I remember my first and only encounter with Bois de Rose. I had just started working at a respected wood dealer and they had some in stock. I was amazed at the deep translucent purple of the heartwood.
Know Your Woods
Know Your Woods
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Merbau is an attractive wood, strong as hickory and almost as stable as teak.
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Often described as the most beautiful tree in the American forest, the southern magnolia impresses with its foot long white flowers and an unmistakable floral scent.
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It’s easy as woodworkers to see trees solely as a source of wood for our projects; but in fact, there are a lot of species that we use for other purposes such as food, paper or cooking. Tamarind is such a tree. While often planted as an ornamental, it is mostly propagated for its fruit.
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Tineo is a strikingly beautiful wood, usually available as a veneer only. The heartwood shows colour tones progressing from pink to apple red to orange.
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Despite being one of the dominant tree species of our boreal forest, black spruce is a tree that doesn’t get much respect. Harvested mostly for studs and making pulp for paper, it’s a tree that has rarely made it into the arena of fine woodworking.
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Famous for the tasty fruit they produce, pecan is a wood that is usually taken for granted by woodworkers. A member of the hickory genus, pecan shares many woodworking characteristics with its more widely known relatives.
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Working with Greenheart can be difficult due to its density. It will blunt tools quickly. Straight grained pieces will plane nicely, but the interlocked pieces are prone to tear out.
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The grain is usually straight but is often irregular and occasionally wild. This can give the wood a distinctive look but tearout when machining or shaping can occur.
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It is renownrd as an acoustic soundboard in stringed instruments, harps and pianos. It is also a favoured wood in the aircraft and shipbuilding industries.
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Once a true specialty wood with specific applications, the Palm woods are seeing a resurgence in use.
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Bog Oak is one of the rarest woods in the world. Each piece has a singular life history, driven by a process of fossilization, interrupted by an act of discovery.
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Often called Royal Mexican Ebony, it is increasingly being used in place of the well-known Gaboon Ebony from Africa.
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The Banksia pod is probably the most bizarre looking item to land on the bench of any woodworker. Difficult to describe, they bear a faint resemblance to a large pinecone, albeit a psychedelic one.
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Verawood is the common name of two closely related species, Bulnesia arborea and Bulnesia sarmientoi. Their story is really about their close relative Lignum Vitae.
