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Thread: White timber types please.
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11th December 2021, 08:25 PM #1
White timber types please.
I’m after some suggestions for a Timber type to use in my current Plane build(it’s not current it’s only pencil lines on a piece of paper, [emoji6])
I would love some English box wood, but that’s not going to happen, so after some suggestions on something with a close grain, white in appearance.
I really only need a piece about 50 mm cube.
It’s for the front bun, which will be carved into something similar to a violin scroll, rear tote will be in metal.
Only suggestions I’ve come up with are American oak, Huon pine!!!
Cheers Matt.
Squirrel Block plane , help kind of.
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11th December 2021 08:25 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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11th December 2021, 09:00 PM #2
If you want I can send you some of my Chinese Elm, which I used in my other builds. Majority is very light coloured.
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11th December 2021, 09:26 PM #3
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11th December 2021, 09:28 PM #4SENIOR MEMBER
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Lemon and Orange are both fine grained and light coloured Matt. I'm away for a couple of days but I'll see what I can find when I get back.
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11th December 2021, 09:30 PM #5GOLD MEMBER
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I'm no plane maker, but would Jacaranda be any good? Very white and a nice tight, fine grain. Another possibility is white cedar.
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11th December 2021, 09:30 PM #6
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11th December 2021, 09:32 PM #7
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11th December 2021, 09:33 PM #8
Hard to beat Huon pine for whiteness and close grain but another option is pear. I've used prunings from a manchurian pear and although it's not as light as huon it is fairly pale and tight grained.
Cheers, Bob the labrat
Measure once and.... the phone rings!
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11th December 2021, 09:34 PM #9SENIOR MEMBER
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11th December 2021, 10:01 PM #10
A few come to mind
plenty of Flindersias - Silver Ash, Crows Ash, Scaly Ash,
then there is Silver Quandong.
Other light or pale yellow timbers - Yellow Walnut, Cairns Hickory.
Bone / off white Carissia ovataMobyturns
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12th December 2021, 07:25 AM #11SENIOR MEMBER
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I know this has been attended to but no one mentioned poplar as a white timber, it is fine grained and white as and reasonably hard.
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12th December 2021, 08:27 AM #12
Matt
If you wish the timber to remain white you may have to pay special attention to the finishing treatment. A lot of white timbers either yellow or at least darken. I think there is a special formulation varnish for radiata pine which might be work checking.
Much depends on your planning here.
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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12th December 2021, 09:21 AM #13
Nope, CK, I haven't used Jacaranda for plane infills, you may be thinking of the little plane with Box elder (Acer negundo) burl infill: Shavings PP.jpg
Jacaranda would be ok for totes & buns but it's not a wood I'd use in that context as it's a little bit soft & easy to dent, and I'm not sure how white it will remain over time, it develops a very pale-brown colour quite quickly depending on how it's finished. As it happens, I've just been using Jacaranda scraps as the white wood for these Christmas ornaments for LOML's club to sell at a charity stall - it's a doddle to turn: Table snowmen a.jpg Baubles 3a.jpg
Of course 'real' Box doesn't stay white either, it mellows to an orangey-brown: 13 Nuts cf.jpg
The large nut is Buxus & was made 30 plus years ago. It has probably gone as dark as it will ever get: The small nut is a local species (Mallotus) that is very fine-grained & very white, but doesn't grow down your way. I've made some handles from it that are still stark-white after a year or more, so it may never look like old Box.
Lemon starts out stark white but the little bit I've used developed a pale, almost translucent, ivory colour. I'd love to find a bit like that big enough for a small infill plane (not that I'm making any more planes!). Actually, the stuff I've got (a bit of "bush" lemon) is so fine-grained it looks like plastic - can't have folks thinking I use plastic in my planes...
For woods that stay white, Holly is the go-to (used for string inlays, for e.g.). There might be some of that available down your way. Another very white, close-grained wood is Privet (Ligustrum spp) - it's a weed tree up here & grows to a good size, too. I've got my eye on one in the gully on the neighbor's property that needs removing ( ). Cottoneaster was mentioned in this context recently, too, but I haven't used it myself. Murraya ('mock orange') is another very fine-grained wood which yellows like Box - it's another declared weed around here.....
Out of curiosity, which wood have you settled on, Matt?
Cheers,
IanIW
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12th December 2021, 10:01 AM #14GOLD MEMBER
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12th December 2021, 11:40 AM #15
Crocy, I hope Paul has some clear (pun intended) solutions, 'cos yellowing finishes have bugged me all my woodworking life (along with the tendency of all dark-coloured woods to get paler & many pale woods get darker). Pieces I've been very happy with when freshly finished have almost always changed to something I'm not so happy with in either weeks or years.
If what I read is true, catalysed lacquers are the best at retaining their clarity over years, but I don't have the facilities or gear to use such stuff, nor do I have the inclination - wood dust is a big enough hazard for me without adding nasty vapirs to the mix!
From my personal experience, there is no simple finish yet invented that is safe/suitable for amateurs like myself and won't change the colour of the substrate or change colour itself in some way or other (sometimes unpredictably!), to some degree. I have learnt a few things through experience, like any finish based on linseed oil will darken a lot; solvent-based alkyd varnishes run a close second. Regular shellac imparts its own colours (sometimes welcome, sometimes not), & while blond shellacs are very good initially, even they seem to colour over time. Water-based clear finishes are good initially, but will develop some opacity over time & in any case, I haven't found any that give me the sort of surface sheen I seek, they always look cloudy to me.
Tung oil is the least colouring of commonly-available finishes, but it has to be applied very sparingly with adequate drying time between coats to work well.
Perhaps the least colour-changing finishes are waxes, but a) it's exceedingly tedious & time-consuming to get a durable surface with wax alone, and b) waxes have very little moisture resistance & can be a disaster if used on table tops subject to spills (damhik!)
So I too would welcome any words of wisdom on finishes that preserve wood colours without adding their own (actually, from what I've read it's probably an impossible ask!), AND, are practical to use in a backyard workshop....
IanIW
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