Ha, ha, ha. I think it's something that happens because of its abundance. Also, since Teak has a lot of oils, it makes for great kindling as it repels water. But I get the point, I believe some people keep the best pieces to make nice things.
Oh, yeah, purpleheart has some level of toxicity, but as long as you keep your eyes and nostrils protected all will be fine.
I'm keen to see what you make with all these planks, should keep you busy for a few weekends
You and me both! It's gonna be some busy weekends!
Have a great weekend!
Hey there, thanks for the reply.
Hmmm, reading that actually makes me feel kind of uncomfortable. I simply can't deal with the idea of people burning good wood!
I'll tell you a similar story from my late father. He used to go to Rare Woods relatively often and they have a warehouse that sits adjacent to the main shop. This warehouse is basically a big store room of offcuts. Lots and lots of offcuts of different wood. I love wood and I've used a few different types for various DIY projects through the years.
He was there trawling through the wood trying to find some ebony for a set of handles that he had to make on the lathe, but what he found instead was actually even better. African BlackWood. This stuff is as tough as nails and f00king expensive. Beautiful to work with for carving because of it's density but it's also known to completely wreck normal carving tools and you kind of need to use industrial tools on this stuff. Anyway there were bags of offcuts that the guy there had discarded as worthy of firewood as they were too small for anything substantial. Needless to say I have a few nice pieces of African Blackwood that I'm keeping for something special. I would imagine that it would be great for inlays. If you cut it with a jewellers saw, you have to use the cutting blades made for steel. Have you ever used it in a project?
This is from the Rare Woods website - it's apparently very popular in guitar making.
"SPECIES DESCRIPTION
Without question, the densest and most un-rosewood-like of the Dalbergia’s (for our money, at least!), African Blackwood is a consistent favorite with acoustic guitar luthiers, wood turners, carvers and fine furniture craftsmen, alike; it remains one of the world’s most coveted musical woods. African Blackwood often appears almost completely black, with its grains hardly discernible. (… thus the name. After sanding, a deep, very dark chocolate color emerges.)"
So there's my rambling addition to your weekend woodworking post 🙂
Hey, I love to engage with fellows DIYers.
I can't say much about things like that. I mean a lot of good wood goes to waste every year for many reasons. But I don't like the teak-kindling situation one bit. It should be up to the regional government to do something about it.
I see. Once someone sent me a picture of a 5$ section of exotic woods offcuts. It was interesting to see how many things end on those sections that can be use for carving and instruments in general.
The story is lovely. Also one of those Colombus-like cases, he went looking for copper and found gold. I guess the wood was cheap since it was in that place. Most hard woods are a pain to work, the ones that have other particles inside, something that's also found in sand. That's why the dull edges so quick. About that African Blackwood it is interesting how it is a part of the Dalbergia Family. So it is a darker version of any Rosewood. And for the looks of it a very interesting one to work some things. I bet many Ebony things are actually this wood since Ebony is so scarce. I have never used something similar. Don't think people actually import that kind of wood here.
Ha, ha, ha. "For our money," that killed me! It's an interesting choice to say the least. I also think it is cheaper than Ebony and as expensive as Rosewood. But I don't know. Materials for instruments are quite expensive when they are cut to shape.
One good rambling deserves another! 😄