exotic wood for making a wooden hand plane

[Martin Rock]

Hi All

I have a few offcuts of exotic woods.The pieces are all quarter sawn and one inch thick and kiln dried. I am thinking about using these exotic wood to make Krenov style plane.

I have bubinga,wenge,zebrano and bocote.

I have never worked with these woods, is there any stability issue with any of these?

I am also looking for a stability chart (or wood movement chart) for exotic wood.

thanks

Martin

[David Weaver]

Nobody has touched this yet - I wouldn't be so worried if you're going to be laminating 1x together. If the plane moves a little over time, you can easily true it - it won't move that much if the wood is already dry.

Anything would work fine, maybe the zebrawood would be best since all that I've seen has been quartersawn. I would pick the wood that seems the least splintery and especially the wood that was most likely to glue well.

I haven't used bocote, but everything else you've mentioned is a bit tough for an average plane, and maybe annoyingly splintery (or coarse) if you were making the planes traditionally (and the annoyance will still exist when you're working the plane to a finished state if you're using rasps, etc). I guess straight grained bubinga isn't that splintery, but the tool handles I've made with it just don't seem that "nice" compared to something like cocobolo.

EDIT: Advantage lumber has this to say about bocote:

Works easily with both hand and power tools, with a slight blunting effect on cutters. Can be finished smoothly and cleanly in most machining operations. Takes nails and screws well, glues, stains and polishes to a good finish.

That sounds like the best choice. They also say less positive things about zebrawood and bubinga in terms of gluing, same for wenge.

[Leigh Betsch]

Right on topic! I've got a nice piece of bacote that I'm reseving for plane use also. I'm undecided if I should make a woodie out of it our use it for an infill. I'd be interested in seeing a pic of a bacote woodie!
I've also got a 8/4 chunck of partridge wood. Any one ever build a plane out of it?

[Ryan Baker]

Bubinga is great for tools (and a lot of other things). It's one of my favorite woods. I'd call that the clear winner from your list. Bocote maybe, depending on the piece, but it wouldn't be my first choice. I wouldn't even consider wenge or zebrawood. Wenge is way too coarse and splintery, and the zebra is even more so.

[george wilson]

I hate working zebra. It tears badly in either direction. Don't like its looks anyway.

[David Weaver]

I hate working zebra. It tears badly in either direction. Don't like its looks anyway.

It does look kind of fake and over the top.

[Caspar Hauser]

How does Jarrah rate as a plane wood? I was just given a few off cuts from a deck build and am curious.

Thanks

CH

[James Carmichael]

I've never worked with any of those woods, but I would think most any tropical would be pretty stable.

I've made a couple out of purpleheart using 3/4" laminations. Laminations give some extra stability.

I would think Jarrah a good choice. Can't speak to stability, but it's plenty tough.

After reading David's remarks about gluing some tropicals, thought I should mention I use plastic resin on them when I don't care about a glue line.

[Steve knight]

I have used all of the woods. bubinga is really good. zebra wood and wenge are as said pretty splintery for tools.