What woods are PC?

[Terence]

Odd, I'd never heard of Swietenia mahagoni until now. The reference book I mostly use (Tropical Timbers of the World) doesn't have it listed. Another reference says that Swietenia macrophylla is sometimes called Cuban mahogany, and it does grow in Cuba. A search on the net found it though, so Nick and Terence are right.

I just looked it up in my books. Two (The Wood Book and Woods of the World) don't list it, and one (Cabinetmaking Timbers, published 1933) does. Odd.

 

[markbb]

I'm fully confident that you have enough wood lying around your home to make a camera without having to purchase more.

 

[Colin Graham]

I've had great success with curly maple and cherry. My last camera was made from mahogany which I still feel a little guilty about, but it was hard to pass up the weight savings against cherry or walnut. Maple is often overlooked, but it is remarkably stable if dried right. I made a fiddleback maple 4x5 that is going on 3 years old and is just as silky smooth in the rainforest as in the desert...And I got the material for it from a neighbor's firewood pile!

 

[freygr]

I salvaged a bunch of Gum Wood form pipe shipping cases which were thrown into a big dumpster about 20 years ago. That wood is tough stuff, resawing that work if your saw blade is dull you will set of the smoke detectors, but with most of the hardwoods that is true. I'm presently using it to build a 120 view camera using RB67 film backs.

 

[colivet]

What do you think of Koa?

 

[colivet]

or coconut?

 

[johnnywalker]

What do you think of Koa?

I don't have any personal experience with it, but according to my literature it's valued for musical instruments because of its resonance properties, but is medium to coarse textured and moderately difficult to glue. The veneer is valued because of its fiddleback figure. It's difficult to saw because of its interlocking grain, and your tools have to be sharp to prevent tearouts. It has excellent stability, and is relatively easy to plane. It takes varnish and stain well, and polishes well. Weight, density, bending strength and compression strength are high. Nailing and screwing properties are generally good.

This may be more than you wanted to know!

 

[Uncle Jim]

colivet,
Spent 3 years in Hawaii ,where Koa is grown. It is some tuff stuff. Very difficult to work with hand tools and no that easy with powertools. Definately need to be sharp. It is also not that light, but it can be very beautiful when done.
uncle jim

 

[colivet]

Yes I actually am very familiar with Koa and do live in Hawaii full time. I am also a carpenter and had to install koa doors and a Koa bar top. I was mostly asking what you guys thought of the wood on terms of beauty. I have seen some pretty boring pieces of koa and I have also seen some amazing ones that shimmer in the light with golden color. Sometimes it can ha tones of red, green, brown, golden brown all in the same board.
Yes it is not easy to work with even with sharp tools. It is brittle and a blow of a mallet with a sharp japanese chisel can make the board chip or the chisel too.
Check some small pieces http://cgi.ebay.com/5-PREMIUM-HAWAI...ryZ84011QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[bdial]

I've seen some wonderful Koa and would like to try working with it sometime.

That there are boring pieces and amazing ones could be said for most any woods, and a lot of silver haloid too for that matter.

At least in photography, we don't have to judge grain and figure before making a print, and for most of us, it's not different in every sheet.

 

[barryjyoung]

There are (or at least have been) issues with cherry harvesting in the northeast. Large swaths of formerly bountiful cherry forests in Appalachia have been shut down (according to my two sawyers, anyway). Ain't gonna last forever - either the "Genuine" mahogany (which is sustainable, and not Cuban, FWIW) for it's ease in joinery, or cherry for its beauty would be my choices. Or some quartered walnut. Or Sapele. Or some bubinga.

Too many choices.

This is why I suggest people buy and why I buy only certified wood from guaranteed sustainable plantations.

Barry Young
Young Camera Company