I've got a few dozen board feet of QS sycamore. It's great. Koa I've been kind of avoiding, because I'm not sure about availability...it is an endangered species in Hawaii now, though it is being plantation grown. Chestnut...ah, dreams? I could zip over to the Blue Ridge Parkway and swipe some fence rails, I guess...
Charlie Self
"I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it." George Carlin
I recently built a box out of Cypress. The grain is beautiful when stained to bring out the grain. I'll send you a picture if you like. Reply to my in-box
Tough question, but it depends on your definition of exotic. To many, an exotic represents something that may be difficult to get, expensive, and/or foreign. For instance - I can't easily get mesquite or alder in the great white northeast, so to me, they're somewhat exotic. You could consider something like purpleheart or jatoba an exotic, but in the places they're from, they seem to be as common as maple or poplar is to us. Besides, I have plenty of the stuff in my shop, something I can't say about many domestic species.
True US domestic exotics might be any of the curlies - maple, cherry, redwood, ash, oak, etc. I have some small pieces of curly ash that I'm afraid to use, they have more value to me than any chunk of padauk or cocobolo. Also, trees that are either rare or have a very limited yield. My favorites include hophornbeam, honey locust, lilac, apple and anything spalted. Most of us consider koa an exotic, even though it's technically a US species.
I've also got some cypress boards here: it's great for some things, but it's not a hardwood. Though I forgot to specify in my original post, I'd like the woods to be hardwoods, if at all possible.
Charlie Self
"I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it." George Carlin
I'd love to get hold of chinaberry, hophornbeam, honey locust or apple. Lilac doesn't do much for me, probably related to the fact that the basic of most lilacs are ideal breeding places for yellowjackets, my most hated insect/animal.
But where? Are these woods so localized they're not useful to most of us? I can get hold of good old fashioned post (black) locust down in Virginia almost any time, though in small sizes. Honey locust is a whole 'nother thing. Apple is a hit and miss proposition...you almost have to catch an orchard changing over, uprooting trees, and grab before burn day.
Charlie Self
"I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it." George Carlin
I was going to suggest black locust, but figured you had already considered it. It's not really exotic, but pretty rarely used as boards. There is at least one company down in North Carolina that mills black locust into flooring. From what I know of locust wood that should be some long lasting flooring. I'm thinking about using it when I tear up the carpet and put in hardwood in my family room.
When I was heating with wood 20 years ago I learned that green locust was easy to cut with a chainsaw, but almost impossible to split. Well cured it was just the opposite, you could split it fairly easily, but it would dull a chainsaw trying to cut it. It burns nice when it's good and dry, terrible when it's green.
Isn't one of the lacewood species native to the US?
Besides that, and the others already mentioned, I'd add camphor and live oak. There are native mahogany trees and cuban mahoganies in South Florida. There are a number of woods that are quite stunning when spalted including maple, camphor and magnolia. I also like ambrosia maple, which can often be gotten significantly cheaper than plain maple.
It took you to get me out of lurk mode. I vote for sassafras. Great wood to work with, pretty grain and color, and when you do work with it you're in a cloud of that sassafras smell. Very enjoyable stuff.
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