Funny, there's no "Wood" forum here?


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Three boards I picked up recently. Wenge, Black Limba and Canary wood. I got the Canary after seeing it in a cradle that one of us built. I'm sorry, I don't remember who and it's now buried deep within the Gallery. But, can anyone shed light on the working attributes of these woods? It'd be nice before I start thinking of using them in a design.

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I can tell you more than you want to know about wenge, lol. Spent an entire summer pulling splinters out of my hands from the stuff. :)

LOL..yea..I had a couple deep ones just from putting it in the car. Do you know how it machines? The outside three inches on each side are quite straight grained. Do you know how well it bend as a laminate? I don't think I ever saw Marks using it like that.

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Its very......brittle... Not sure that's the best word to describe it but I don't get the impression that its the best option for bending. Cut the laminates thin enough and anything will bend. But wenge in particular just doesn't strike me as being quite as pliable as other woods. But I'm sure you can still get it to bend. As for other machine tasks, its hard stuff. So everything will be a little slower and it will dull your bits and blades faster than other woods. I have heard that wenge in particular has fine silica in it that is responsible for the increased dulling of edges. Over the jointer, it tends to chatter a bit more too because of how hard it is. Take light cuts. Routing is OK, but watch the grain direction and climb cut carefully on really important parts. I find it fairly easy to tearout if you're not careful. And watch those splinters. I'd use gloves to move it.

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Vic the trick to all three is to use a good primer like Kilz on these exotics. Otherwise the grain will eventually show through the paint.

Oh, no it'll be fine Rob. I bought the paint grade Wenge.

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Its very......brittle... Not sure that's the best word to describe it but I don't get the impression that its the best option for bending. Cut the laminates thin enough and anything will bend. But wenge in particular just doesn't strike me as being quite as pliable as other woods. But I'm sure you can still get it to bend. As for other machine tasks, its hard stuff. So everything will be a little slower and it will dull your bits and blades faster than other woods. I have heard that wenge in particular has fine silica in it that is responsible for the increased dulling of edges. Over the jointer, it tends to chatter a bit more too because of how hard it is. Take light cuts. Routing is OK, but watch the grain direction and climb cut carefully on really important parts. I find it fairly easy to tearout if you're not careful. And watch those splinters. I'd use gloves to move it.

Well, at least it sounds like it will be a challenge to work. But, I couldn't pass up this board..it's WOW!

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