V.I. Exotic Hardwoods

I obtain fine Vancouver Island woods to use for making musical instruments and other fine woodworking, turning or carving pieces, often saving it from being cut into firewood.

The supply depends on what I find. Freshly arrived are quite a load of Lombardy Poplar logs, much harder than 'regular' poplar (more like maple?), the beautiful wood having quilting and flame. I have hundreds of board feet of Garry Oak (native to the PNW, finer and more exquisitely featured than 'regular' white oak), smooth, dense and uniform Pacific Dogwood, shiny smooth Purple Leaf Plum, Wild Cherry, Western Yew (lumber, turning squares, large carving pieces), Leland Cypress, Black Locust (outlasts treated wood, very hard and dense), pinkish Arbutus/Madrone, Western Maple, Birch (short boards only; lower cost), Western Hemlock, and Poplar(5-1/2' long) boards and fat planks, kiln dried. The dogwood and yew are rare finds, and the supply of plum from the boulevards is likely to remain quite limited. There are smaller amounts of other woods: Holly boards and turning and carving pieces, some Linden (green 2007/12), Apple and Horse Chestnut decorative pieces, and very pretty 1" boards from a piece of what appears to be Plum of unknown variety.

I also have Cambodian Rosewood (Dalbergia Bariensis - the original species once called "palisandre"), which is very hard and beautiful. Bariensis barely floats at about .95 density, and in fact sinks unless it's "oven dry". I have it for turning squares, and also for fingerboards and bridges to accompany other guitar woods. Likewise, I have what it sometimes called Flamewood Rosewood, (Dalbergia Cochinchinensis), quite similar, also from Cambodia, but with more of a magenta or purple hue.

In the weeks from its beginning on 2006/10/16, I have been expanding this site - and the selection.

(On request I will be pleased to try to offer a good deal for bowl blanks &c in any available wood.)

I'll be pleased to email you a picture of any piece of wood you're interested in before you buy it.

I will cut wood to size, or plane guitar pieces to a specific thickness. Within reason, there's no extra charge. I'll cut turning squares to your desired length as long as the remaining piece seems useful. Guitar makers especially should be (and probably are) aware, though, that planers often take little gouges out of the wood, and so backs and sides should be sanded down the last millimeter or so on each side, not planed to almost final thickness.

In addition to the images of specific pieces shown here, I'll mail you a small scrap sample of any available wood(s) you're interested in seeing and testing "in the flesh".

Prices are per board foot in Canadian Dollars ($C) unless specified.
Listed price applies to all available thicknesses from 1/2" to 3" unless specified.

*Species*	*Special Select* *Grade*	*$C/* *Bd-Ft*	*"A" Grade*	*$C/* *Bd-Ft*	*"B" Grade*	*$C/* *Bd-Ft*	*Oldest (dryest)*
Arbutus/Madrone (Arbutus Menzesies)			fine woodworking, bowls & turnings	4.50	Grain runout, very warped, checks	2.50	2005 07
Birch			short lumber under 4'	2.50			2007 08
Cherry, Wild	woodwind squares, etc	12		5		3	2005 07
Cypress, Leland ("white colored yellow cedar")			fine woodworking, turning, carving	4		2	2007 01
Dogwood, Pacific	woodwind squares, select	24	fine woodworking, turning,carving	14	Large Carving Chunks	1.50 $/lb	2006 10
Hemlock			8' (8-1x6's,a 2x12)	1.00	3'-4' pieces	.50	2007/05
Holly, European (Denser than American Holly)			many small knots typical with holly - carving, fancy woodworking	8			2006 10
Linden (Basswood)			cut boards.	1.50	I can probably get a big carving block if anybody asks... (2007/12)	.50(?)	2007/12 (green)
Locust, Black ("North American Teak" - Very Hard, dense, unusual grain, extremely rot resistant)			fine furniture, structural, outdoor use	7			2006 12
Lombardy Poplar	Quilted/flame/curly Guitar backs & sides when I've cut some...	~80 each	Quite different from 'regular' poplar - harder, great figure and features	3			2007/12 (green)
Maple, Western				4			2003
Oak, Garry (a Pacific coast native, finer featured than other oaks)	quarter sawn, or exceptional (flecks in some areas)	7	fine furniture, cabinet fronts, structural	5		3	2006 12
Plum, purple leaf	woodwind squares, etc.	24	fine woodworking	18	Large Carving Chunks	1.50 $/Lb	2006 06

