I'm getting ready to build myself a little box to hold the Japanese chisels SWMBO gave me for Xmas (I transport them back and forth to the community college for my WW class). I decided to make it out of some walnut left over from last semester but with an interesting top of some sort.
At the local Rockler store today I was sorting through their selection of "box top" material (swear to God it was labeled that way). Mostly burl slices and spalted this and thats. I found one I really like and brought it home, but I'm not sure what it is and the guy behind the counter couldn't help me. I'll try to describe it as best I can; if anybody has a good guess, I'd be interested.
The piece has three main colors. The lightest looks something like a figured maple. The darkest is about the shade of ground cinammon with darker, circular "leopard spots". In between is a sort of orangey-rosy color, again with somewhat darker leopard spots. The spots and the swirls give the surface of a sort of boiling oil kind of appearance. Sorry for all the inexact descriptors, but if anybody would like to get a look at it, drop me a private e-mail and I can send a picture.
TIA, Ian