Lignum Vitae oxidation

[jennera]

We picked up a larger turning block from Rockler that was labeled as lignum Vitae. It has a nice green color that we liked. I finally got around to cutting it into pen blanks for my daughter today and the cut sides are yellowish brown. I read that with oxidation, it will turn green like the outer edges but I had a few questions.

When Rebecca turns it for pens, should she apply the finish to keep it yellow if that's what she wants? If she wants the greenish color, how long does the wood have to be exposed to oxidize? Any tips to speed up that process?

Here is a photo of the 4 pieces I cut today showing the cut edge and the outside green edge.

Thanks!

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[KenV]

Argentine lignum vitae is not the real stuff. Lignum is CITES appendix II.

It is also called vera wood. Hard and oily.

The light heartwood changes towards green with exposure to sunlight.

Color intensity varies by the piece.

Put the pen in the sun to get fast green development.

 

[jttheclockman]

The real stuff is on the endangered list so it can not be sold.

 

[robutacion]

The real stuff is on the endangered list so it can not be sold.

Well "endangered list" is normally the ticket to put a hight price on it's head and as a result, you will find less of it and very expensive.

There is also the other side of the issue and that is "imitations" there is always someone trying to sell and identical wood as if it was the real thing, I have a great example here in Australia with the Bull-Oak/Buloke the densest wood in the world, the wood is now protected and only exist in government land Parks/Reserves/etc. however, there are folks out there selling the type of She-Oak I have around here and Buloke.

They do look very similar and still very heavy but, only about 1/3 of the Buloke density, I always tell people that I don't have Buloke and that is now very rare to find but then, I'm shown online blokes that openly advertise the She-Oak as the Buloke and price it accordingly, to them no one will know any better who would be able to measure the density of what they are selling as the real thing..?

A practice that I'm not interested in entertaining...!

Cheers
George

 

[Jim Smith]

I actually picked up two nice large pieces of 20 year old Lignum Vitae a few months ago. One is about 4 inches in diameter and 21 inches long and the other is 6.5 inches in diameter and 19 inches long. Beautiful dark heartwood with only about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of sap wood on either piece. together they weigh about 15 lbs. I'm saving them for a special project, but I also plan on make some pens out of the heartwood.

Jim Smith

 

[jennera]

The piece we bought was about 1.5 square and 18 inches long. I think we paid $10 for it so I doubt it was the "real" stuff. It did turn green after a couple of hours in the sun. Whatever it is, the color and grain are nice. I can't wait to see what it looks like turned! It was not labeled but the salesman had told us it was lignum. We were buying it for the color and grain, we weren't looking for any particular specues. Maybe this weekend she will have time to turn something from it.

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[jennera]

Here are a couple of the pens Rebecca turned this past weekend. She exposed the wood to the sun before finishing it and it turned a nice shade of green.


View in Gallery

 

[More4dan]

Rebecca has some talent! Beautiful pens.


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