Teak & Ancient Kauri Humidor

[Ed Sallee]

I just finished this one up today.... she'll be going to a customer in the Phillipines....

The primary wood is teak and the contrasting wood and lid would be the Ancient Kauri.... Ancient Kauri is certified to be at least 50,000 years old and has been preserved in peat bogs in New Zealand. They say some of the trees lived to be 1,200 years old.... Interesting stuff....

[alex grams]

Interesting modest choices of woods. Do you have any comments on the Kauri and how it looks? I have heard it looks dramatically better in person and the chatoyance doesn't come through in pictures that well.

Customer choices on the wood?

I am curious what the kauri costs per bf.

Very nice. Would love to see some more direct pictures of the top.

[Ed Sallee]

Interesting modest choices of woods. Do you have any comments on the Kauri and how it looks? I have heard it looks dramatically better in person and the chatoyance doesn't come through in pictures that well. But, this picture is huge and you can kind of see it....

Customer choices on the wood?

I am curious what the kauri costs per bf.

Very nice. Would love to see some more direct pictures of the top.

The Kauri worked pretty much like any other wood.... except the stress factor was up there a little bit.... it seemed to work a lot like cherry...but I didn't see any of the inherent burn marks left behind by the saw blade... cuts very nice.

Yes, the wood looks much better in person...the chatoyance is there, but very difficult to capture with a camera... but, I got a HUGE picture here that may give you a better idea...

I was able to order the Kauri from my wood vendor - Carlton McClendon's Rare Woods & Veneers here in Atlanta and it cost me $60 per board foot... or rather, it cost the client.....

Yes, the client chose these woods without suggestion....

[John Keeton]

Very nice work on this one, Ed! I bet the ol' pucker factor came in to play with that Kauri!!

[Van Huskey]

Gorgeous as always, very nice understated look!

[Dennis Lopeman]

Wow Ed... 50000 year old wood!!!

Thanks for the tip on the rare wood place down near IKea! I perused their site for a little while - what a selection!!!

We should meet - I bet I could learn a thing or three from YOU!! I go to that Sawanee Wood Mill all the time now, tipped off from you, too. In Fact, called there yesterday to get a current list of prices.

and my parents live out there in Flower Branch, too. I live north, right across the lake (5 minutes by water, 45 minutes by land!)

Anyway - me and my buddy want to make a humidor (for him - I don't smoke but really like the boxes - maybe I'll start making tequila boxes or something?), so of course I got him on this site to check out all your stuff.

[Brian Tymchak]

ancientwood.com (I think. The web cops at my place of business are now blocking it..) Whenever I visit that website, I always keep a couple paper napkins in hand for drool control..

Prices run from aboutr $25 bf to $100 bf depending upon the activity in the grain. They also sell veneer.

[Kent A Bathurst]

The wood is 50,000 years old, reclaimed from the bogs, because they don't let any of them be harvested any more. Stunning to see in person. >150' tall, >30' circumference. All of the ones that exist today are numbered ie - go see tree number 253, or whatever. Straight. Up.

Bloody Brits took down the huge/vast majority in the glory days of the Empire - hard to beat something like that for a ship's mast or spars. Also hard to beat for building dams.

[Phillip Ngan]

As a NZ'er I love to see Kauri being used on projects. The ancient wood is definitely interesting. On the other end of the scale I picked up Kauri being thrown out during an annual Spring Clean day, a 70's water bed which had enough wood for two large mirror frames, which used teak as a contrasting wood too. If you want to buy Kauri you don't have to buy the reclaimed stuff. There's a fair amount of wood available from demolished buildings and simply lumber that is lying around in people's sheds. If you search for "kauri slab" in trademe.co.nz (NZ's version of ebay) you'll come up with interesting results.

Kauri can have a good chatoyance, and 3-dimensional look to it. Most of my furniture is made from Kauri and only a few piece display the chatoyance, but is most attractive when it does. Kauri (I can't comment on the ancient wood) works like pine - in fact it is a type of pine. Soft, straight grained. It's not a hard wood. Kauri was prized in the past because it is very decay resistant, I think because of its resin, and was used to build boats.

[Bill Wyko]

Great job Ed. You've got a real talent with the humi's. We need to get together for a cigar someday.