Wood identification?

[grebmar]

I made this pen recently with an old Classic American Rollerball kit from Woodcraft. But I don't know what the wood is. It's very dark, but in sunlight or other very bright light you can see the grain pretty well. The second picture shows this. This first doesn't show anything. It was really hard wood to turn, and the blank seemed really dense.

 

[wolf creek knives]

Not sure what the wood is but it's a very nice looking pen. What was your finish? I would guess at Ebony but there's much more experience from others so I'm just guessing.

 

[Dehn0045]

my guess is ziricote

Here are a few that I made with ziricote, the sapwood is very light as you can see on the rollester, the endcaps of the segmented are ziricote.


possibly helpful information if you have it: where did you get the blank, a photo of the unfinished blank or offcut, endgrain (any visible pores), odor while turning

 

[egnald]

Greetings from Nebraska! Considering you said it was really hard and the slight green hue, I think that it could be Argentine Lignum Vitae which is both very hard and typically has a greenish hue. - Dave

 

[sorcerertd]

Greetings from Nebraska! Considering you said it was really hard and the slight green hue, I think that it could be Argentine Lignum Vitae which is both very hard and typically has a greenish hue. - Dave
View attachment 241955

I've never seen Argentine Lingnum Vitae that dark, but I suppose it's possible. One thing is for sure, he definitely would have noticed the smell. I love the smell of that stuff.

 

[tomas]

I love working with Argentine Lignum Vitae. It turns nicely, smells great, and finishes beautifully.
Tomas

 

[grebmar]

Thank you for all your suggestions. Based on the pictures that Sam posted, It does look like Ziricote to me. I got it in a random pack of 25 unlabelled pen blanks from Cook Woods. I have a few more just like it.

 

[Dehn0045]

Thank you for all your suggestions. Based on the pictures that Sam posted, It does look like Ziricote to me. I got it in a random pack of 25 unlabelled pen blanks from Cook Woods. I have a few more just like it.

In my experience these type of variety packs tend to contain more common exotic woods (probably not going to find things like cocuswood or shittim in a variety pack). IMHO ziricote falls in this category, it is fairly common, at least in the US. There are a few ebony species that have similar characteristic as your photo (Mun Ebony and Macassar Ebony are two that come to mind), but these are much less common and I think it would be less likely to have them in a variety pack from a large outlet like Cook (maybe a smaller boutique supplier).

 

[grebmar]

I forgot to mention that the finish is CA. It's actually not a good job, as there are ripples and streaks. I think I've solved that problem for the pens I've made since. I had to modify my procedure when I started using Mercury Flex, as it applied differently than the StickFast I started with.