Figured Exotics

[BigguyZ]

While at Rockler, I saw some bloodwood pen blanks for $0.49 each. (I didn't know it was Bloodwood then, but realized it was when I turned the first one). So anyways, I'm looking at one of the blanks, and I think to myself "this is a not a particularily good piece..." when I get a better look at the grain with under my shop lights. Since it was pretty rough cut, I couldn't see the grain pattern clearly, so I to a card scraper to it and cleaned it up. Lo and Behold, the wood is a piece of quilted bloodwood! Now I've heard of a lot of figured woods- especially maple- but I've never head much about figured exotic woods. Typically it's their natural color that set them apart from the domestic woods. So now I'm curious as to how rare this wood is. I checked the other 8 blanks I got, and only 2 shows some slight quilting- not nearly as fantastic as the first one I found.

Anyone have any idea how common this is? Have I really found a wooden "gem"?

Thanks!

[gwyneth]

I'd expect that most figured exotics end up as veneer, but that's just a guess.

This article discusses a few of the causes of "figure" and does mention some instances in exotic woods:

http://www.cumpiano.com/Home/Article...cles/wood.html
Wood's appearance

[Black wallnut]

Good article gwyneth. Seems he left out how crotch figure is formed in walnut. From what I have been told it is caused by the swaying of the heavy branches which compresses some of the wood. Upon de-leaf in the fall the much lighter branches naturally spring upwards relaxing the crotch wood. In spring as the tree leafs out the wieght once again compresses the wood fiber in the crotch. Seems reasonable enough for me.

Bigguyz, do you have pictures of this figured piece?

[BigguyZ]

Good article gwyneth. Seems he left out how crotch figure is formed in walnut. From what I have been told it is caused by the swaying of the heavy branches which compresses some of the wood. Upon de-leaf in the fall the much lighter branches naturally spring upwards relaxing the crotch wood. In spring as the tree leafs out the wieght once again compresses the wood fiber in the crotch. Seems reasonable enough for me.

Bigguyz, do you have pictures of this figured piece?

I need to find my memory card reader, then I can take some pics. I could try scaning the blank, but I'm not sure if the quilting will come accross.

The article is indeed informative, but I'm wondering about how often these things happen. Partly because I never hear about it and am wondering how big a find this is (for my own wow factor), and partly because if I make it into a pen, wood that are rarer obviously are more valuable.

But mostly, it's the "just how common is this???" question. It's the first time in WWing that I've had this experience of finding something fantastic once I really dig deeper. I haven't made any furniture, and I don't have a joiner or planer. So I'm stuck with the BORGs and Woodcrafts for wood. And you either don't have anything special, or typically know it's figured beforehand and they charge you for it... I dunno, it was a cool feeling to discover it's unique characteristics.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Figured bloodwood is not that common. Straight up FAS bloodwood runs around $7 bf. The trees are very large and clear kind of like oak here in the US. This of course lends to not having a lot of figure. One of the desirable traits of bloodwood is that it retains its unusual color unlike Paduk, Purple Heart, etc.

[gwyneth]

But mostly, it's the "just how common is this???" question. It's the first time in WWing that I've had this experience of finding something fantastic once I really dig deeper. I haven't made any furniture, and I don't have a joiner or planer. So I'm stuck with the BORGs and Woodcrafts for wood. And you either don't have anything special, or typically know it's figured beforehand and they charge you for it... I dunno, it was a cool feeling to discover it's unique characteristics.

I think that's one of the reasons people work with wood rather than, say, metal or plastic. Each piece is different.

But I'd bet you can find another source of hardwood besides Home Depot and Woodcraft, and treasures can come from anywhere. Maybe not every day, but it does happen.

In Getting Started, I posted about the $100 I spent on 40 boards of "maple and ash". Not only has it worked out to a lot of wood (the 29 boards calculated so far are 74 bd. ft), a fair number of the maple boards have at least slight figure and some of them are just too pretty for the workbench I got them for.

[BigguyZ]

Pics Galore

OK, so I found my card reader and have some pics to show. I don't have a photo booth set up, and I'm not super adept at taking pictures of my work, but here's what I have. One pic is of the raw blank, as I first found it. Thought it was ugly, and not nearly as dark in color as the other blanks. But it was $0.50, so I thought why not. Another pic is the blank after using a card scraper and some BLO applied to better show the grain. Another pic is 3 other pices that have teh figuring. The really long one is OK, but has some heart and sap wood in it. Not sure if that's good or bad (sometimes that can give it character, IMHO). Then the left most two have some figuring, but really it's sad compared to the right most one. I have 7 more bloodwood blanks, but they're just nice and deep red. But for $0.50, I guess I'll take 'em.

[gwyneth]

Just beautiful...have you tried scraping the other blanks yet?

[BigguyZ]

Just beautiful...have you tried scraping the other blanks yet?

yeah, first thing I did. No go.

[Black wallnut]

Nice! That will make a fine looking pen!

[Russianwolf]

Looks more like Ribbon Padauk to me, which while not common, isn't exactly rare either.

[BigguyZ]

Looks more like Ribbon Padauk to me, which while not common, isn't exactly rare either.

It's definitely not Paduk. While the camera makes it look a lot more orangy than it really is, I've worked with both woods and I'm certain it's not Paduk. Paduk is much more open grained than Bloodwood, though I find them both pretty easy to work with.