Replies

1. 
   jonsherryl | Oct 03, 2003 04:31pm | #1

   BG, it sounds like the wood you have is jatoba (AKA "Brazilian Cherry"; Hymenaea courbaril.) It's a very attractive and strong cabinetwood with good wear resistance. It's often used for high quality flooring and it would make a nice table...if you had enough of it in the kind of dimensions necessary to do the job. If that's not the case, there are all sorts of small projects you could use it on: jewelry boxes, display shelves, a small cupboard or decorative turnings, etc. Another thought might be to marry it up with another, contrasting wood (perhaps maple or white oak?) using the other wood in thicker dimensions as the edging...Then go ahead and make a table of some sort.

1. 
   BG | Oct 03, 2003 04:47pm | #2

   Jon,

   Thanks, I was hoping you'd see this post.  I had not thought of the oak or maple as a contrast...nice idea.  I was tinkering with the tought of cherry...mush less contrast..but, ya know, two cherries....actually making a frame of cherry with a rabbit and droping in the SA cherry to create an illusion of a thick top.  I did glue up a panel about 1 month ago...seems fairly stable...should I worry about wood expansion?

1. 
   jonsherryl | Oct 03, 2003 05:12pm | #3

   Stability differentials shouldn't be a problem, BG. Jatoba's average volumetric shrinkage, green to ovendry, is 12.7% and it has a moderately low T/R ratio of 1.88. Our native cherry does have a little lower volumetric shrinkage (11.5%), but it's T/R  is actually slightly higher than jatoba's. Jatoba is a more stable wood than either maple or white oak, if you elect to marry it up with either of those two contrasting woods...in fact its volumetric shrinkage is almost identical to that of black walnut.

   Jatoba contains a resin (a form of balsam) that allows it to sort of self polish as if it had its own built in varnish. It's brutally hard and sometimes difficult to work, especially if it has curly figure, but it's a beautiful wood.