Yeah, I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. I need to find somewhere local that has a decent tool supply and, more importantly, decent wood supplies. Surprisingly up here in the Seattle area there seems to be a dearth of such suppliers. Over in Spokane we had a really good shop, here I'm struggling to find any half-way decent wood/tool shops.
Last time I bought some walnut burl on line, it turned out to be pretty ratty and sopping wet through. Once it dried it was warped and split all over so I'm a bit wary of going via ebay for blanks now. Luckily the biggest lump I'll need will be 4x2" so hopefully I'll be able to dig something up that's more suitable.