Wood Notes
Posted by Gerry on Oct 27th 2020
Customers at shows often ask about woods that I’ve made pen from. These are my shop notes about wood species I've used and my experience with them. There are probably twice this many wood species that I’ve used, but I only made notes about these.
Cocobolo – Mexican Coco is the best color, more red. Avoid Honduras, starts orange and turns grey
Bocote – Yellow and gold with dark lines is best
Bocote crosscut – Pretty but not stable
Maple Burl – Stabilized only, looks better with stain
Buckeye burl - needs a stain, must be stabilized
Curley Maple – use a stain to make it darker
Birdeye Maple – use stain to make it darker
Amboyna Burl – All types are good, exhibition grade is best, minimal sap is best
Red Cedar – Only if it has some small knots, use burgundy wood dye
Gabon Ebony – Don’t use, will crack
Black Walnut - looks good on furniture, boring on a pen
English Walnut - Better than black walnut, still boring
Texas Persimmon – better than ebony
Black & White Ebony – Some good, some not so good
Lignum Vitae (Argentine) - makes a good pen, green tint
Lignum Vitae (Mexico) good pen, brown tint
Coolibah Burl – needs void fill and extra finish
Rosewood – Brazilian is protected, don’t use
Bois de Rose (Madagascar) - rare and beautiful
Rosewood other – use only burls
Jatoba – always disappoints, try a stain or dye
Redheart & Bloodwood – good for segmenting, turns dark brown over time
Purpleheart – good for segmenting
Bethlehem Olive Wood – use best grade only, high contrast between brown and black lines
Black Palm & Red Palm – cross grain is interesting but hard to turn without shattering
Holly – very white, ok for segment
Wenge – Hard to finish, open grain
Zebra – crosscut and angle cut good, hard to turn. Straight grain is boring
Pink Ivory – will develop cracks
Snakewood – usually develops cracks
Ipe – well figured only
Cuban Mahogany – some crouch wood was good
Koa – curly only
Tamgooti – curly only, crazy lot of curls
Beeswing Narra - Nice curls
Koa (Hawaii) - great curls
Blue Mangrove – Protected, don’t use
Mesquite – usually disappoints
Cherry – fades over time, curly is not very curly, try staining red
Ebony - cracks, no matter how old or how dry, it develops cracks
Blackwood – good solid black, does not crack like ebony
Desert Ironwood – not protected but it should be. Yard and park grown is good
Leapordwood – looks good as a slab, disappoints as a pen
Beefwood – pretty, needs a better name
Sapele – good, not great
Hophornbeam – old growth is amazing, can’t find much
Thuya Burl – voids are large
Bog Oak – hard to finish, worth the effort
Bubinga – forgettable
Osage Orange – striking yellow, will turn boring brown, try dying
Padunk – best choice for red
Sycamore – looks interesting, doesn’t sell
Ambrosia Maple - depends on how much spaulting