what kind of wood is this?

[Enoch Root]

I've been calling it rosewood... but really I have no idea, only that it is *very* hard (compared, for example, to a girls hip), a bit interwoven in the grain (here and there), and the spokeshave chips look like this:

(sorry the image is a little big...)

Any ideas?

I also don't think the blade was as sharp as it could be (I'm new at this...) or is that chattering (which I don't remember feeling) something unavoidable?

[RampRat]

Looks to me like lacewood. Do a Google image search for lacewood and compare. Rick

[Enoch Root]

Hi Rick,

Thanks... I looked around and I don't think that's what it is. The strip is about 7/8" wide if that's any help.

The wood has a very open grain, and the pale ares are, near as I can determine, pores of much softer wood.

The wood is much darker than what google's showing me of lacewood.

I guess a shaving isn't a very good way to show the wood. Maybe this is better:

that: it probably looks more like what your eyes see if you have the zoom on the picture set to about 33%. It's dark, it doesn't seem stripey or dotted if you just look at it... unless you look close. :)

er

[bridger]

is it heavy, resinous and dulls the tools rapidly? might be apatong or something in that family.

[Robatoy]

Hard to tell...but could it be padouk?

[Enoch Root]

It's not resinous... I think. I mean, it doesn't have an oily feeling...

It's hard enough to be considered hard on tools, though. I could see a thin white line on the tip of my blade after maybe 1/2 hour of straight shaving or so.

But no pitch or oil if I'm looking at it right.

er

[Enoch Root]

Seems not smooth enough? I think it might be harder, too (although, never having cut padouk...)

It also doesn't have orange colors... more like a walnut. I posted a second picture a bit upthread...

It's very rigid, not bending very much at all when I torque a ~1/2" piece between my hands.

er

[bridger]

if it was padouk it would have been immediately obvious the first time you touched it with sandpaper.

the orange color is intense. even a small amount of fine sawdust will stain whatever it touches bright red.

[P van Rijckevorsel]

Enoch Root" schreef >

*** Definitely nowhere near apitong. Surely not a rosewood or padouk. But it is almost surely one of the Legumes.

PvR