Pink flame wood

[Dave Mueller]

The attached pictures are some blanks and a small bowl turned out of pink flame wood from Peru. Although similar to box elder, this wood has beautiful black bands. Apparently there are male and female forms, and with everything else in life, the female is the most attractive with the black and red bands. I have searched everywhere for a US source and cannot find one. West Penn Hardwoods had some a while back but not now. Does anyone know where one can buy pink flame wood?
Dave

pink flame wood.jpg IMG_3118.jpg

[Mike Golka]

Nice looking wood and bowl

[Joe Kaufman]

Have you tried Tropical Exotic Hardwoods of Latin America LLC ?

http://anexotichardwood.com/index.html

Joe

[Richard Coers]

Used to be able to pick it up at Woodcraft. Jim King provided all that material from Peru, but he passed away early this year. Don't know where to get it now.

[Dave Mueller]

Thanks, Mike. It really turns and finishes nice. I got one split as you can see in the picture, but since it was my last piece of pink flame, I filled it and finished it anyway.

Joe, Tropical Exotic Hardwoods do not have it either, but they do have some nice stuff. I never heard of them...thanks for the lead.

Richard, I saw Jim's name associated with a supplier in Peru, but he never returned my e-mails. Guess I know why now.

[Ralph Lindberg]

Well, I hadn't heard about Jim passing, that is really too bad, I had nice interactions with him over the years.

Dave, Pink Flame cracks, a lot. We've had a terrible time with it (we got a bunch from Jim about 5 years back). Had a terrible time with anything larger then a pen blank cracking. Even with boiling and/or steaming.

Personally I only have a couple pen blanks and something that should make a pepper-mill.

Lastly, the only source I knew about for Pink Flame was Jim, so, it may be un-obtain-ium now

[Mark Hubl]

That is some good looking wood. Do you know if it holds it's color over the long haul? A company called West Penn Hardwoods has it on there list of woods. Was Jim associated with them? I found several posts by Jim detailing the wood, very interesting.

[Dave Mueller]

Ralph, yeah this one cracked too. However, the bowl is 6" high X 4" diameter and 3/16" wall thickness, so I guess I was lucky it only had one crack. I found one more blank in my wood stash, but it is smaller. Since the grain pattern is large the bowl needs to be a pretty good size to really show it off. Even with the cracking problem, I would love to get more. It is so striking, much more than in the picture and well worth the effort.

Mark, the bowl is about 2 years old, but has not been in the sun, so that may not be a good test. I hope it does not lose color like box elder...guess time will tell. So far I have not noticed any change. Jim King's name kept coming up on Wood Central. I think he was in Iquitos, Peru.

[Bob Rotche]

try rarewoodsusa.com. Not sure if they have that but they have an incredible selection.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nice bowl and wood is awesome.

[Dave Mueller]

Thanks, Bernie. The great wood helps to make up for the not so great skills of the turner...

[Terry Vance]

Several years I got a piece on Ebay. I was looking for carving wood at the time. You are right about the cracking. I cut mine down and turned flowers. It is some kind of beautiful wood. Hope you can find some.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I've seen Flamewood at both these places:

http://www.globalwoodsource.com

http://eisenbrandhardwoods.com

[Dave Mueller]

Terry/Mike,
I was surprised to see this thread opened up again. Thanks for keeping it in mind. In the last year, the red in the bowl has completely disappeared and it is just black and brown now - very disappointing. It fades like the red in box elder, but faster. I have transitioned over to rings and pendants. They don't require much wood, so I can afford to buy really expensive wood that hopefully will not change color.
Rings and Pendants.jpg

[Terry Vance]

I just seen this today. I was searching for info on the wood. It's disappointing to hear that the beauty of the wood disappears over time. I like the jewelry it looks great. I just turned a flower for a friends mom who turned 90.
Sorry it came in side ways. It's upright on my iPad and I don't know how to turn it.

image.jpg

Keep turn'n,
Terry