Poplar, .5 - 2" thick			(shorts: 4.5', 5.5')	2.00			Kiln Dry
Poplar, 2.25 - 2.75"			(shorts: 4.5', 5.5')	2.50			Kiln Dry
Poplar, 3+"			(shorts: 4.5', 5.5')	3.00			Kiln Dry
Rosewood, Cambodian ("Stunning!")	woodwind squares, etc.	50	all or mostly heartwood, various blemishes - fine woodworking	35	utility, largely sapwood, some decorative value	10	2006 06
Rosewood, Flamewood (also from Cambodia)	woodwind squares, etc.	50	all or mostly heartwood, various blemishes - fine woodworking	35	utility, largely sapwood, some decorative value	10	2006 06
Yew, Western/Pacific	Carving Pieces, burls...	1.50 $/lb	wild grain, occasional sap pockets - fancy woodworking, carving	10	various defects and checks	5	2007 01

My current supply of this unique lumber is mainly from a very large dogwood tree that was felled because it was threatening a house. (It was overheard growling "Next windstorm I'm gonna Woof that place!")

The wood is stunning: very fine grained, very hard and heavy, beautiful grain patterns as shown in the pics -- pinkish with darker grey-green features. There are some very whitish patches on some pieces (not the sapwood). Some pieces have fabulous dark stripes like tigerwood. It's very fine grained and uniform, much akin to pearwood in texture but somewhat denser and harder.

I make no claims to the accuracy of the following statements - they are about all I could find about dogwood in a web search. Probably some refer to southeastern dogwood, but the characteristics are probably similar.

www.ozarkmtns.com/spring/dogwood.htm says of dogwood: "Dogwood lumber is hard and closed-grained. It is used in specialty products which must withstand rough use, such as spools, small pulleys, malletheads, jewelers' blocks, and chisel handles. Dogwood is so resistant to sudden shock that it has long been the choice material for golf club heads. Most commercially harvested dogwood was used in the textile industry to make shuttles for weaving because the wood wears smooth with use and is able to withstand continuous use at high speed."

Someone on a dulcimer chat list said: "Be aware that Dogwood is about as dense and close grained as it gets. It polishes up like marble. It is a creamy pink color...pleasing actually. I have some...not wide enough for dulcimer, but I have thought of making other parts out of it. It might be a tad hard to work with as back and sides...definitly not for a top. May be hard to bend. If you can get it thin it might resonate well...it sounds like a piece of glass when you drop it on the floor. Very hard. Very tight grained."

Dogwood Status:
2006/10: A big log. Some rounds were delivered in April 2007. There's pretty dry wood from this, and 30 guiter backs & sides sets.
2007/08: 2 big new logs. (Wow!) Cutting them into billets, boards, carving chunks...

This is a common boulevard tree around here. It has reddish-purple leaves and small crops of purple plums. Most of my first pieces are turning squares cut from a large one felled on a boulevard near my house because its roots were clogging sewage lines. It has a very fine grain, and uniform density with colorful highlights. The upper sample (4) in the top picture is representative; the lower one (5) has less pinkish color than most. It seems similar to the dogwood in density and in its fine, uniform texture. I've measured the density as .78, and a simple thumbnail test of surface hardness says it's softer than rosewood but way harder than maple. Plum is a popular wood for high quality recorders. At the moment, I don't have any big enough for quarter-sawn guitar backs, but a bigger trunk has been promised if it can be obtained when the tree is felled.

I've just carted off 1500 pounds of pieces from a yew tree that fell in the snow in a park near here (having successfully begged the parks crew not to cut it into firewood). Now I can offer you yew! I've heard yew is a fabulous, hard wood, but as yet haven't used any for anything myself. The logs remind me of rosewood in having a narrow strip of light colored sapwood surrounding reddish heartwood.

