New Forest Shaving Brushes

The padauk is spot on, although already turning dark -- it can be electric orange on a fresh cut, plus the smell of a fresh cut is a dead giveaway (same with zebrawood...). Your bubinga is VERY light... but recognizable anyway.
 
This thread has proved surprisingly popular, despite us woodworkers taking it over. I can't be bothered to go back and quote properly, but thinking about it Henk's spot on about the soaking / drying cycle for dense hardwoods, must be the best way to induce splitting short of an axe. The answer for lignum vitae seems blindingly obvious to me - leave it under water :lol:

Years ago I learnt an embarrassing lesson about padauk by using it for stringing in maple picture frames (bet Henk knows what's coming). It looked gorgeous, vivid vermillion against stripy maple with a pre-cat lacquer finish ... for a while. The solvent in the finish leached the dye out of the padauk and my razor sharp lines turned fuzzy. The solution was to use black veneer either side of the padauk which works just fine, but the stringing wound up being wider than intended.

Henk: am I right to think that you offered me some snakewood? I'm sort of curious about it not having used any, but I can't say I see why people are so enthusiastic about it - just another showy tropical hardwood. If you are offering, I'll swap you some secupira if you'd like: very, very hard with a grain a little like palm wood, the best stuff I've come across for wooden plane soles.
 
Arrowhead said:
Henk: am I right to think that you offered me some snakewood? I'm sort of curious about it not having used any, but I can't say I see why people are so enthusiastic about it - just another showy tropical hardwood. If you are offering, I'll swap you some secupira if you'd like: very, very hard with a grain a little like palm wood, the best stuff I've come across for wooden plane soles.
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Snakewood can be beautiful in figure and pattern, but it can be dull also. It's only a small section of the cross section of the trunk that has the snake pattern, and the contrast isn't always striking. Apart from the pattern, it is a very dense (almost as dense as lignum vitae), stable wood; but it IS very prone to heat induced cracks. Some people claim that boiling it in water for some time will stabilize it, but I doubt it...

I have two 'high end' priests that I hesitate to actually take out, one made out of lignum vitae, and one out of snakewood. Wood is so dense, it doesn't need any weighting. My normal priests (bubinga, zebrawood, maple, Brazilian rosewood (I also still need to make one out of cocobolo...) all have about 3 cc of lead in the head.

Actually, I think I offered to get you some lignum vitae, but snakewood would be possible too. I've long contemplated making a brush from snakewood, but haven't gotten around actually buying a piece of expensive wood for yet another brush. How about I buy that piece that I have in mind that would be just about OK for two brush handles, cut it in half and send you one half?
 
You should Henk, it absolutely reeks.

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I'm touched by the offer...

Actually Henk, between bits of "special" wood and soap samples I'm probably all right for for a decade or so - I'd rather see you make brushes out of the stuff. The (slightly mischievous) offer of the secupira still stands though. Apparently the board attachment quota has been reached, so I'll have a go at posting a pic in the photographs section so you can decide whether you want some.

(edit) no, won't let me.
 
henkverhaar said:
hunnymonster said:
Got that Arrowhead? Henk's going to get wood, then slip you a length.
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Maybe I got this all wrong, not being a native (slang) speaker, but I smell a double entendre here?
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Nee hoor, hij is een lekker flikker meisje (of zo iets).

(Damn my Dutch is bad. Better spoken than written.)
 
Fresh from the new Photobucket account, here's the secupira pic:
secupira.jpg
 
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