I’m making a small stand-alone cabinet using a beautiful piece of crotch walnut for book match doors and drawer fronts. I’m thinking of bass wood for the end panels and rails to high-light the walnut. The grain and color would work great with this design. I’ll also do some relief carving in the side panels. This would strictly be an indoor show piece – kind of like a fancy cup board. I’ve never used bass before. Would this be an appropriate use for it? Does the wood yellow with age like maple and can it be prevented if so? Any other ideas for high lighting walnut – something with grain that won’t compete with the figure?
Thanks.
Replies
I would go with birch or poplar. Basswood generally way too soft for this application IMHO. Maybe others here have found this not to be true, but I do believe that basswood is also famous for yellowing.
holly is white and does not yellow much, has very little grain, uniform texture and moderately dense
Ray, you're in a compromising situation here and must be prepared to accept some trade-offs.
The basswood is an outstanding choice with respect to the carving aspects of the project (in fact it's probably the best in the world), but it is extremely soft and structurally inferior to just about anything else you could choose. You can compensate for this by beefing up the dimensions of the basswood members in the project, but if this is a piece that is destined to take some serious abuse, you're better off moving up to a denser wood.
There are some beautiful blonde options, such as aspen, which is almost 20% denser than basswood...and it has respectable shaping qualities (it's similar to the species the Dutch use for wooden shoes.) If you want to step further up the density scale, some of the soft maples (boxelder, for example) represent the next level of density among our domestic hardwoods...( paper birch, if you can find it, is also moderately soft, but the typically available cabinet birches are not.) All of these choices represent very blonde woods with fine texture and good shaping characteristics...But each move up the density scale will demand more elbow grease in the carving portion of the project.
As for basswood's long term patina, it belongs to a family (Tiliaceae) that is somewhat allied to the chocolate family (cocoa; Sterculiaceae) and it contains some extractives that, in my experience, do seem to yellow up over time. Aspen would probably maintain it's "whiteness" longer...while holly would be the best in this regard, but it's pretty dense for carving.
So Ray, it's time for some trade-offs. Would you rather have a tough blonde or a pleasantly soft pushover. :O)
Thanks!
I'll look for those woods at the local lumber yards.
Well Jon,
Unfortunately here in Southeast Texas, Aspen, Boxelder and Paper Birch are apparently hard to come by. I can get Alder with although not really a blond, has a grain I like and might also look good against the walnut. What can you tell me about the species.
Ray, alder is actually a member of the birch family (Betulaceae.) It's anatomically similar to other birches, but much softer. Functionally, its shaping properties, density and strength are comparable to aspen...but you're right about the color. It's a pinkish tan rather than blonde. If you like the appearance it gives you, it would be a credible candidate. It's not particularly strong and it has very poor decay resistance, but it's used a lot by commercial cabinet shops for making cupboards and vanities.
Edited 8/4/2003 7:53:16 PM ET by Jon Arno
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