You do not see a lot of kiln dried 4 inch thick walnut for sale.  In the long run finding or building a supply of wood is the biggest investment of money, time, and space in turning.
While actual kiln dried stock is vital to most woodworking, turning is the one area where you can get buy with air dried or green stock if you go to some extra efforts and have some time for it to dry.  Sawmills sometimes cut thick stock for mantels.  Log home companies sometimes have thick stock.  I used to be able to find wood reasonably easily in our area but one side effect of the furniture industry in this area closing up is that the wood supply for it no longer exists. There are no more turning mills for legs and lamps and things so thee is no wood supply being cut  for them.
If you can find a local person wiho cuts wood with a Woodmizer or similar setup that is one way to get wood cut to the sizes you need.  Then air dry it and learn to work with it that way.