Chisel handle wood, green heart?

[AArDvarK]

was emailing with Harris Tools, Costa Rica, and asked what wood the handles are made of on their chisels, he said they ship with either Cocobolo or "Green Heart", I cannot find anything about any wood called "Green Heart" on the 'net, anyone know what it is? Is there another name for it?

And if it is to be known better, which handles should I choose? My point in choice would be for durability, not asthetics.

Thanks all,

Alex

[J. Clarke]

Try "greenheart".

[Doug Miller]

Search for "greenheart" as one word, e.g.

Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

[Frank McVey]

Hi, Alex,

Greenheart is a very heavy, dense timber from Guyana, among other places. It was used a lot for things like bridges, ship-building, piers, docks, canal lock-gates etc, because marine borers don't like to eat it.

I'm fairly sure that my uncle had a fishing rod made of split greenheart.

No reason that it wouldn't make good tool handles - it's certainly tough and durable.

Cheers

Frank

[AArDvarK]

Thanks much! I did my homework on it, it looks like it is the wood I would choose, he offers to put steel hoops on the handles for another $35 too, I think I will. This wood is known to explode when kerf hits in and the air strikes it upon first cut in the mill as I read, very interesting.

Alex

[AArDvarK]

Alex

[Charlie Self]

AArDvarK notes:

Which is why yahoo is not the search engine of choice for many people or things.

Charlie Self "It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man." H. L. Mencken

[J. Clarke]

Try google instead. And instead of "wood" try "lumber".

[AArDvarK]

They have one great deal going though, free email with a capacity of 100 MB and the SPAM they catch for you goes into the bulk folder automatically, doesn't count towards that capacity limit. That is cool.

Alex

[J T]

Fri, Jun 25, 2004, 11:50am (EDT+4) [e-mail] (Doug=A0Miller) says: Search for "greenheart" as one word, e.g.

But, also interesting results using it as two words, and addding wood. your brain - it's the small things that count.

- Bazooka Joe

[P van Rijckevorsel]

places. It was used a lot for things like bridges, ship-building, piers, docks, canal lock-gates etc, because marine borers don't like to eat it. I'm fairly sure that my uncle had a fishing rod made of split greenheart. No reason that it wouldn't make good tool handles - it's certainly tough and durable.

AArDvarK schreef

choose, he offers to put steel hoops on the handles for another $35 too, I think I will. This wood is known to explode when kerf hits in and the air strikes it upon first cut in the mill as I read, very interesting.

• + + Careful here, greenheart is a trade name, which means it can be used for more than one wood. The best known greenheart is the Demerara greenheart, Chlorocardium rodiei (syn Ocotea rodiei) from Guyana (almost exclusively British Guyana) which is used mostly for marine construction.

A really long way off would be African greenheart, Cylicodiscus gabunensis.

It seems most likely that anybody in Costa Rica would be using a wood grown locally, which suggests that it concerns a species of Tabebuia, commonly know as greenheart, aka lapacho, pau d'arco, ipê (in the wreck "ipe"), etc, etc. PvR