Try not to hate me, but I just got home from a week on the Big Island. While poking around a crafts gallery, admiring all the beautiful koa wood items, I came across another wood I was unfamiliar with called milo.
The next day I saw a local lumberyard (Aloha Woods) and stopped in. I picked up a three small pieces of milo from the shorts bin. It kind of reminds me of Indian rosewood in color but with a texture similar to walnut. My wife admired a piece of pepperwood (which looks spalted even though it’s not) and another chunk of red rivergum (beautiful deep red color). Finally, my son urged me to buy a couple pieces of coconut palm which is super light, like balsa, and kind of flaky in texture.
Can anybody tell me something about these woods? I plan to play around with them on some small boxes or other small items (didn’t buy very much–had to get it home in the luggage), but I’d love to more about them.
TIA,
Ian
Replies
I came across another wood I was unfamiliar with called milo. The next day I saw a local lumberyard (Aloha Woods) and stopped in. I picked up a three small pieces of milo from the shorts bin.
I'd say sort of like a wife.. Ya have to try it before ya get instructions!
try not to hate me???? what's going on back there..... ???
The milo is a wonderful wood. Hibiscus family. It is relatively soft and is ideal for carving, holds good edges and finishes beautifully. it grows right on the coast . It was traditionally used for food bowls and containers as it will not impart flavor to the food stored. Large pieces are now quite rare. I've got a pile of sawn smaller stuff.It can be irritating to work with for some, but rarely seriously so.
Pepperwood? May be what we call Christmas berry,, Brazillian pepper. It falls into a category of , " hell, We'll slice up anything just to see what is in it". Sometimes it looks pretty nice but it is a short branchy thing that rarely yields much. I don't know much about it's working properties but do know that the tree is quite toxic to stuff around it.
Red rivergum..... sheesh.... it seems that they are taking some poetic licence here. this is probably robusta eucalyptus. This is a fine hardwood when properly dried, My workbenches are made from it and wear like iron. Regardless of the cure, it tends to move quite a lot and this does not settle down over time. Allow for this in anything you make with it. The red color holds well and really deepens when finish goes on. I like the stuff for trim and casing etc, but would be nervous about tight joinery due to the continuous movement. There are a couple other Eucs that will also fall into this description.
The coconut wood is pretty cool stuff. there is a huge difference in density between the fiber and the pulpwood so you need to block sand everything. Also , because of this, it will not take fine detail, so carving is tough and dovetails would not be recommended. It is relatively stable and finishes up great. Be careful when chiselling. The hard fibers have been known to take chunks out of chisels.
I get to go clear out an old mill site in the next couple weeks and expect to find stuff that I've never seen. I know we will find Lemon gum, sugi pine, silver oak, Naio, cypress, drift mahogany but lord knows what else. There is an amazing variety of wood here, It's why I can't leave!!!!
I am on Oahu and collect Koa and Milo whenever I get the opportunity. The milo will fade in sunlight over time. Cocconut can be quite hard if the boards come from the correct part of the trunk and it is kiln dried.
"Hitai", do you have an exhibit in the Wood Show in Honolulu, Sept 9-15th? Aloha
yup,,, got a couple going. My son is entering too!
Ian
River red gum is an Australian native, was Eucalyptus camaludensis before the renaming & grows along the southern inland waterways of this wide brown land. It is indeed a red colour which deepens with age & is fairly dense. Used extensively in custom furniture & cabinet making & has a strong following (at least amongst my customers) in NSW, Victoria & South Australia.
How it ended up in Hawaii is anybody's guess as it does not naturally occur in more tropical regions in this country.
Don
Milo (mee-low) is common to the Pacific region and is an exceptional carving material, fine grained and soft to the knife with a beautiful purple/red to brown color. Older specimens can have dark almost black streaks, sapwood is cream colored. It is prized here.
Pepperwood and red gum are Australian originally and not widely available in the islands but of course they are wood and if they are beautiful you scored!
Coconut is only emerging as a "wood" with alot of the examples coming from South Pacific islands rather than Hawaii. Enjoy them and post some pics of what you make from these. aloha, mike
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