Has anyone had any experience working with Brazilian CHerry. They tell me that its harder than Oak and has nice colour. The salesman couldn't tell me how it machines or takes a finish. Any knowledge that any of you have would be appreciated.
Got some last year when Woodcraft had a sale on it. It is definitely hard, it machines well, but the end grain is prone to longitudinal splintering when it tears out. Has some interesting "flecks" in it. It really more resembles an oak or other open-grained wood than cherry as far as grain goes. In color, it finishes well with oil (I used danish oil on the one thing I've built with it thus far). Didn't have any luck scraping or hand-planing it (but I seldom do with anything yet, I keep trying however), it does sand to a very nice surface.
Also has a lot of movement.
M Hamlin
If this is for a floor, a similar but much easier wood, and quite beautiful is Santos Mahogany.
"chalk" wrote in news:1UqPa.59562$ snipped-for-privacy@news1.telusplanet.net:
I installed about 700 sq-ft of the stuff for flooring. I love it, but it's a bear to work with. It's tough on your tools (and lungs) but it can take a nice finish. I don't think I'd use it on non-flooring applications, though, since you can get stuff that looks just as good but that's a whole lot easier to work with (like mahogany). Good Luck, Matt
On the Janka hardness scale, Yellow Pine is 660, Red Oak is 1290, Hickory is
1820 and Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba) is 2350. There are few woods, such as Teak, Ebony and Lignum Vitae that are harder. I built a couple of tables out of it. It is heavy and hard and gave my Powermatic mortiser a run for its money. Obviously, it is harder on tools than other softer species, but it is a beautiful wood and IMHO, I think it is worth the effort. It has a reddish brown color that darkens with exposure.I've been working with jatoba for quite a few months now, here's my take on it:
I've made my router table fence with it, made a coat hanger, a mallet and right now I'm working on a bass guitar using jatoba for 1/4" laminations on the neck and 1/4" top and back ...it should come out great.
.. oh and did I say that it's just BEAUTIFUL stuff?
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