This wood smells almost the same as yellow cedar, which it seems is actually a cypress. So my best description is that it's whitish colored yellow cedar! It is soft and uniform.

A friend has brought me a couple of small logs. Evidently this is just about the hardest wood grown in north America. A table on the web shows it is closer in strength and hardness to ebony than to oak, and it's said to be very dimensionally stable and the most rot resistant wood going, excellent for both indoor and outdoor use, with a "golden glow". Anyway the sawdust is bright yellow and green after two days in the rain. If it were a little finer grained, it would probably be a fabulous woodwind wood. "Average density" is said to be .68, but figures on the web appear to vary widely. It seems to work easily enough green, but is said to be very tough once seasoned. My next door neighbor calls it "North American teak". General comments on www.woodweb.com are that it is the most underrated of all woods, great for outdoors, boats, and better than oak for fine furniture and flooring.

Status: a few boards are cut so far from two small logs. Another small and a larger log are yet to be cut. (There were more logs where the second two came from, but a firewood collector with two large chainsaws got there first. At least I got the poplar log!)

Cherry has always been considered a very fine hardwood, and is more commonly available than other similar woods. Close grained, hard and dense, it takes a very fine finish. The tall, thin tree I got grew in a forest, which has recently been subdivided into housing lots. I cut it mostly into about 1-3/4" squares, originally planning to use it for my own alto recorders. But there is more wood than I could possibly use myself!

Wild Cherry Status: One log from Royston, Vancouver Island BC, forest was partly cleared for housing; Felled spring 2005, cut into 1-5/8" to 2" squares fall 2005. Drying unheated since, starting to look fairly dry. New log May 2007: partly cut into 2"x2"s, 2.75"x2.75"s, and 1/2"x4"s for some table or desk top.

For Canadians I have arbutus; For Americans I have madrone. (And you thought we all spoke the same language!) This is a lovely hardwood, quite hard and close grained, but it rarely grows straight very far and the grain is usually twisted over any length. Sometimes it grows more like a gigantic bush than a tree, with several stems/trunks spreading out from one base, but trunks can occasionally reach up to almost 3 feet in diameter. I consider it more suitable for dry uses than for woodwind instruments: like maple it expands and contracts considerably when wetted and dried. Most of what I have was cut into firewood lengths by city workers over my protests (bowl blanks anyone?), though I have a few longer pieces. The pieces I have have been down for one+ and two+ years now, so with their short lengths especially the latter are getting pretty seasoned.

The density of .78 indicates the holly I have is the European variety, as opposed to the American variety (Eastern USA) which has a density said to be .5 when wet and .61 when dry. Holly is known as the world's whitest wood.

Holly Status: A few small rounds from a local European Holly tree ("local" and "European"? - Blame the European settlers for bringing it!) cut down March 2006. Web info says it's hard to find straight holly without knots, and this wood is no exception. Several more small diameter logs cut down March 2007.

Poplar Status: One short log (5-1/2', 4-1/2' halves - somebody took a foot for firewood from one side). I cut it into boards and planks from 1/2 to 4 inches thick and 2-1/2 to 12 inches wide. Kiln Dried.

This is a white oak native to areas of the Pacific Northwest coast. Unique, lovely oak! Heartwood color is rather distinct from sapwood.

Garry Oak Status: Quite a few nice logs, a few hundred board feet of sawn dimensioned lumber drying. Quite a lot of that is quartersawn, showing oak's broad medular rays or "flakes". One recent log had stunningly beautiful wood (just in case all garry oak isn't!) - all top grade, mostly clear with narrow grain and little sapwood!

These excellent rosewoods are little known in the West. Bariensis is the original "pallisandre" species, though not usually so called today. It is very hard and colorful, harder and denser than Brazilian rosewood. AFAIK, it is second in density only to African Blackwood. Equally attractive and similar in characteristics is the Cochinchinensis, also from Cambodia, which is more subdued in color and more magenta or purple in hue. Both species darken markedly on exposure to sunlight, and apparently to air or moisture as well (pieces freshly cut open are often darker near the outer edges). As with any rosewood DO wear a dust respirator when working with it, and wash any accumulation of the fine dust off your skin and clothes afterwards. (To be quite honest, I have trouble telling which species is which.)

