17/11/2019
Had a brilliant 2nd day teaching Dave how to turn a set of skittles for his young grandaughter, we used Palette wood, its from Navale in Lacus, latin name Grabittus or Faucium, ill post some pictures when they are all done.
This is the timber I use when teaching students
PALETTE WOOD
Its Latin name is Grabittus or Faucium, it comes from an area named Navale on an island called Lacus in Indonesia.
It’s a fast-growing soft wood, the colour depends on what side of the island it comes from.
Timber from the North side.
This is the sunnier drier side of the island, the sapwood is a soft reddish-brown, very similar to Japanese Larch, it is particularly attractive and has variegated striped figuring with varying shades of creamy-white and red to black, the knots are very attractive. Its a soft timber and cuts beautifully with sharp tools and sands to a very high finish with no open grain, it goes a beautiful rich darker colour with a diluted cellulose sanding sealer, highlighting the beautiful features, especially the knots.
Timber from the South side.
This is the darker humid side of the island, the timber is a dull white colour but has some beautiful black streaks/stains through it making it another very attractive timber for turning, it also turns and sands to a fine finish and looks good with a wax finish.
It’s a very soft timber with wide growth rings and is easy to turn, it marks very easily with finger nails etc when working it so be carefull, the end grain tears out badly when parting or scraping the end grain, but with a sharp spindle gouge the end grain cuts amazingly well, leaving a perfect finish needing very little sanding, once in a while you’ll find an inclusion, these can be quite attractive to, it’s a great timber for beginners to practice on because no matter what the tooling finish is like it sands very easily, but be careful of fine detailed work here not to sand it out.
It can be found pretty much everywhere here in the uk as a by-product of industry, and is usually free, which is a bonus.
Mick Giles, Woodturner 17/11/2019
