Looking for a wood species with a specific shade of brown

[jbasen]

I'm continuing to do more work creating wooden jewelry.  My goal is just to use clear lacquer for finishing and to highlight the specific colors of the wood as opposed to staining/dying wood to create the colors I need.

Right now I'm trying to find a species of hard wood that is between the very dark brown/black of ebony and the lighter, but still dark brown, of black walnut.  I've tried wenge but other than the lighter stripes it finishes just as dark as ebony.

Any suggestions? 

And, it would be nice if it had decent working qualities on a lathe.

Thanks!

 

[Walk On Wood]

Cocobolo may work for you

 

[jbasen]

Thanks [member=24123]Walk On Wood[/member]

I've tried Cocobolo and it has too much red/orange in it.  I'm looking for something that is more firmly in the brown family.

Thanks again

 

[nako]

Have you looked at Bocote?  you might want to double check my spelling.

 

[rvieceli]

You might want to take a look at this website:http://www.wood-database.com/

The link for browse by appearance is to a Pinterest board that breaks them down by color.
https://www.pinterest.com/wooddatabase/

black walnut may be able to get you what you want. there are a lot of variations in tone and depth of color with even the same log or piece. The crotch piece tend be a lot darker than the "normal" wood.

Ron

 

[jbasen]

Have you looked at Bocote?  you might want to double check my spelling.

Thanks [member=59799]nako[/member]

I'll take a look.

 

[jbasen]

You might want to take a look at this website:http://www.wood-database.com/

The link for browse by appearance is to a Pinterest board that breaks them down by color.
https://www.pinterest.com/wooddatabase/

black walnut may be able to get you what you want. there are a lot of variations in tone and depth of color with even the same log or piece. The crotch piece tend be a lot darker than the "normal" wood.

Ron

Thanks [member=3192]rvieceli[/member]

That looks to be a great resource. 

 

[bkharman]

I'm continuing to do more work creating wooden jewelry.  My goal is just to use clear lacquer for finishing and to highlight the specific colors of the wood as opposed to staining/dying wood to create the colors I need.

Right now I'm trying to find a species of hard wood that is between the very dark brown/black of ebony and the lighter, but still dark brown, of black walnut.  I've tried wenge but other than the lighter stripes it finishes just as dark as ebony.

Any suggestions? 

And, it would be nice if it had decent working qualities on a lathe.

Thanks!

I made a project with zircote recently and it was about that shade. May be too close to the ebony.

Cheers. Bryan.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jbasen]

I'm continuing to do more work creating wooden jewelry.  My goal is just to use clear lacquer for finishing and to highlight the specific colors of the wood as opposed to staining/dying wood to create the colors I need.

Right now I'm trying to find a species of hard wood that is between the very dark brown/black of ebony and the lighter, but still dark brown, of black walnut.  I've tried wenge but other than the lighter stripes it finishes just as dark as ebony.

Any suggestions? 

And, it would be nice if it had decent working qualities on a lathe.

Thanks!

I made a project with zircote recently and it was about that shade. May be too close to the ebony.

Cheers. Bryan.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks [member=21412]bkharman[/member]

Interesting looking wood.  I'll have to see if I can find a piece to work with.

 

[mo siopa]

Have you tried Purpleheart?  It is only purple until it oxidizes- which does not take long.  You can put it in out in the sun for an afternoon to accelerate the process.  It is also very hard and durable and turns and polishes very well.

 

[jbasen]

Have you tried Purpleheart?  It is only purple until it oxidizes- which does not take long.  You can put it in out in the sun for an afternoon to accelerate the process.  It is also very hard and durable and turns and polishes very well.

Thanks [member=39344]mo siopa[/member]

I wasn't aware of that property of purpleheart.  I'll take a look.

 

[Bohdan]

Thanks [member=24123]Walk On Wood[/member]

I've tried Cocobolo and it has too much red/orange in it.  I'm looking for something that is more firmly in the brown family.

Thanks again

Some time ago I used Brazilian Palisander which was a black wood like ebony with bright red flashes thru it. The next time it was delivered the whole lot was shades of chocolate brown but it still polished up with a high gloss with nothing but very fine abrasive. Don't know if you can still get it, it is also known as Nicaraguan rosewood.

 

[JSlovic]

I looked at Peruvian Walnut for a project a while back- very uniform walnut tones, but darker than typical black walnut
the one downside I found is it splits when it dries so harder to find in thicker than 4/4 or so

 

[jbasen]

Thanks both [member=36526]Bohdan[/member] and [member=7986]JSlovic[/member]

 

[FOGNewbie]

I'm continuing to do more work creating wooden jewelry.  My goal is just to use clear lacquer for finishing and to highlight the specific colors of the wood as opposed to staining/dying wood to create the colors I need.

Right now I'm trying to find a species of hard wood that is between the very dark brown/black of ebony and the lighter, but still dark brown, of black walnut.  I've tried wenge but other than the lighter stripes it finishes just as dark as ebony.

Any suggestions? 

And, it would be nice if it had decent working qualities on a lathe.

Thanks!

If you need small thin pieces maybe you could use coconut shell. You can sand/ buff coconut shell to a high gloss shine. Going back to actual wood, I'd consider looking into wood sample packs for experimentation. Woodcraft and Rockler often have such packs.
http://www.woodcraft.com/search2/search.aspx?query=turning stock
http://www.woodcraft.com/product/159309/bottle-stopper-assortment-pack-6piece.aspx

 

[HarveyWildes]

I looked at Peruvian Walnut for a project a while back- very uniform walnut tones, but darker than typical black walnut
the one downside I found is it splits when it dries so harder to find in thicker than 4/4 or so

It also lightens up over time.  Peruvian walnut = nogol.

Padouk darkens down over time to a dark chocolate brown, but it may be too chocolate rather than gray-black for what you want.  Plus you have to wait a while for the bright color of the freshly cut wood to darken down as much as you'd want.  It's easy to find thicker pieces.

Chechen also can be considerably darker than walnut if you get the right piece, and doesn't seem to change color much with time - if anything, it gets slightly darker.  Thicker boards are harder to come by.

 

[jbasen]

Thanks for the info [member=61231]HarveyWildes[/member]

 

[leakyroof]

I've run into some darker Bubinga from time to time, not sure if it's dark enough for what you want. Also agree about Purple Heart darken with sun exposure. I work with it fairly often, and it's pretty interesting to watch the Vivid purple go to a brown once a piece is outdoors.

 

[jbasen]

Thanks [member=10952]leakyroof[/member]

 

[Pete Connor]

Try "select" IPE.  its used as decking , however if you pick through the pile you can find nice chocolate brown to light brown.