phinds

But not at HF, right?

Be more aggressive. Walk in the front door and ask.

My daughter, who lives in Laos, brought this back as a Christmas present for me. It was carved in a village near where she lives. It's Burmese padauk / Pterocarpus macrocarpus, which in Laos is called maidu / maidou, which means "red wood". It's 6.5" tall and 7" long. Not sure what the tusks are made of but they appear to be wood. Probably just particularly clear sapwood of the same tree.

Avoid plywood like the plague. If you get something that looks decent, it will cost too much AND, as has already been pointed out, the thin top layer will wear through and even if it starts out looking decent, it won't last that way. All woods shrink AND swell as the ambient moisture changes (humid days / dry days)

Uh ... what is the difference between half an 11 foot board and a 5 1/2 foot board ???

I'm sure you'll find a buyer for it if the price is right but your big problem is that it's going to have to be someone within driving distance of you since shipping cost will be prohibitive.

Coop, I KNOW it looks like I'm never going to get back to this but I want to assure you that it only looks that way because it's true. Actually, it does still nag at me and I may get back to it but by this time it should be obvious that you shouldn't hold your breath

Manzanita growth rings are actually generally very well defined, BUT ... you have to have a very close look at a well-cleaned-up end grain to see that clearly: This is why I said it doesn't look like manzanita in the end grain. Even in a poorly cleaned up end grain, you can often see that the rings are distinct:

Unfortunately, I don't do burls. The end grain COULD be madrone but I definitely would not bet money on that, particularly assuming it's local to you. Doesn't look right for manzanita but I can't see the end grain characteristics clearly enough to be sure.

Well, I started working on it and for some reason I focused in on a feature of your wood that seemed a bit odd to me, but I found a sample of "teak" that has it so was very pleased with myself until I realized that it really wasn't teak at all but rather an obscure wood (Baikiaea plurijuga) that has "Rhodesian teak" as one of its common names. Also that wood really doesn't have a face grain that is a close match for your wood. SO ... no joy so far Just FYI, the feature I was looking at is what appears to be "diffuse in aggregates" parenchyma (broken up banded parenchyma) but that seems unusually regular for diffuse in aggregates. Here's your wood with an example of the feature circled and then the same thing on the "teak" piece SO ... back to square one. EDIT: I realize this post doesn't tell you anything useful, I just put it up to show what a PITA this wood ID can be and to further excuse my long delay in getting to this.

Coop, I have not forgotten about this, I've just had all my energy focused elsewhere. I get like this sometimes where I just don't want to buckle down and do the hard work of digging through a bunch of my wood anatomy material. I WILL get to it. Someday. Probably. Maybe. Most likely. It's on my list

A fair point

Don't think so. I fades the heartwood color so it is less attractive

Really? I thought the steaming was done to totally merge the heartwood and sapwood colors.

I assume you are talking about the wood ID site, but I actually do have a database. It's for wood names: http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/wood_name_database/