>I know this is quite a subjective question, but it's fun to discuss anyway. Also, maybe some of you have more than one favorite or maybe it changes from time to time. Anyhow, the question is - What do you think is the most beautiful wood? My current favorite is cocobolo. It has such fantastic and wonderful color and figure. I also love tiger-striped maple, bocote, and purpleheart has always received high marks. Unlike some people, I even like the dark brown that purpleheart turns after it ages. By the way, this question is purposely ignoring other good characteristics of wood, such a workability, price, and various other factors. This is only about looks. What are some of your top choices?
>Any given figured wood can be the most beautiful at the moment. 1/4 sawn spalted sycamore looks nice I like tyrning big leaf maple Any chance Steve Smith will be passing this way again with some free stuff? Mahogany is probably my favorite to work.
>... when I'd just started working with wood, my local hardwood supplier had a slab of wild olive wood, about 2" thick, four feel high, and perhaps 2 1/2 feet wide at the widest part. The price was way out of my range, and I knew that it would be years before I could work with such wood without just ruining it. It was there every time I came in for a few months, and I kept thinking about it, but one day it was gone -- it had finally been sold.
I still think back on that chunk of wood w/ some wonder, and some regret, and I'll always have a soft spot for the figure and color of olive wood...
>I am with you, Johnathan, I have only seen pix but it is drop dead gorgeous. I'm almost afraid to ask how much is it? Not that there is much chance of getting here in NH
>can be drop dead gorgeous, but I also like the much more plain English Walnut, and small pieces of apricot I've dried and not yet used...beautiful color and scent! -Barb S.
>I was in a flooring store and saw a threshhold that someone had ordered leaning against the counter.This piece was by far the most beautiful piece of wood I have ever seen. It was just an unfinished piece of chestnut with alot of figure.---Crackerjack
I guess I'm dull and ordinary and old-fashioned, but I think walnut, properly finished, is the most beautiful wood I've seen. Walnut is a delight to work, too. Apparently others share my affection for walnut, judging by its price.
>Okay... I'll admit there's some walnut out there that's been steamed to spread color into the sapwood; bowling trophy wood, that's dull. You know, that stuff that looks like stale cocoa. But the rest of it is dropdead gorgeous and comes in so many varieties of stripe and figure. Some is very quiet looking, almost serene, and some is an explosion of chatoyance. What I think I like best is air-dried walnut with a bit of curl that 'reads' dark but has a broad spectrum of tones, which following exposure to strong light, tends to ameliorate that breadth toward a medium-light range of nut browns with just a trace of peach to faded red.
As I've matured (yeah, that's the euphemism), I've migrated to liking plainer wood, foregoing stripe for wild burl, and more sparse and less intense curl. When I use intense figure, it's more sparingly so, to draw the eye to a particular line or feature. Sometimes it's just for details or a single element, like the top panel in a small box.
I don't know that I really have a favorite wood, though, but if so, mahogany would be right up there (the better stuff, anyway). I'm pretty happy using mostly N. American hardwoods, though; cherry, walnut, maple, and so on. Of course, there's koa, and kelobra, thuya, and on and on. So many species, so little time.
To me it's more useful to think about favorite combinations. That's where it comes together for me. Mahogany with ebony (Greene & Greene), movingue and wenge, birdseye maple and walnut...
>I found that one wonderful board back when I was living in Tennessee (not known as a major hardwood center!)... I can't recall how much it cost, but it was a lot of wood!
Gilmer usually has quite a bit of olivewood in the 'one of a kind boards' section of their website, and depending on size and quality it seems to run $20-50/brd.ft. I've haven't visited them yet, but I hope to soon.
>Walnut is tops, tiger stripe maple is a very very close second. The two together are just great!
By the way, if anyone is ever in Syracuse, NY, stop by the College of Environmental Science and Forestry tucked away behind the Carrier Dome. Get over to Baker Lab (there's only 6 buildings on campus) and the second floor is paneled with woods from all over N. America and the rest of the world. Truely amazing display!
>cocobolo is an interesting wood. you can have colors from light orange/white to blacks and purples. so far i would say some really good desert ironwood. the depth can be incredible when it is polished. it has so much to it for what it is. but the stuff smells horrible and is really nasty to work with.
>Myrtle (nothofagus cunninghamii) is a Tasmanian timber that is normally fairly similar in color to Cherry. However, there is a rare condition that is caused by a fungus (as I understand it) that causes it to be become "Tiger" Myrtle. I have one board that I am saving for something special (it will probably end up as a jewelery box for my lovely wife) and it cost a packet for such a little board.
The fungus does not weaken the timber (that I can tell anyway) and the photo below does not it do it justice. See the link for an object made with it.
>Is this olive wood the wood from the sort of olive tree that one gets olives from for eating? The pictures of those that I have seen are of trees that are very small. That four foot board has to have been from a very big tree.
