It started last night actually. I lopped off the end of a cocobolo board, and cut from that a section I then resawed to 7/8".
I decided to knock off the blade marks before continuing, and had to square it up anyway, so I put my nice smoother to the wood and took off all the blurry stuff.
Underneath was a satiny, shiny, smooth as silk wood that glistens with silicates in the moonlight, faint traces marking the attentions of a blade. The figure undulates through the wood, the dark lines gathering in places to make one larger dark line for a moment, and just off to the side of a small knot are a cluster of tiny bronze frog-eyes. Well-defined bands of orange course through one part, and tan heights surrounded by topological bands in another. The newly exposed wood has more colors and contrast inside than the outer surface of the board. This will change.
Spilling out of the mouth of my plane are creams, yellows, oranges, and chocolate browns, almost blacks, and pink-browns. All with an oily shine. the wood's dense and hard and feels good under the pads of my fingers.
It was too much for my little plane, though. The grain was too wild, and there was a little tearout even though I stopped frequently to hone. I worked over a scraper blade, filed, honed on an oilstone, burnished the flats, burnished the edges, then turned them over. More shavings, and the tearout began to disappear--I stopped when I was satisfied it was. Didn't need a finish yet, I just wanted to look.
I've spray-glued some patterns on one face of the resawn board, but won't cut that 'til tomorrow.
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