Went shopping today...

Ned Bulken

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Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
Lakeshore was 'out' of walnut & lyptus at their syracuse location, but they're going to bring down some from pulaski & call me when it is in.

Since I was there, though, I picked up some

jatoba mug.jpg
Jatoba
yellow heart.jpg
Yellow Heart

lakeshore mug.jpg
and got a free mug just for liking it... (and spending $100)
 
A few thoughts on my visit to the downtown Syracuse location of lakeshore hardwoods; neat store, for a lumber dealer. Easy to get to, and compared with the mill up in Pulaski, very convenient. I hear about 'how nice it is to have all the domestic hardwoods' available. I could have picked up a 'ton' of maple, birch, and of course cherry. There was some ribbon cherry that was absolutely gorgeous, as well as a bunch of maple that when I start building new kitchen cabinets, I'm going to pick a bunch of it up for the face frames and doors. One hunk of ambrosia maple was actually pretty reasonably priced, but I was looking for accent pieces for some more cutting boards.
 
Charles, I haven't worked with either Jatoba or Yellow Heart. Upon first inspection the YH seems to be a nice dense hardwood, tight grain and solid. I picked it up as a contrast wood to the cherry which I've got a ton of still. Thought a 'lighter' contrast wood but not maple would be a nice change.
 
Ned I have used Jastoba and it is a wonderful wood to work with although it is heavy. I used it in segmented Pepper mills and cutting boards both, you will like it I am sure. Looking forward to seeing what you do with them, should make a great cutting board
 
Using a bit of Yellowheart just today - it works well - pretty much like Cherry, but maybe just a bit harder. Doing an intarsia piece for an upcoming fair, and some of the parts are Yellowheart.
 
Charles, I haven't worked with either Jatoba or Yellow Heart. Upon first inspection the YH seems to be a nice dense hardwood, tight grain and solid. I picked it up as a contrast wood to the cherry which I've got a ton of still. Thought a 'lighter' contrast wood but not maple would be a nice change.

I've had one YH board that has lasted me for years, as I only ever use it as an accent piece, and when you only peel off a <1/8" strip at a time, it tends to last.
Nice thing about YH is that the colour is pretty stable - does not lighten or darken with time. I've put it in several cutting boards and a couple canoe paddles.

Using a bit of Yellowheart just today - it works well - pretty much like Cherry, but maybe just a bit harder. Doing an intarsia piece for an upcoming fair, and some of the parts are Yellowheart.

oh yeah, Ned... it has one of the most unique spicey smells when you cut it. Very different from other lumber.
 
Yellowheart is nice to work with, as Jim said. Also, Art's right about the smell when it's cut. Here's one of my first 3-D boards made years ago using yellowheart, bloodwood, and walnut:

3-D%20Board%201%20600.jpg


A word of advice, based on lessons I've learned the hard way...if you're using yellowheart for an accent color with maple, use a darker wood between the two to help differentiate the colors. These pics will show what I mean.

Without separation:

Two-Tone%20Maple%203a%20600.jpg


With separation:

Two-Tone%20Maple%202%20600.jpg


And while I'm on the subject of accent wood colors, another thing I learned the hard way is to use colors that are distinctly different from ewach other. Here's a board with bloodwood, yellowheart, and purpleheart accents. As it turns out, the bloodwood and purpleheart are too close to each other in color, so instead of showing off multiple species of wood, this accent just looks like poorly matched stock:

Circus%20Stripes5%20DetailT%20500.jpg
 
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