“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” –

William Shakespeare

When it comes to flowers, few have the beauty and smell of roses. That’s why people spend hours tending to them in their gardens, and why we spend lots of money on Valentine’s Day and anniversaries buying bouquets of them for that special someone in our lives.

And, when it comes to wood, few species stand out as beautifully as the rosewoods. Rich in color and possessing a handsome grain structure, these woods have been used for centuries for articles as mundane as plane handles all the way to expertly crafted symphony violins.

One of the most favorite of the many different rosewoods is Honduran Rosewood. This tropical hardwood grows primarily on the southern coast of Belize, formerly British Honduras, which is where the tree gets its name. Mature specimens of the tree can grow to 90 feet tall, with a slender diameter of about three feet.

The wood inside is dense, oily and has a Janka test score considerably higher than sugar maple, but not quite as hard as mesquite. This hardness gives the wood a tremendous tonal quality, making it ideal as tonewood for musical instruments from guitars to xylophones.

Heartwood of Honduran Rosewood ranges in color from a light brown to a deep brownish-purple. The majority of heartwood will appear almost brownish-mauve. Sapwood is clearly delineated and is a pale yellow. This can make for some dramatic book matches, especially on the backs of guitars.

Because it is so tough, the wood can really do a number on cutting edges, so be prepared to do more sharpening than you planned for during your project. Its grain is also frequently interlocked, so expect that your planes and planer knives to almost ‘ride over’ the wood in these cases.

Where this wood excels is in turning. With a steady hand, a turner can sculpt some incredible looking bowls, vessels and other goodies. What’s even better, once the turning is done and the piece is sanded, the work can be burnished, using the natural oils inside to build a soft luster.

These oils, of course, can cause some issues. Topcoats can frequently fail on this wood, and there have been problems reported with glue ups. Cleaning the wood well with solvent can temporarily clear the surface enough for the finish or glue to cure. And, as with other tropical hardwoods, the oils in the sawdust can cause issues with those who are allergic to them, so dust collection and dust masks are a must.

Since the wood grows in such a small area, and it is a popular wood to work with, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has moved the wood from appendix III to Appendix II. This means that it can no longer be imported or exported without special paperwork. “This beautiful wood has been overharvested,” said Eric Poirier of Bell Forest Products. “That’s why we in the wood industry and the home woodworker needs to appreciate these precious species or they will no longer exist – and no one wants that to happen.”

I just discovered that it was about four years ago when I left you hanging.  Yeah, sorry about that.

Back in August of 2009, I wrote about my wood jumble. It was in an area of my shop where I stacked wood with little organization, which made finding a particular board for a project a nightmare.

Fortunately, my wood storage has evolved to a little better arrangement. I found an area that was between my band saw and the standing storage tower that was open and would serve as a great place for some vertical storage for my boards.

I spent this past weekend arranging the boards in my shop, creating this area to store all of my lumber. It was a pretty simple system, involving some Tapcon screws, a few 2 x 4 scraps that I picked up out of the scrap bin over at the local home improvement center and a few lengths of electric conduit.  All I did was bore some holes into the 2 x 4s to hold the conduit, and then mounted those 2 x 4 cleats into the wall.

I put three lengths of conduit into each of the cleats, using these as dividers to help control the stacks of wood so they don’t flop around. It’s not the most perfect arrangement – the boards seem as if they can push on the conduit, levering the cleats from the wall. I may have to go back to the drawing board on that one…

Anyway, i was able to get the boards in there.  Now, when I need to reach for a board, there’s no issue with finding my choice boards. I simply can look into there and find the rough or previously-milled pieces of wood to find the one I want for a new project.

Dang, I have a lot of boards in there… Maybe I should build a few new projects!

When my boys were both born, I was a total wreck. I mean, there is nothing – and I mean nothing – as unbelievable as holding a person less than five minutes old in your arms. It’s a whole transcendental moment, connecting you with the new generation in your arms and the many generations that came before you.

And, when I told my friends and co-workers about the moment – tears in my eyes –  many of them said the same thing to me. “Tom, you are such a softie.”

I’m pretty sure the meant that in the best way possible, but I’m sure a few of them meant that I was just too darned sentimental.  I mean, come on, people have been having kids for a long time before I did.  Couldn’t I just skip the emotional roller coaster?

And, I’m sure that when you look for hardwood (man, what a transition) – specifically maple – you are looking for the hard, sugar or rock maple for your project. And, many of you might turn up your noses at soft maple.  I spoke to Eric Poirier of Bell Forest Products about that, and he said, “If you did, though, you might be passing on some of the most beautiful wood you  have ever seen, and a great bargain in many cases.”

