By special request from a friend, today's featured wood is desert ironwood, native to the American southwest and northern Mexico.
This is a marking gauge I made from this unique and beautiful wood.
And a guitar pick. It really does glow like that once it is polished.
Desert ironwood is hard to come by. It is illegal to harvest the trees without a permit. I have found a few pieces where land owners have thrown downed limbs to the curb for bulk pickup. It is usually in poor condition, weathered and cracked. Plus the bulk of it is usually sapwood.
Every April the whole tree turns purple with fountains of these small flowers.
The wood is very hard and difficult to work. Tools need to be sharp, and frequently resharpened. Even then the wood is brittle and will shatter easily. This was my first attempt at cutting a mortice for the marking gauge.
Looking at that picture now, I am just noticing the tiny birdseyes. Maybe I should polish it just to see.
It really does take a fine polish.
Here is a bit of burl wood that I cannot quite figure out how to mount to my lathe.
I have never found any that would really be useful as lumber.
The best thing about it (my wife loves this) is that the bark is usually full of scorpions and their eggs.
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