Good retailer of exotic wood? Also, anyone have any stain/laquer tips?

[cheesehead]

I need a small quantity of cocobolo, bloodwood, paudak, or a similar exotic wood for a project, and was wondering if anyone could recommend a good retailer or eBay seller. A lot of vendors will alter the color balance or saturation in their pictures to make the wood to appear of higher quality than it actually is, and others won't even give you a picture at all - a big issue, since hue and grain vary wildly in these woods.

Also, since getting a deep red hue is often difficult and quite expensive, can anyone recommend a way I could fake it? I figure I'll be putting on some sort of gloss lacquer anyway, and if I can enhance the color of the wood, so much the better. I'm new to woodworking, so basic instructions are appreciated.

 

[sandorski]

Oh, I got some Exotic Wood right here!

 

[Jeff7]

Woodcraft.


Yes, they do use stock images for what they sell, and what you get may vary. I'd imagine that'd be the same for any retailer, unless they had some crazy automated system for taking and uploading pictures of every single block they had in stock.

But they do have...
Chocobolo
Bloodwood
and Padauk


Finish: I've used Behlen Woodturner's Finish with good results.
It's got some definite downsides though:
- It's not good for things that are handled often.
- You can't really get it wet.
- If you don't have ventilation in your workshop already, you'll want some. This stuff evaporates quickly, and the resulting vapor isn't particularly good to breathe. It's adorned with warnings of reproductive and nervous system harm.


But it does a very nice job of enhancing the wood's natural colors. Unfortunately I don't have any before/after images right now.


Sanding: That was usually done on the lathe, going from somewhere around 80 grit down to....oh I think 320 grit was the finest, and each one got a few passes while turning in each direction, in order to get the splinters both ways. You can also try rubbing some wood shavings over it too, to help press down any tiny irregularities that might remain, but that will depend on what you're doing. My work was all done on a lathe.

 

[Bignate603]

Oh, I got some Exotic Wood right here!

And I'm sure you rub it down with laquer pretty often.

 

[Farang]

And I'm sure you rub it down with laquer pretty often.

He stains my retailer with his exotic wood.

 

[sandorski]

And I'm sure you rub it down with laquer pretty often.

Gotta take proper care of Fine Wood.

 

[Jeff7]

Oh, I got some Exotic Wood right here!

Awwww, it's so cute, too!

 

[sandorski]

Awwww, it's so cute, too!

 

[cheesehead]

Yes, they do use stock images for what they sell, and what you get may vary. I'd imagine that'd be the same for any retailer, unless they had some crazy automated system for taking and uploading pictures of every single block they had in stock.

A lot of folks on eBay sell it piece by piece. I think I'll be buying it there - at least I have a vague, distorted idea of what I'm buying. Also, Woodcraft = expensive.

- It's not good for things that are handled often.

That's kind of a deal-killer - I'm actually using this stuff for headphone parts. The pieces themselves are fairly simple - just little circles of wood a hair under 4" in diameter - so sanding should just be a matter of time, elbow grease, and progressively fine-grained sandpaper.

I once managed to get a nice finish on wood by taking a buffing wheel and quite a bit of red rouge polish (mostly just wax) and polishing it down. The net result was a smooth matte finish that held up pretty well under handling, though it didn't look all that nice.