Unlike the hard maples (Acer Saccarum and Acer Nigrum), the soft maples – Red, Bigleaf and Silver – are a bit softer, and they can frequently sport a slightly coarser end grain texture and can feature more mineral streaks of different colors. But, then again, very lightly colored maples are known for featuring streaks of different colors, so this may not be the best way to identify the species.

The real test can come in if you get your hands on some ferrous sulfate (check out eBay – you’d be surprised what you can buy on there!) and dilute it a little bit. The chemical will  leave a dark blue spot, while the hard maples will leave a much paler blue/green spot.

Why use soft maple in the first place? The stuff works like a champ.  Because it’s not as hard as its harder cousins, it turns beautifully and works like a dream. Looking for a good alternative to ash and oak for bending? Why not give soft maple a shot? It steam bends very well.

And, the best part is that it usually costs less than the hard maples, making it a great bargain as well.

It also has some tremendous figure. Bigleaf maples from the west coast frequently show some unbelievable, hypnotic tiger, burl and blisterfigure. And, when finished – wow. It’s enough to impress the heck out of you and just about anyone else who sees the project.

And, as far as you calling it soft?  Well, those may be fighting words. After all, this softie isn’t going to let the soft spot in his heart for soft maple be insulted.

Nebraska Ned, the second cousin twice removed from Indiana Jones, dismounts his camel in the exotic desert lands of Morocco. He ties his mount to the nearest scrubby looking bush and starts to examine the area, looking for the treasure he has come for. What could it be? Gold? Precious Gems? The sacred idol of the Berber peoples who call the Atlas mountains home?

Nah, you see, Ned is a woodworker. He takes out his shovel, digs into the sand at the base of the tree and finds what he has come looking for… Thuya burl!

Thuya Burl comes from the thuya tree, an evergreen that once grew copiously in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Trees can also be found as far away as southern Spain and in Malta.  It is a small, slow-growing tree, 15 – 45 feet tall and about 2 feet trunk diameter, often with two or more trunks from the base. The foliage forms in open sprays with scale-like leaves. The tree has an interesting defense mechanism that protects it from fire – it is capable of regenerating from a stump. Old trees that have sprouted repeatedly over a long period form large burls at the base, known locally as lupias.

It is an exotic wood that the Greeks named thuya, meaning sacrifice, because they used an oil distilled from it as incense in their religious ceremonies. Some churches still use it and as sandarac oil it is valued for medicinal uses. The burls are as beautiful as they are fragrant and the Greeks and Romans vied with each other over furniture made from them.

Thuya burl is fairly firm and dense with a high oil content, but tends to be brittle. Its color varies from a rich, lustrous golden brown to nearly black. The eyes, perfectly round, are scattered about in some burls like the figure in bird’s-eye maple; in others they are grouped as islands. An exquisite wood, today it is used for inlays, small boxes, turned pieces, and precious objects, although larger pieces may be found from time to time.

“The beauty of thuya burl has been its undoing,” said Eric Poirier of Bell Forest Products. “It is just so desired that huge areas of trees have been cut down over the past centuries, leaving many native areas treeless.” That’s why Bell has been thoroughly checking out their suppliers to make sure they are not overharvesting areas. “By working with suppliers who get their supply from carefully managed areas, we can feel confident in providing this wood to our customers.”

So, once Nebraska Ned gets his treasure back to his shop, you can imagine what kind of fun he’s going to have working with it.  Hopefully, he won’t have to battle any bad guys to get his project done in time.

When I was up in New York City, I experienced a great number of different ethnic cuisines. Greek. Indian. Italian. Chinese. The works.

The best one, though, had to have been the tacos that came to lunch one day. Ezekiel, better known as EZ, told me that these tacos were not to be missed. They were delicious, and there was this green sauce that EZ recommended that I put on top of the tasty treats.

No, it wasn’t spelled or pronounced like today’s species spotlight, but in my exhaustion and excitement, I told one of our crew that the sauce you were to spoon on the tacos was called Goncalo Alves.

Never take food advice from this woodworker.

I guess it was fitting that I messed up like that – because I had seen Goncalo Alves in person in a few woodworking projects, and all I can say is that it becomes a real feast for the eyes. This handsome South American hardwood grows as far north as Mexico, but it found plentifully in places such as Columbia and Brazil. The tree grows 100 – 120 feet tall, with a diameter of three to five feet.

It’s a very  heavy reddish-brown wood with streaks of dark brown or black found irregularly throughout.  It has a janka score of 2,250 pounds, making it nearly as hard as mesquite. Despite being very dense and hard, it works surprisingly well, although some areas of interlocked or curving grain can pose tear out challenges.

