Need help identifying some wood.

thx4asking

thx4asking

Well-Known Member
I make and sell knife scales from all different types of wood. usually i can identify most wood but this one has me stumped. I found this wood in the scrap pile at the port of Houston Texas. It could have come from anywhere in the world and who knows how long it laid around the port. It is super hard. I have cut goncalo alves and ironwood with my industrial saw and never had them stop the blade during cutting. This wood must be cut super slow or it will stop the blade. I wore out a new 36 inch sanding belt just to get this piece smooth. any help would be appreciated.
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Stopped your bandsaw? Wow!
When I first looked at it I thought maybe Amboyna, But we know Amboyna isn't very hard at all and needs to be stabilized.

Sorry, No help here! Good luck.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/
 
Amboyna that has been properly seasoned is pretty D@^& hard. What type of smell does it give off when you are cutting into it? Amboyna has a sweet, almost fruity smell. If you were so inclined, you could test its specific gravity and weed out several species on that alone. Combined with its other characteristics, you may be able to use this to narrow it down even more.

Best of luck.
 
I found this wood when they moved some old equipment from the 40's that i was hauling to a scrap yard. it could have been there for decades.
 
How does it smell, specifically during cutting?
Is it oily?

Also, what seem to be the colors? I know photography can be awful tricky with colors in different lights.
 
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I finished this knife with the block i have in the picture, still scratching my head on this one. The only smell i get when cutting or sanding is burnt smell from the saw blade and sanding belts i have used up. It is very dense and will not take any oil. when i wiped it with tung oil it just stays on the surface. I am beginning to think its petrified LOL.
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I havent tried the Ca glue. this stuff is like sanding stone. The shop fills with fine dust when i put it on the belt sander.
 
It looks alot like bees wing/ curly Narra and you could be right about it being prettified. My wife found some oak at the bottom of his pond, it sat out a few years, I got a piece and it dulled every tool that tried to cut it.



Though I've done a few knife grips, this is not my work.
 
The wacky grain looks like amboyna burl but that will always soak up oil, stabilized or not and the smell when cutting is almost always noticeable and pleasant. If its that hard and won't take oil, I am guessing south American rosewood burl used as scrap wood for shipping pallets. I had some a few years ago and tried cutting it on a table saw and dulled a new blade in two passes. I picked a different wood to work with after that.
 
this is a picture of a piece of the board that this comes from. The weird black streaks was what caught my eye. There are some markings on the end but i cant make them out.
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Looks like some of the Ironwood I have but could very well be a rosewood. Its an excellent score you need to go look for more lmao that stuff s killer. kellyw
 
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