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mystery wood

D

David England

Joined
Feb 23, 2013
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Location
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I frequently purchase scraps of solid wood flooring from the Habitat for Humanity Restore to use inb making toys, etc. Generally, the wood is easily identifiable, but I recently picked up a piece of a very hard, very heavy wood. It is a dark brown, stringy like black palm, but with smaller strands. even when using really sharp tools, it is hard to turn. The unusual part is that when turning, although the wood is dark brown, a very fine chrome yellow dust is created when I turn it. I thought this might be the result of the hard finish put on the flooring, but I get the dust when facing the back side as well as the front, and even when drilling the wood. I hope this is enough information for someone to identify this mystery wood. thanks for any suggestions.
 
A picture would help a lot here.

As a word of caution since Wenge came up: Wenge is poisonous. The sawdust is especially bad for you, but even a splinter from Wenge infects very quickly. Make sure to wear a properly rated respirator and take care when handling
 
Sounds like it could be Ipe. Very hard, oily, lots of silica so it dulls the tools really quickly, kind of greenish, but streaks of yellow and other lighter colors, and when you drill it, you do get a more yellowish dust. Used for outdoor decks a lot. You can take a 1 by 6 and span 2 feet, no problem, even for my weight. It will oxidize like teak to a tan/brown color. I don't remember it being stringy though.

robo hippy
 
The official Toxicity stance on Wenge is:

Allergies/Toxicity: Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, breathing Wenge wood dust has been reported to cause central nervous system effects, irritation of the skin and eyes, and is a sensitizer.

Also, Wenge splinters tend to take longer to heal and are more likely to go septic (get infected) than splinters from other woods.

Richard
 
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