Exploring woods: chechen and ebiara

My sphere-making has led me to do more exploring outside the found woods I've always turned. Here are examples of two woods that were new to me and that I've really appreciated.

First is chechen, a very dense (same as water), fine textured wood from southern Mexico into central America. Hardness is about a third above hickory, similar to osage orange. However despite its density and hardness, it turns very nicely, sands well and takes a nice polish. Sometimes called Carribean rosewood -- not a rosewood at all, but does have characteristics similar to real Dalbergia rosewoods. Not on any threatened species lists. Bowl is from a 6"x6"x2" blank. I left the sidewalls a little hunky, I wish I had thinned them more. I don't have a bowl gouge well suited to making an undercut side with a sharp radius, and even using a Hunter tool I really don't enjoy hollowing by scraping. Maybe I need to get a small bowl gouge and put a blunt grind on it.

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Second is ebiara; from western Africa, sometimes called red zebrawood for obvious reasons. Texture is a lot like padauk, though it is softer than padauk -- by the numbers hardness is close to yellow birch, though it doesn't cut as nicely as yellow birch. Not unpleasant, but not silky either. The piece I have has some "gum pockets" in it, somewhat like what sometimes occurs in cherry except in the ebiara they are in lines of little "bubbles" that run along grain lines (see detail pic). The "bubbles" are either empty or have a dark maroon residue in them, again like cherry can have sometimes. There were several lines of them in the surface of the piece as I was preparing to make finish cuts and I decided to fill them with epoxy and finely ground coffee (pic); on the back I just left them empty. Fortunately the epoxy did not soak in enough to create shadows around the fills; I dropped the epoxy in with a syringe hoping to make them look a little more organic if they did leave shadows. The blue tape was to catch the epoxy if the beads started to run downhill. I also uncovered an edge check on the near edge late in the game; I'd already thinned the lip out from the back before I saw it so I had no choice but to CA it and leave it in.

Design is copied directly from John Jordan's pattern (thanks again John), though I have been using a slightly rounder arc on the sides than John often does. 8.5" wide, 1-7/8" tall. Both pieces are finished with one coat of Danish oil then a trip/white diamond/carnuba buff.

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I'm certainly not changing over from found wood, but it's been fun to work with new woods.

Best,

Dave

Dave -- Thanks for keeping the forum alive!

I really like the lines of the chechen bowl. The simple curves show off the variegated colors of the wood. I agree that the bowl might be improved with thinner walls. It looks fine, but I imagine, given the density of chechen, it feels 'heavy' in the hand.

I've not turned ebiara. (I hope the smell of the wood is more pleasant than odor milling zebra wood produces!) If I do turn any ebiara and it has gum pockets, I think I'll fill them with clear or light amber epoxy, rather than using coffee grounds. I think the lighter color would stand-out less.

Thanks David. I agree about the coffee fill, it turned out bolder than I envisioned. I went that way because some of the pockets hold dark material, but some don't, and something lighter and more translucent would leave those differences and be a little softer overall. In person, the fills don't come off as sharply contrasting as they seem in the photo, but they do tend to draw the eye from the overall, which was not my intent.

The crack was really unfortunate. It looks vertical but it's really horizontal, if I would have noticed it I could have made it an eighth inch shallower and removed it entirely. Oh well, nothing's perfect.

I've not turned zebrawood. The ebiara did have an odor but nothing very strong or markedly unpleasant. The two species are apparently close phylogenetically. I've seen pictures of some zebrawood blanks that look like they have some dark deposits in them, but didn't look like the "bubbles" that were in this ebiara.

Best,

Dave

Dave -- When zebra wood is milled, it produces a smell reminiscent of what I imagine the bottom of a monkey's cage might smell like. It's not a strong oder, but milling a lot of the stuff will make you air out your shop!

If I remember correctly, Chechen is also called poison bark tree. There is some of it growing in Florida now. Lots of exotic every thing growing there, plants and animals... I guess kind of like poison oak or ivy. It is always fun to play with different types of wood.

robo hippy