What wood from Taiwan can I use?

[Mark Gibney]

A friend has asked me to make a wooden urn for her father's ashes. He lived in Taiwan, Canada and the US. I'd like to use woods from those countries. The box will be primarily cherry, with some maple, and a third wood from Taiwan, hopefully.

I've read that camphor grows in Taiwan, but I can't get it anywhere I know of in southern California. A local lumber yard told me red balau comes from Taiwan, but it seems dense and brittle to me - I'd like to be able to carve the wood.

Does anyone have any knowledge of a wood associated with Taiwan that I might be able to use?

thanks, Mark

[glenn bradley]

Lucky for you tropical exotic hardwoods is right in Carlsbad. They primarily provide South American tropicals but would probably be able to give you some assistance.
760.268.1080

[Jamie Buxton]

Camphor is often planted as a street tree in the San Jose area. Urban loggers may have it, for instance https://www.globalwoodsource.com/. Camphor may also have been planted in Los Angeles too.

[Mark Gibney]

Glenn - yes Tropical Exotics in Carlsbad is probably the likeliest place to have something, however it's quite a drive for me and hard to get the time to get up there.

Jamie - the street I live on is lined with Camphor trees. I'm sure no one would miss one little limb?
You're right, I should contact some of the urban loggers I know.

Thanks guys.

[Derek Cohen]

A friend has asked me to make a wooden urn for her father's ashes. He lived in Taiwan, Canada and the US. I'd like to use woods from those countries. The box will be primarily cherry, with some maple, and a third wood from Taiwan, hopefully.

I've read that camphor grows in Taiwan, but I can't get it anywhere I know of in southern California. A local lumber yard told me red balau comes from Taiwan, but it seems dense and brittle to me - I'd like to be able to carve the wood.

Does anyone have any knowledge of a wood associated with Taiwan that I might be able to use?

thanks, Mark

Mak, I would use Paulonia, which is a famous representative of China and Japan for furniture and boxes. I have worked with it. It is very light, both in colour and mass.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Vincent Tai]

Mark,

There are a couple Taiwanese Cypresses very closely related to the Japanese Hinoki. I'm pretty sure they were called Hinoki by many older generation locals anyways; My grandma lived near a sawmill growing up in the countryside of Taiwan, and refers to those cypresses as Hinoki. So did the Japanese that were there then. The wood housed and furnished many. There is a Chinese name for the trees, google should tell you if you need it.

Camphor is very nice, my mum has a few extremely intricate buddha carvings etc out of it.

There must be more woods associated with Taiwan, I've seen some nice stuff out of some sort of Pine there before. It's been around a decade since I was last there though so the memories are quite faded.

I know there some nice hardwoods, My grandma brought back some stuff some time ago and there was an apple turned out of what looked like applewood. Some wooden ladles, lots of spoons, chopsticks. The ladles are interesting, some type of open grain golden honey colour hardwood. The chopsticks are around beech hardness, and the spoons are like the colour of maple end grain with a water based finish. Also some sort of hardwood.

Bamboo is something I just thought of, I think there is a bit of bamboo crafts in Taiwan. I have an interesting "plywood" bamboo piece that looks to be carved on the CNC to form the shape of the island. Takes a nice finish. Its not wood but Bamboo is in all sorts of things there.

Best of luck with finding something

Vincent

[Mark Gibney]

Derek, Vincent - thanks, great ideas.

I'll see if I can source either Paulonia, cypress or camphor from somewhere around here.

Thanks, Mark

[Bill Dufour]

Google is your friend the national tree of Taiwan is the "plum blossom". I wonder if Ginko and dawn redwoods are native to Taiwan as well?
Bill D.

Coffin tree of Taiwan sound s approriate:

https://www.savetheredwoods.org/blog/coffin-tree-redwood-relative-taiwan/

[andy bessette]

...I've read that camphor grows in Taiwan, but I can't get it anywhere I know of in southern California...

UPS, etc will deliver to southern California. ;)

[Chuck Nickerson]

Eisenbrand Hardwoods in the south bay is a good bet for camphor.

[Bradley Gray]

You might check with a shop that makes surf boards. Paulownia is a favorite core material and likely lots of scrap.

BTW in the south east states paulownia is considered invasive.

Lots of small quantities on ebay.