Around Chicago there are a couple of Owl Hardwood Lumber outlets. I visited one in a search for some 12" or wider walnut. Right by the front door of the store laid out on the floor so you could almost trip over them was a stack of boards labeled Kwazinga (my spelling on this may be incorrect) The boards were 1 1/4" thick, 30" wide and 16' long. The wood was highly figured and very exotic looking, so I talked the manager into selling me a piece for a dashboard I needed to make. As it was explained to me, the wood is a variation of bubinga wood and almost identical to some smaller pieces of rosewood I have. One very important thing I discovered when working it is that it has no structural integrity as a solid board. Consequently, anyone buying the stuff as sold, hoping to make solid-wood projects out of it would be soreley disappointed; Soon after being dimensioned, it will begin to warp in every direction. The property of the wood that makes it so beautiful is the way the grain runs out every few inches, but this makes it practically unusable as a solid board. The dashboard worked only because it gets fastened down securely to sheet metal. Another problem is that it can't be planed - tearouts 1/8" or deeper develop inevitably. I made a firewall for a car out of it but only after running a wide piece down to 1/8" on a big sanding machine and laminating it to plywood. So anyone who buys this wood should be aware that it's only good for small pieces and veneering after being resawn and sanded.
- posted
18 years ago