I guess I have got to contribute more often, but my professional and family life keep me tied up. I have learned more here than from my subscriptions to a woodworking magazine, or from the 12 or so books on woodworking that I have.

I really appreciate the people and craftsmen and the content that they take the time to develop and share here. Hopefully I will be “qualified” enough to add some real content someday.

It is quite amazing that an empty blog can get more feedback than ones that people take a little time to write, but hey – cyber space can be a bit of a vacuum.

And -wow- I did not know one could play chinese whispers online.

Back to the Hornbeam also known as ironwood. I bought some a couple of months back, being inspired to make my own bench someday.

Hornbeam
Hornbeam is a white wood with attractive flecks and swirls in its grain. It has a beautiful smooth finish often compared to ivory. Hornbeam is a very dense hardwood and is now sold for furniture or turnery.

Exceptionally hard – Hornbeam was once the main source of very hard wood in Britain, and was available in larger sizes than the equally prized boxwood. Its name originates from its use in oxen yokes (the beam between the horns) which were subjected to considerable wear. It was also traditionally used to make mill cogs, piano parts, chopping blocks, pulleys, mallets etc ­ anything that required a high resistance to wear.

Even for indoor use, the wood will not last as long as other hardwoods, but sealing it with oils, wax polishes and other preparations helps. James Brown (“The Forester”, Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh & London, 1871) says: “The wood of the beech, when in a young state, is proverbially of short duration.”
It is obviously not a wood that should be used where structural strength is required, such as beams and joists, nor should it be used for purposes which require long use and low maintenance, such as roofing timbers, but it would be eminently suitable as a lovely flooring material.
Beech has some advantages too. Apart from its easy workability, it is easily bent after treatment with steam and its denseness and hardness make it an excellent wood for everyday wear and tear. Thus its traditional uses include bent-wood furniture (such as Windsor chairs), other items of cheap furniture, toys, shoe-heels, rolling pins, platters, ice-cream and take-away chip spoons, clothes pegs and so on. It was also used for panels of carriages, carpenters planes, stonemasons mallets, granary shovels and many articles in turnery. On the continent it was used for parquet-flooring and in France it was made into the famous ‘sabots’, wooden shoes that kept out the damp better than any other wood. Beechwood is relatively free of taste and smells and so it was often used for kitchen utensils, bowls and spoons. In Denmark it was used for making butter-casks.
Once the problem of protective impregnation was solved, large amounts of Beech were used on the European continent as railway sleepers.

The colour of the wood is cream to medium-brown. It often has streaks of different colour, but these do not affect strength. The rays are more distinctive than the growth rings, which causes the wood to be flecked, rather than to have spectacular wood-grain patterns. The moisture content of green Beech is 90% (Ash 50% and Elm 140%).
As with all woods, these statements are to some extent generalisations. Beech which is grown in ideal circumstances will have a more even, straighter grain than that of an exposed, windswept tree on a poor rocky soil, which may be harder to work.
Beech is an excellent firewood after a year’s seasoning. It burns with a bright flame and has superior heating power. Consequently it was used extensively as a domestic fuel.
The wood has also been used for making charcoal, especially for colour-manufacturers, but also for the gun powder industry.
In Britain, large plantations of Beech were grown in the Chilterns during the last two centuries to service the chair-making industry. Because of its versatility, being strong, yet easily worked, Beech has replaced Oak as the major hardwood timber crop in Britain.