I just bought some quartersawn Panga-Panga because the local lumber yard had it for sale and I was looking for something to use on a single stair tread I am working on, and the wood looked hard enough to be good flooring. I also bought enough to make me a desk and printer stand since it was cheaper than poplar and looked much nicer. It is very pretty, even with the crystals and seems hard enough it will make a good desktop.
So, does anyone have any tips for working with panga panga? The boards are surfaced on the faces and are very flat. Some of it has some kind of inclusions which look like crystals embedded in the wood which seem as hard as the wood. The guys at the lumberyard warned me that it might not glue well, and that oil based finishes might not work. There doesn’t seem to be much information online, except that it dulls tools and doesn’t polish easily, and drill pilot holes if you want to nail it.
Any advice is welcome.
Replies
justlee,
for a person experienced with Panga Panga, write to WillGeorge, and ask his advice. He posted a message in the LONG thread in Hand Tools that said that he had just purchased a lot of it.
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
for a person experienced with Panga Panga, write to WillGeorge
Nice try! I have never used it before! But I would guess I'll get the hang of it sometime! Has a funny smell! I bought it because the price was SO CHEEP!
I have checked and a $80.00 stick about $30.00 hard to beat!
I'm not sure but I think it never sold because of finishing problems.. I for one thinks that De-Waked Shellac may cure that! Now what to fill the rough grain with.. However, the grain does not look any worser? that red Oak!Not using it now... In my shop for a few weeks to 'do it's thing'.. Then when it warms up I got two Canopy beds and a large toy chest/ Sitting bench to make from it!
Wish me good luck! THE WOOD IS BEAUTIFUL! I think I got all the wide 'sticks'!
I got mine at OWL Hardwoods.. Nice folks..
Edited 4/9/2008 9:59 pm by WillGeorge
Will George,
Thanks for writing back about the Panga Panga. You know more about it than anyone else I know. That makes you the local expert.
Have fun.
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
That makes you the local expert.
OH GOD!My wife was the local expert.. She could make me do almost anything!
Edited 4/9/2008 11:32 pm by WillGeorge
WillGeorge,
Look at the original post in this thread. The man wants to converse with someone who knows something about Panga Panga.
Isn't that you?
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
I appreciate the heads up. I wonder why this wood would be for sale at this price.One thing they said was that sometimes glue won't work with it. I am trying to design to avoid glue joints and instead design the desk with joints that don't rely on glue.
Justlee.......... It glues good, should have no problems.
James
I am trying to design to avoid glue joints and instead design the desk with joints that don't rely on glue.
I was thinking of BOLTS! LOL..
Edited 4/9/2008 10:00 pm by WillGeorge
Look at the original post in this thread. The man wants to converse with someone who knows something about AS IN ME? LOL.. I just go with the flow and see what happens.. Not many can do that and not get upset!
It's closely related to Wenge. Has the same characteristics: coarse, risk of tearing especially at the edges, texture should be even, planes well. Try Googling Wenge.
James
It works and glues fine. Where are you finding it cheaper than poplar?
I used it to build my stairs. It is hard and strong. Back when I first started using it, Paxton Lumber had a book about some of the woods they sold. It seems that in Congo, or whereever they got it, Panga meant something like really good. But this wood was so much better, that they called it panga panga as in double good.
One of the worse things is the splinters. You can get them from out in the middle of a clean looking face of a board, and they are killer painful.
If you end up cutting it in such a way that there is any broad bands of a plainsawn face, the sanding can end up pitting if there any areas where the light bands of color are very large. The more you sand, the worse it gets, since the black portion is so much harder than the lighter bands.
Also, If there are any thick boards, sometimes, they will be yellow inside when first cut, but they turn dark quickly, like in a couple of weeks.
Oil finish has worked for me, but the sanding must be really fine.
Thank you for the advice!
I found it at Owl's in Des Plaines. They had reduced the price dramatically to get rid of it. I appreciate the advice. All that I have is quartersawn boards which are about 3/4" thick, but the grain turns in a couple to make some dramatic patterns. I think I will save those for something other than the desk. Any recommendation on what glue to use? If I can, I would like to glue up the top and finish with pure tung oil.
I bought some splinter tweezers when I bought the panga panga, and they are getting a lot of use.
I have never had any problems with yellow glue, but of course, clamp time will always be longer on really dense woods, than on softer more absorbent woods.
I think it is silica! I could be wrond which I an USUALLY am!
something to use on a single stair tread .
Just be SURE to drill a hole in that stuff BEFORE you try to do it!
Hi Justlee
Have just spent about 9 years in Mozambique where Panga Panga is common.
(Planted about 10 trees Panga Panga in our small garden for the future generations )
Its a great yellow colour where first cut but soon oxidises to a dark brown colour , it has awful splinters and where they get under your nails !!!
My office desk had a veneer of it which had been abused before I took over , so I sanded it and it came out even more dangerous as far as splinters go.
I have not had a problem glueing it infact I got some offcuts ( about 500 mm long )from a saw mill cutting Parquet flooring blocks. Split them in half and glued them up to make a wider board and planed them own to about 10 mm for a Laptop "stand" which I use when in bed (like now !)
It gets moved arounf quite a lot and has never failed me.
Enjoy working with it
Rob W
If anyone wants to purchase more in bulk I have a contact . One of the FEW people I know in Mozambique who is interested in conservation and plants more trees than he even thinks of harvesting. He will point you in the right direction
Apologies to all , not sure if this last comment is allowed here
Rob,
you said "If anyone wants to purchase more in bulk I have a contact . One of the FEW people I know in Mozambique who is interested in conservation and plants more trees than he even thinks of harvesting."
