# FYI:All woods dont float



## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

I had a discussion with a carpenter friend yesterday and he said all wood will float at least until it gets waterlogged. So today I dropped a smallJatoba [Brazilian Cherry] cut off in a bucket of water and it sank like a brick! Im curious about how many other woods dont float?


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Brazilian cherry [jatoba] is a very common species native to the rain forest of Brazil. It is not a genetically engineered species. It is my favorite wood as it continues to darken/redden like American cherry but it is not a fruit bearing cherry tree. I did a lot of reading on this wood after I first discovered it. There are several woods refered to as "ironwood". Is there really a tree called ironwood or is it a generic term for any very heavy/dense wood? These topics fascinate me as you can tell.


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## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

Petrified Wood!


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## Mickit (Feb 6, 2010)

In Tennessee we had a tree commonly called 'musclewood'. It and 'ironwood' are both hornbeams, and do not float. Ironwood is another name for the 'hop hornbeam' so called for the flowers which resemble hops.


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## Roger Clark aka Rex (Dec 30, 2008)

*Lignum vitae* aka ironwood. Cricket balls are made of it and British cops truncheons (night sticks) are made with it.


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## Pete_Jud (Feb 15, 2008)

Fresh cut myrtle.


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## rance (Sep 30, 2009)

*Lignum vitae* old ship propeller shaft bearings are made of it since it is naturally oily. That's what I've heard anyways.


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

the red african ironwood and you can see how it looks if you go to Karsons page
and look after a blog where he ask what wood is this .... it floods like a rock right to the bottom…LOL

Dennis


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## roman (Sep 28, 2007)

epay


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## brianlee (Apr 13, 2011)

And not all rocks sink! Pumice will float if it has sufficient porosity. Nearly everything we are taught is just a general rule-there are exceptions to nearly everything.


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## 489tad (Feb 26, 2010)

You'll have to the the Late Show's "Will It Float Game", the home version.


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

Natalie Wood…..

Sorry my High School Shop teacher told me that one back in 1983


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

All wood floats till it hits bottom!


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## bues0022 (Sep 30, 2009)

Any wood that has a specific gravity (density) greater than water will sink. The specific gravity of water is 1000 kg/m^3. In this table:http://www.csgnetwork.com/specificgravwdtable.html several wood species are given with their specific gravity's. In this table: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/weigt-wood-d_821.html anything more dense than 62.4 lb/ft^3 would sink. It's a pretty simple concept.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Even freshly cut softwood trees will sink. There's a big business raising
antique logs off river bottoms.


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## MrWoodworker (Apr 18, 2011)

"All wood floats till it hits bottom!"

Is that kind of like, pigs can fly til they hit the ground?


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

Mr Woodworker - I think it is more like:

"It isn't the fall that kills you it is the sudden stop at the end"


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

"Very small rocks" for Holy Grail lovers.


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## Sawkerf (Dec 31, 2009)

Rance -

It was used on all the ships I served on - and still is AFAIK. BTW, they're called screws, not propellers. - lol

(MM1, USN, '66 - '73)


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## RickLoDico (Jan 7, 2010)

Ironwood is a nickname for many different species. It is also a specific tree from the US southwest. See it here:
http://www.pima.gov/cmo/sdcp/species/iw/illus.html


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## Razorbak91313 (Feb 28, 2011)

I would love to get some ironwood for a few small projects but I wouldn't probably be able to do much with it since most of my tools are the less expensive and lighter weight tools that don't have the power or durability for it. But I have my sights set on bigger and better tools and the wood to use them on


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## Grandpa (Jan 28, 2011)

In 1980 I was teaching in the wood shop at our local Vo-Tech school. We were not using carbide tools at the time. A man brought in a board he want to mill and resaw. We worked on that thing until all the tools were dull. He called it Iron Wood but like most of you have said that is a local term for a hard wood. He told me they would sometimes throw one into the ocean off the drilling rig he worked on and it would sink. I just found this blog interesting. We also know that things float easier in salt water.


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## Pop (Aug 6, 2007)

When I lived in Louisiana as a kid I watched fresh cut cypress sank after being cut. They put a cable around the tree to pull it back up out'a the bayou.

Pop


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## childress (Sep 14, 2008)

bues0022 said it in a scientific way. More easily understood is, anything with a specific gravity of over 1 will sink. Wood's density, rated in specific gravity, is rated against the gravity of water. Most "wet" wood that is above FSP will sink. Jatoba's avg specific gravity is .96 (I think) so some pieces will be heavier (and sink) and some will be lighter and float…


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