Simple box of Black Palm and Holly

[John Huber]

I'm using up scraps to make some Christmas presents. The Black Palm scraps were spindle blanks about 1 1/2" square and 10" long. They were resawn and drum sanded, then laminated with 0.10" strips of Holly.The finish is General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish which keeps the Holly nearly pure white. From a distance, the box looks like a chocolate cake. But up close, the complex figure of the Black Palm shows nicely.

Black Palm insists on splintering. Even drum sanding will pull out splinters. Every cutting action needs tape protection -- sawing, routing, drilling. It is an oily wood and so tends to clog sandpaper and clog drill bits. The dark wood is much harder than the light wood, so drill bits want to wander.

[David Christopher]

John, that is a very nice looking box and a good way to use scraps....someone will be very lucky to get this box

[John Thompson]

Nice.. simple design which turns into extremely nice with the use of the holly accent to contrast that Black Palm. I suppose I don't get out much but I have never heard of Black Palm but.. now that I know I really like the black-gold streaking in it. Very beautiful to me. I'm going to do a Google on it as you have gotten my attention.

And thanks for the reminder on Xmas gifts as I need to get started by October at the lastest.

Very nice...

[David Keller NC]

Wow! That's seriously neat. Isn't this the wood that you can brush your hand across in one direction, but not in the other (at least not without filling your palm with splinters)?

[John Huber]

I'm not sure about getting splinters in one direction. At least this batch of Black Palm had many grain direction changes on every piece. It is a wood that would try the patience of a saint!

[ROY DICK]

John,
Very,very nice.
If you need my address for such a gift, feel free to send me a PM.
We like cake too.

Roy

[Jim Becker]

I like that, John. Very nice.

[John Keeton]

John, you are right about the chocolate cake appearance! When I looked at the pic, I had a Pavlovian response and started salivating!! Nice work, but I think from your description of the process that would be the last project from the black palm. Doesn't sound like fun at all - though the final product is very nice.

[Harold Shay]

new definition of simple nice work.
Harold