If that person is Ant White by any chance? If it is , tell him an arbitrary oke in New Zealand salutes him.Philip Marcou
It's good to hear that there is some movement to preserve the resource in Mozambique--a lot of African woods have been hard hit. Another Mozambique wood that is well worth the effort for conservation is African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon); I don't know if your friend is working with that one, too.
-Steve
Edited 4/10/2008 6:40 pm ET by saschafer
It's good to hear that there is some movement to preserve the resource in Mozambique--a lot of African woods have been hard hit.
I'd say mostly by machine guns.. Not by us woodworkers that Love wood and want it forever!
Hell, I put up with Mapels that shed almost all they got in the early spring! Buds, and them twirlbirds that come down fer ever!
Edited 4/11/2008 4:55 pm by WillGeorge
Steve
ANY wood is worth keepin' around! Even if it considerd a weed!
Dear Justlee,
The floor in the old colonial Govenors house on Ilha da Mozambique was made with Panga Panga, (partridge wood) Millettia stuhlmanii, 300 years ago, we just restored it with a bit of steel wool and some white wax polish and it looks like new, so yes it is durable and suitable for flooring......and furniture and just about anything dark and classy and decorative. It glues easily with just about anything, but does have a problem with splinters and tends sometimes to have some silica deposits in it which blunt tools.
There are a couple of projects in Mozambique which grow it back (one of which is mine) which is a lot easier than people think, all you have to do is make the effort, and wait about 300 years.........
Enjoy using it, but please dont buy it because it is cheap.
Kind regards from the mosquitoes,
Mezimbite
Well, I did buy it because it was inexpensive, but I don't plan to use it as if it were easily replaced. I like it because it is so heavy and beautiful and hard and looks like it will wear well. I am glad to hear that someone is working to conserve the trees.
Another thing I forgot to mention is that it burns very easily if you use power sanders such as disc sanders etc so you need to reduce speed and preferably use open coat.
I think I am right in saying that A LOT OF CHARCOAL is made in Mozambique with this timber.......and exported ofcourse. Somebody needs shooting.Philip Marcou
We are working now on the step. I can't believe how beautiful panga panga cuts. We cut about an eight of an inch strip off one board to give it a nice edge, and the band that cut off is so beautiful, we will be using it for inlay in the future. It is so strong too. We had to cut a board to length and so I had Kelly cut a couple of pen blanks off the end. Even though they are cut the way the grain should be weakest, I can't break them with my hands.
That stuff is virtually the same as Wenge- of the Millettia family. As others have said it comes from East Africa. It makes excellent parquet flooring and turns nicely. I have never had a problem glueing it with white glues or Cascamite type powder glues.No problem finishing it with catalysed lacquers.It takes a solvent type stain very well, so you can have it dark right away.
Plenty of silica -best to use tungsten tips and knives.
Very evil little splinters, which fester. You will not often be able to pick up a rough sawn board without collecting a splinter or two.
Full of dirty dust- if you sweat then after a bit you will look like a Welsh coal miner, and the shop will look like a coal yard.
I brought some here, only to find that it can actually be bought at a nearby timber yard- hellish price.
If you use ordinary Stanley type planes then I advise you to increase the cutting angle by five degrees or so. Chisels that are ground at 25 degrees can chip if you are chopping cross grain.
Otherwise it is fine stuff- well worth any extra effort.
I use some to make plane knobs and handles.
Hey Mook, It looks like you may be planing against the grain there. When are you ever going to learn? ;-) RB
Keith,
"Hey Mook, It looks like you may be planing against the grain there. When are you ever going to learn?"
You are quite correct Keith, I am becoming quite indifferent to all but the nastiest of timbers these days. See, it must be these planes that I am spoiling myself with.
There are (admittedly) a few gentlemen out there who still maintain that, despite all evidence to the contrary, virtually any (old) plane will do- but I do have a sneaking suspicion that they may be working butterwood or similar, like Adam does with those canoe planes of his.
Look at the attachment- one hand there,just now I'll be running two planes at once (;)
Philip Marcou
Ha ha, I guess like the little mouse, I got caught taking the bait. Those are great looking planes. Did you make those? I am impressed. I usually don't spend much time in the hand-tool forums, and have only heard brief mention of your planes. I can see now that I have not been paying you your due respect. Most of the tools that I make are butt-ugly compared to those, but they do work.:I really like that you can work with one hand, while the other hand photographs it working. I should try that, but I know that my working hand would get mad and go on strike.
of it has some kind of inclusions which look like crystals embedded in the wood
What wood is... take it for what it is...
I work on a whim... That was the BEST BUY I ever had on hardwoods! I have about all the wide sticks they had.. And then some...
I cut some wide sticks (about 10 almost and 8 inches or so) on the band saw.. Several days ago.. Still as they were but alittle skinner! I have never worked this wood but I'm sure I'll surive,,
Wish we met at Owl to fight over the sticks!
I go in the mornings,, Grumpy old man there.. I check out with that brunette! She is my sweetie!
Night man is much easier to talk with! BUT NO BRUNETTE!
EDIT: ALL the folks there are NICE folks! Even the grumpy one!Even the grumpy one!
Even the grumpy one!
He as to deal with ALL THE CONTRACTORS in the mornin' ...By the time I get there he is all worn out! AND THEN SOME!
Edited 4/11/2008 4:34 pm by WillGeorge
Edited 4/11/2008 4:36 pm by WillGeorge
I just bought some quartersawn Panga-Panga DAMN all I got was flat SAWN!
Will, just rip some off the edges and you will have lots of (narrow) "boards" (;)Philip Marcou
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