I have these rosewoods available for turning squares and other fine woodworking, and also for fingerboards, bridges and headstock veneer to accompany other guitar woods from me. I don't stock it for other guitar pieces, which are available here. If Cambodian rosewood is endangered, it is from general clearing of land and from being used as railway ties, construction lumber and firewood in the lands where it grows, rather than from the very small amounts which are exported. (Export income from the wood should encourage replanting!)

The sapwood is an off-white color and is generally not used for instruments. For local pickup, I have pieces without enough heartwood left to cut instrument parts from, that could make striking furniture, eg coffee and end tables, for a considerably lower cost. These generally have one or two good faces that are part heart and part sapwood, while the other faces are best hidden from view.

Specs for D. Bariensis:
Density: 0.94 to 0.97 (From various sources, Brazilian is .68-.7X; Cocobolo is .89; African Blackwood is 1.18; Kingwood is 1.1)
Janka hardness test: 2700 (pounds) on side grain (Brazilian is 2580); 2500 end grain

Left: D. Cochinchinensis - Flamewood ; Right: D. Bariensis - Cambodian Rosewood

Comparing Rosewoods, top and bottom with pieces more or less flipped: Afr. Blackwood; Cambodian Rosewood; Kingwood; Cocobolo (linseed oiled - others are bare)
All of these feel very, very smooth. This piece of Cambodian looks something like the kingwood on one side but quite different on the other. That's probably unusual, but I just turned it today and it's the only piece I have turned. The blueness of the white background paper leaves one wondering about the colors, but the woods seem pretty close.

Camb. Rosewood Status: Have good selection; can obtain "any" desired quantity. It's being kept outdoors in large billets, so the moisture content seems to have stayed about 20%. They will check if brought into a dry, heated space, unless (at least) the ends are sealed. Some 2" squares have been air dried indoors for 6 months additionally. (I guess I should buy a moisture meter! I looked at one... its TOP scale was for wood density of .70!)

Diary

March/April 2006: Got some arbutus and some plum wood, and some horse chestnut. I had already cut up a cherry log on my radial arm saw. Hired a bandsaw mill to cut up the plum and arbutus. I didn't like the wandering cuts the mill made.

May: Decided I should spend June and $500 and make a sawmill.

Mid August: "Finished" the "June" sawmill project, about $1000 over budget. Cut some Cambodian rosewood for its owner and recouped half my monetary investment.

September: Cut rest of plum. Got thinner kerf (1.38") saw blade for the mill. Got three Dogwood logs and cut them. Got some rosewood for myself to sell.

October: Did some stuff.

November: Did some stuff. Cut some rosewood guitar sides for the rosewood owner. Someone else gave me a few bits of plum and a buggy looking piece of cherry he'd stashed. Gave him some various boards.

December-January2007 : Near the end of November there was a great snowfall of heavy, wet snow, and an astonishing amount of trees and limbs fell under the weight, all over town. Even big fir branches and a plum of mine. I ran around like I was possessed for a couple of months, filling my yard with logs and tree limbs, getting what I could wherever I could before it was all cut into firewood! But a part of my brain was telling me that, after all, there's never been anything like this before, so it's a totally unique opportunity that won't last long. Disaster only knocks once!

February: Got new 15" diameter, .1" kerf blade mounted on sawmill. Can now cut guitar sides (and many other things) with no more waste than a bandsaw! However, 15" instead of 16" is noticably more limiting on the mill with my setup - the saw cradle now sticks down a bit too far for 2" thick boards flat cut from the top if they're wider than 4". Started cutting the 5 tons of logs I got. In addition to a lot of lumber, I made some plum guitar wood sets that almost make me want to take up guitar so I can have one myself!

March, April, May: Improved sawmill. got a bandsaw. cut some logs. got a few more. Finally got dogwood logs I was waiting for, as well as some oak, cypress, cherry, black locust and poplar!

June: cut poplar log and took it to a kiln for drying. Made gravity feed thickness sander. Cleared out a room in garage and made lumber shelves, for a wood storage/showroom. Hope shelves (and floor) handle the weight of all that wood okay!