Amazonian Blackwood

[Jim King]

I thought there may be some interest in seeing a wood that has never been marketed in the US to the best of my knowledge. This is an EXTREMLY hard and brittle wood. Here you see the male of the species with the black center and the female with a splotchy black center.

The tree grows to a maximum of 10 inches and is fairly difficult to find.

[Chris Rae]

Very cool stuff, both the items and the wood!

[Neal Addy]

Very cool to see, Jim. That sure is some interesting looking wood!

Is there any wood from there that isn't "hard and brittle"?

Thanks for sharing!

[Jim King]

Neal:

We do have hundreds of species of woods that are soft and lower quality, starting with probably the most famous being Genuine Mahogany and Spanish Cedar. I enjoy the harder woods as they generally make more stable turnings and have better color and grain.

Many of the woods appear hard due to an extremly high silica content that dulls any kind of tool but infact are quite soft and not dense. The dense woods do dot have the silica problem.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Jim how often do you see trees that actually have different wood because of the trees sex ??, I have never seen this, though that doesn't mean it doesn't exist in trees up here, just wondering :-))

[Jim King]

Leo:

I make sawdust and shavings and can only repeat what the biologists say. I had no idea about this either but the people from the U of SC and the USDA Tropical Forestry Lab in Wisconsin that we work with say it is quite common.

These guys will spend weeks studying the flowers of the trees in all stages of developement to decide what it is and all the relavent details. Some take two or three seasons to make a decision as there is a real lack of credible information out there about tropical species.

We are still discovering new species and changing names on species. As I see this evolving I would say in all seriosness that in another 500 years it will be virtually done. The problem is if there are always new species evolving. It appears so and that is another problem.

The biologists are as pasionate about the ID of plants as any craftsman making a work of art.

[alex carey]

Cool wood, thanks for the post.

[Richard Madison]

If the trees are small and hard to find there may not be very many of them. Perhaps they should be left where they are? Just a thought.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Those are nice pieces Jim and some cool wood. Thanks for sharing.

[Brett Baldwin]

Always fun to see what else you find down there in the jungle. It sounds like you have some pretty good connections going with tree biologists from various colleges. Do you host them down there while they do their research or is it more of Americans just gathering together there?

[Jim King]

Brett:

When the bioligists come down we pay the tickets, hotels, food and other costs and they donate their time. This is the only way we can keep our business going as there is very little information in publication that is credible with reference to tropical tree species. Without the correct names of the woods we cannot get the wood into the States without a big risk. It is incredible but true that in this day and age there is no credible data base on the Amazon. I have one of the largest libraries on tropical trees if not the largest dating back to the 1800´s and on any given species it is not unusual to find up to 30 or more names.

The forested part of Amazon jungle is bigger than the contintal US and we have a lot of wood and unidentified species to be sure. This does not include the savanah on the east side in Brazil where they are growing soybeans and cattle.

There has been so many people crying wolf that the Amazon is dissapearing that people actually beleive it and many countries have put into effect laws that keep the people here out of honest forestry and push them into cocaine production.

Any information and data we can generate helps keep people working.

[Richard Madison]

Jim,
Are you saying that the Amazon forest areas are actually maintaining or increasing in area? Just asking. You would know better than those of us who are not there.

[Jim King]

Richard:

Your question is excellent. Without question there must be some area where the actual Amazon "Rain Forest " is currently losing ground. What is never mentioned when you hear the deep voice on TV saying that the rain forest is being cut down is that the tree shown being cut will allow another to grow. As any forester will tell you is that a full canopy does not permit a new tree to grow. No new light no new growth. No new growth no carbon sequistration so where does reality leave that cash cow. Is that a scam, yes ? No ¿ I don´t know but I have my suspicions that the scientific facts could be improved on.

When a tree has light here you can plan on at least 8 feet of vertical growth a year. I have built several logging roads and in a couple of years you cannot find where they were. They don´t call the Amazon "The Green Hell" for nothing. Using the highly inflated figures of the International Enviornmental groups they show a deforestation rate of 0.0000006 % per year. I guess that doesnt worry me to much.

As the soil in the rainforest is not conducive to farming of any type and I find it unlikly that it will ever be a problem except in the plains areas in Brazil . The rainforest part of the Amazon has a very acidic soil at 4.6 ph average , clay or sand with no topsoil as the rain washes it away, no manganese for crops as we know them such as corn and an toxic level of aluminum in the soil. This is not a hospitable place unless you are having a cold one in a comfortable bar. The only way to grow things here is on the sweet water river banks in August thru December. High land farming is a non starter unless you want to grow poor lemons. Other citrus do not grow here.

Forestry management and education are the key to stopping destruction. I would guess that after charcoal making, slash and burn transient farming and cocaine lies Eco Lodges as the fourth problem in the clearing of the rainforest. A bit ironic that the dogooders are in the top five of forest destruction ahead of the timber industry. Why doesnt anyone ever mention this ???

I just Googled "NGO Forestry Iquitos" and there are 47,000 plus sites of people doing good for the rainforest here in Iquitos. Living in the Amazon for over 25 years I have never met an ecologist group doing anything here. It does make a good story and a lot of people live by stealing money from well meaning people.

Most if not all of these groups should be shut down as scams. I dont understand why somebody doesnt investigate them and have them prosecuted for fraud.

As you can tell I love the subject.

[Richard Madison]

Jim,
Thanks for your thoughtful and informative reply. Most of us only see remote parts of the world from the perspective of television producers. It is good to hear a different viewpoint from someone on the scene. We receive mail almost daily requesting donations to various "conservation" organizations. All but one go into the trash.

[Barry Stratton]

Amazing wood Jim, and THANKS for the info!

snip... We receive mail almost daily requesting donations to various "conservation" organizations. All but one go into the trash.

Don't toss too quickly Richard. Most of thse come with postage paid return envelopes. Simple get yourself a concrete block or brick or ??? and tape the self addressed postage paid envelope to it. Take to US Post Office and mail. Your daily donation letters will decrease quickly.