Wood color change with sunlight

padauk

GaryG in MD

A number of years ago, Mark Sfirri was doing a demo for MCW, and he passed a piece of dark brown wood around "for ID". Most people gave it a casual glance and said things like "walnut" or "wenge". It was solarized padauk. You don't know until you know. :-)

The jatoba is interesting too, altho I've never had any in my possession.

Thanks to you, John, and AAW. ...GG

jatoba

John K Jordan

>>>The jatoba is interesting too, altho I've never had any in my possession.

I have several 8/4 slabs of jatoba left in my stash. I've never seen it as light as shown in that image.

About color: Wood database, https://www.wood-database.com/jatoba/

Color/Appearance: Heartwood varies from a light orangish brown to a darker reddish brown, sometimes with contrasting darker grayish brown streaks. Color tends darken upon exposure to light. Sapwood is a light grayish yellow, clearly demarcated from the heartwood.

I read that it is often used as a substitute for genuine mahogany, based on the look, although it's a lot heavier and harder. This is jatoba:

And these, they might look smaller because of the wide rims, but the larger is about 19" in diameter. Much lighter.

And this, much smaller (about 8" across), from a different source and much darker with more red. The guy said he had stack of 8/4 and thicker boards but turned out at least 1/2 were jatoba. If this gets darker with light it's going to be really dark!

I love turning this stuff.

JKJ

Re: jatoba

Cyril Griesbach

John,

Some time ago I got a round of what I was told was Jatoba. It showed no color difference between heartwood and sapwood and the color is quite dark and similar to the last piece you show. Given the differences in colors of your examples I now wonder if it is in fact Jatoba. I was also told it is sometimes called Brazilian Cherry. This round had a significant radial crack and at about 8/4 could only be cut to make smaller pieces. And by the way that big platter is beautiful.

identifying Jatoba

John K Jordan

>>>Some time ago I got a round of what I was told was Jatoba. It showed no color difference between heartwood and sapwood and the color is quite dark and similar to the last piece you show. Given the differences in colors of your examples I now wonder if it is in fact Jatoba. I was also told it is sometimes called Brazilian Cherry. This round had a significant radial crack and at about 8/4 could only be cut to make smaller pieces. And by the way that big platter is beautiful

If you still have a piece perhaps compare the end grain to the picture in the Wood Database link: https://www.wood-database.com/jatoba/

Their page on wood ID has instructions in section seven on this page:

https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-identification-guide/

Another think I do is measure the volume of a sample piece, weigh it, and calculate the density. It's another clue if the density is not too much different than the numbers given for Jatoba.

Thanks for the compliment on the platter. I did those three at a class with Frank Penta at JCC. The base is my variation on his multaxis base, instructions here:

http://www.frankpenta.com/index.php/projects/projects/Frank%20Penta%20Platter%20handout.pdf/detail

You can't hang out with Frank without a texture tool in your hand! I'm surprised he let me get away with not texturing the other two.

JKJ

VERY nice work, John

GaryG in MD

You really did that nice lumber justice! ...GG

Re: VERY nice work, John

John K Jordan

Aw, shucks... (thanks, they were good clean fun!)