What are your favorite exotic woods?

[Mike Mastin]

I was wondering how many of you all use exotic woods for woodworking projects and if so what are your favorite woods?

I have added a few, but if you have other favorites, please add them in your reply if you don't mind. I did not include any of the Rosewood or Mahogany species, due to the number of different ones. Add them if you would be so kind. Also it would be great if you would add any issues that you have when sawing/sanding/finishing/glueing your favorite exotic woods in your reply.
Do you have favorite combinations of exotic woods that you use on projects?

[Richard Allen]

Hi Mike

I like redheart. Lovely color and cuts very nicely. Sands well and has a nice smell.

Olive if a treat. Smells like ripe olives when working the wood

Tulipwood has a nice smell also and polishes up real nice. But WOW those colors

A combination of yellowheart and purpleheart look great together.

Pau Rosa is heavy and has a wonderful red coloer with streaks of gold running through it. It comes from Mozambique which has emerged from a civil war so they are starting to ship wood again.

But my favorite wood has to be curlly maple. Yea I know it isn't an exotic but it sure does look nice.

Thanks

Richard

[Ken Wright]

is a beautiful wood .... if you can find the curly. Goes well with bubinga and Brazilian rosewood ... IF .. you can find that.

[David Rose]

American Walnut and Maple. Oh, well...

Will have to try some of that fancy stuff one day.

David

[Ken Salisbury]

Cocobola wins the race by a furlong (my opinion only-of course). Tulipwood finishing a close second with Padauk third.

Wenge finishing dead last (actually still running - hasn't reached the finish line yet) :D


p.s. I edited the selection list to include Tulipwood

[Bob Janka]

My use of exotic woods revolves around pen-turning. ;)

I started with Padauk, added some Bocote & Cocobolo, and then a few others. Several of my prettiest pens were Bocote with tight knots and sworls. The 10 pack of Cocobolo I got didn't have many variegated pen blanks in it, so I haven't yet gotten a really pretty one. Padauk has so many shades that it almost always attracts attention. Less favorite is Purpleheart. I think it looks nice, but it does not seem to interest any buyers.

Non-listed woods include domestic woods such as Birds-eye Maple, Curly Maple , Curly Cherry, and Walnut Burl. I personally think these should count as exotics since they only occur in rare situations. One of my personal favorites is Mesquite from Texas. The tight sworls are fantastic, especially when finished with 12000 grit Micro-Mesh.

One other foreign wood I've sold in pens is Redheart. I find that turning it is almost cutting through butter. This makes it a pain to sand smooth, but it looks great when finished.

Just my 4-bits...

Cheers,
Bob

[Doug Littlejohn]

I like and use almost all of those in the poll. One you left out however is purely striking and that's ziracote. The swirling grain patterns combined with the stark contrasts of deeply rich browns and blacks is simply stunning.

Let's see, yellowheart, bloodwood, cicasian walnut, amboya, and a variety of rosewood called santos rosewood also come to mind.

However, one must be quite careful working with many of these as they are often quite toxic and cause severe alergic reactions (heck, several are relatives of sumac, etc.).

ALso, working with them from a tool sharpness and gluing aspect get's interesting.

THis will be a great thread to watch and learn the varieties from.