Ugly Sapwood Question

Eric,

That ugly streaking might be considered by some a very nice coloration in wood that adds character. It is all in the eye of the beholder, you know. Used for the right project, I do not think there is such thing as ugly wood.

As for your question, I never worked with kempas so I do not know.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

I’ve never even heard of kempas, so I looked it up here.

It looks to me like your board is spalted’ similar to what I’ve seen with Aspen , or pine.

A kind of blue colored fungus.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Hmm, Dick, after reading up a bit on spalting I think you might be on to something. Only affects the sapwood. I even found a type of spalting called “bluestain” – and the streaks do look blue. However, the bluestain pictures I saw were much more extreme than the little tiny streaks in this board.

Alin is right – beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I saw links to how to spalt wood yourself, and you can even buy spalted wood (for turning especially).

I’ll cut my little strips and see how it looks. Maybe it will be okay in my eyes!

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

I’m not an expert by any means, but I thought that kind of streaking could be attributed to mineral content in the soil/water in which the tree was growing.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Eric,
After a litle research, I found some basic info about kempas with some pictures with a wide variety of grain patterns. Hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Tom

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/kempas.htm

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

BTW…

Need to see what a particular pieceof wood looks like? Check out this link…

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/indextotal.htm

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

Ooops… Sorry, Dick Cain beat me to it. My bad.

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

But your enthusiasm is admirable. :)

That is a good link, by the way…

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com