Wood junkies unite

tryppyr

tryppyr

Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Messages
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I think you all probably figured out I'm a wood junkie. Now i spend time on gilmerwood.com, despite the fact my shop is officially shut down for a while.

Lately I have been fascinated by a rare wood called Bois du Rose. Check it out:

BdR1.jpg


Gorgeous, isn't it? Problem is this wood is normally cut for fingerboards for guitars... which means it is cut so that the end grain doesn't show. Even worse, the red color darkens with exposure, resulting in something dull and unattractive:

BdR2.jpg


The wood junkie in me wants to spend $450 to buy that log and cut it into 50 or so block sized pieces with the end grain visible... get them stabilized and hope (beyond hope) that doing so halts the tanning process.

Sigh... pipe dream.
 
Bois de Rose = Wood of Rose = rosewood. Really lovely wood. One of my favorites.
 
I would do a test piece 1st.
Some of the rosewoods don't like getting stabilized.
If I was cutting this wood I would try for flat sawn. Faces parallel to the outer surface of the logs.
Quarter sawing would be more stable but would just be thin stripes.
Chances are being in log form it will still need drying time.

I agree with you about Gilmer's. They get some cool wood at times.
It is always fun to go to Portland and spend the day digging through their warehouse.
 
I'm not as "bad" as you, Greg, but I'm guilty.
I just bought a larger piece of blackwood that is just a piece of branche split in the middle.
Black in the centre with creamy sapwood on either side. It still shows the barky outside.
I doubt it will ever be used, most likely it will just lay around the house being pretty.
Nature can be art as well.

The colour of that rose wood (aka palisander) reminds me of Baiha rosewood. Is it that? (santos palisander?)

All the names! Understanding the names is a chalange on its own
 
I've seen a few of your posts about Gilmer and went to google them to find they're in my town. Took my first trip over a week ago. Pretty amazing place. Only picked a few of the $1 blocks from the off cuts bin. Got a few pieces of cocobolo and some bloodwood. I'll have to see how good of a job I can do ripping them into scales by hand or start some hidden tang style knives :P

A couple bad photos of their goodies.

http://flic.kr/p/nW6HJZ


http://flic.kr/p/ofnaJv
 
Even as a newbie I have caught the "wood bug!" I was recently in Kenya on a mission trip and while there we went to an outdoor market where they were selling carved "ebony" animals. I was able to buy a 6 inch log of the "ebony" to bring back. As it turns out it really is African Blackwood (Dalbergia Melanoxylon )which is a member of the rosewood family. The first photo is my attempt to cut it into scales. Unfortunately the center is pretty bad. I'm going to try to salvage a couple of pairs. photo 1.jpg have to check out Gilmer, sounds cool. I've been addicted to Burl Source thus far.I've only been at this knife making thing for 5 months and this is my collection of wood so far. My wife thinks I'm crazy but you can't have too much wood can you? photo 2.jpg
 
The wife thing is easy to deal with.
Every once in a while buy a really good piece for her.
Usually a comment like "It is really too pretty to cut up and use, but I thought you might like it".
The only bad thing is you can't get them back.
My wife has a shelf lined up with some of what used to be my very best pieces.
I only tried to get one back, once. It ended up costing me a damascus kitchen knife.
 
Totally OT, but the thread title and the recent drift of discussion reminded me of a conference center sign back in the 80's. It was for a United Methodist Church singles conference weekend. The marque said, " Welcome Untied Methodists".
 
I sometimes follow "tree huggers" to get good leads but you guys need therapy. I have this "friend" that has this problem but I am under complete control...yeah, that's it.
 
I just love this piece. I like the contrast, being half a branch on the outside and showing natures beauty on the inside.
It'll get a handsand and then then a place somwhere in the house to shut up and be pretty.
(blackwood)
SAM_1612.JPG

SAM_1613.JPG
 
Im moving so Ive been cleaning up my shop a bit and have been finding small boxes of off cuts; ebony, rosewood, blood wood, sycamore, yellow heart, american and african mahogany.. and that doesnt include my wood shelf or the two moving boxes in my storage unit.. I left another box of oak, maple and walnut at a friends place.. i already had enough.
 
tattooedfreak said:
Im moving so Ive been cleaning up my shop a bit and have been finding small boxes of off cuts; ebony, rosewood, blood wood, sycamore, yellow heart, american and african mahogany.. and that doesnt include my wood shelf or the two moving boxes in my storage unit.. I left another box of oak, maple and walnut at a friends place.. i already had enough.
Click to expand...

I'm unclear on the concept of "enough". That word has no meaning to me.
 
hehe Ok, enough walnut, maple and oak.. not enough wood... I have some pear and apple drying in the backyard.
 
My uncle ran a successful cabinet shop for decades. Last Christmas, he had a fire going in the fireplace, and he was burning his end cuts of black walnut, various mahoganies, oak, teak etc. nothing too exotic, but several hundred dollars in board feet. He has scraps to the rafters. He gave me some of the better pieces for making cutting boards.
 
For over 20 years making cabinets I tossed every piece of crotch I came across in the trash box
 
Everytime I visit my father, he gives me all his offcuts from whatever he builds. I have so much birdseye maple that I used it for door lintles. Im hoping he gives me something new next time :-)
 
Every winter, we make the first fire in the fireplace our $1000 fire. I bring in the barrel of handle wood end cuts, trimmings, bad pieces, etc from the shop. We light the fire and toss in the pieces by the handful. I end up setting aside a lot of pieces saying, "Hmmmm, this one isn't so bad." I take a box full back to the shop the next day. Most probably end up back in the barrel for next years fire :)
 
bladsmth said:
Every winter, we make the first fire in the fireplace our $1000 fire. I bring in the barrel of handle wood end cuts, trimmings, bad pieces, etc from the shop. We light the fire and toss in the pieces by the handful. I end up setting aside a lot of pieces saying, "Hmmmm, this one isn't so bad." I take a box full back to the shop the next day. Most probably end up back in the barrel for next years fire :)
Click to expand...

My exGF started to make jewelery out of those kind of cut off bits. I keep a lot of stuff thinking that it could end up being used for something...
 
My small cut offs often get used as color contrast pieces for other projects. I hate being wasteful.
 
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