What can you use it for? Well, it’s a great accent wood for larger projects, and is great for building smaller pieces.  It also turns beautifully and can be sanded and buffed to a sheen.

That sheen, of course, comes from the oils naturally present in the wood. Which can lead to some unwanted downsides. First, if you are going to glue it, you have got to clean the surfaces with paint thinner or some other solvent, otherwise, it will not take glue too well. Those oils, which help give the wood a great deal of rot resistance, can also lead to sensitivities if you breathe in the dust. So, be sure to wear your dust mask and use effective dust collection when working with this wood.

OK, so I do have to brush up on my Spanish and Mexican cuisine knowledge, but I can tell you that Goncalo Alves is going to make for some tasty looking  woodworking projects.

Sufferin’ Succotash!  Growing up, I didn’t know much about canaries, but I did know who the most famous of all was – Tweety Bird.No, he wasn’t as cool as Bugs Bunny… not as off the wall as Daffy Duck… and not as abused as Wile E. Coyote.

I mean, he was kind of a boring character. He just hung out in his cage, pampered by that nice little old lady. But, he had a bit of a mean streak in him. I loved how he made his arch nemesis – Sylvester the Cat – look like a total goof. While Sylvester often hatched these crazy, overly complicated plans, Tweety was able to easily parry his efforts, leaving Sylvester flat on his face or being chased by that big bulldog that lived out in the doghouse in the yard.

That’s why I find today’s species spotlight so intriguing. Canarywood sounds like it would be this bright yellow, plain looking, mild-mannered wood. But, you would be wrong.

Canarywood grows in South America, primarily in the tropical dry forests of Bolivia and Brazil. The trees grow very tall – nearly 100 feet tall – and very thin – maybe 5 feet in diameter. The wood from the tree is mostly yellow, as you might expect. However, it can also be found closer to an orange hue, with frequent streaks of light to dark red color.

The wood is very strong and has a fine grain texture, and is about as hard as hickory. It is not prone to splintering, and it works easily with both hand and power tools. It planes, scrapes and sands very well, and finishes smoothly with no issues for finish adhesion.

While it is a very showy wood, it is also sturdy enough for structural components such as table and chair legs. It can also hold crisp detail on carvings and other formed profiles, so, it’s equally at home on smaller, more decorative projects.

Canarywood is not yet a threatened species, however, overharvesting can be a danger in the wild with this showy wood. “That’s why we work very closely with our suppliers in South America to ensure we’re getting sustainably grown lumber for our customers,” said Eric Poirier of Bell Forest Products. “A species of wood this beautiful has to be preserved for future generations of woodworkers. Be sure to ask your supplier if they are getting their supply from properly managed plantations. It’s the right thing to do.”

I tawt I taw a pretty wood!

What a big year it has already been for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. First, the entire world celebrated the 60th anniversary of her ascension to the throne. All I can say is that when I hit 60 years of doing something, I hope Sir Paul McCartney will be able to play at my party!

Later this week, she’ll open the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. This will be the third time that the capitol of the United Kingdom will be hosting the games, and the last time, Her Majesty had a chance to take them in as Princess Elizabeth while her father King George VI reigned.

And now, THIS!  A species spotlight on English Brown Oak.  On Tom’s Workbench? Why, it’s a trifecta of royal proportions!

Now, the English Brown Oak is the wood fit for a monarch. These regal trees grow all across the British isles, as much as 120 feet tall and 10 feet in circumference. If you visit the United Kingdom, you will still find forests of ancient oaks, including the old stomping grounds of Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest.  These stately trees were the ones that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to dream up the Tree Ents in his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The wood itself is equally as handsome as the tree. While the tree is in the white oak family, it is a darker shade than you might be used to. It is a hard, heavy, dense wood that resists crushing, and, as with other white oaks, displays tremendous ray flake when quartersawn. The wood typically has a very straight grain, making it a great choice for steam bending.

These trees were grown for buildings, ships and furniture. Shakespeare’s Globe Theater was made of timbers cut from oak forests. King Edward’s Chair, the throne on which monarchs are coronated, is made out of this very wood.

Be warned, though, if you try to use metal fasteners in English brown oak, you might run in to trouble. In fact, you will be learning one of the other uses the wood is famous for – tanning leather. The tannins in the wood are very tough on metal fasteners, and can cause significant corrosion. This tannin also gives English brown oak a moderate amount of decay resistance when used on outdoor projects.

OK, I admit that maybe the whole Tom’s Workbench feature may be a little overblown, I do think Her Majesty will be pleased to see just how much pleasure the stately oaks from her sceptered isle have given woodworkers throughout the ages and throughout the world.