Lignum Vitae? Heaviest/Strongest wood I've seen

Burl Source

Burl Source

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I bought this wood on ebay several years ago. I was told it is Lignum Vitae, but the seller was not a wood dealer so who knows. Over the years I have shown it to a number of exotic wood experts. Each one guessed a different type of wood, and then recanted after feeling how heavy it is.

I finally cut the piece. It is hard cutting and the splinters are like steel. The sawdust is so heavy that the dust collector will not pick it up.

I was told that real lignum vitae sinks in water. So I tried. A small cut off piece sank right to the bottom in a jar of water.
l002.jpg


I had 4 blocks that were each 6"x3&3/8"x1&1/8" in size. They each weighed a pound.
lv001.jpg


Next I got curious how strong the wood was. I had cut off a strip that was 1/16" thick with some hairline checks. Then holding one end I stacked the 4 blocks that weighed a total of 4lbs on the other end. The weight barely flexed the strip.
lv002.jpg

lv003.jpg


What do you think?
Pretty tough stuff!
 
I have a block that I bought out of curiosity. It is amazingly heavy. It is also waxed so I dropped it into the sink and it sank.

I read that it was used for ships' bearings or something like that in the olden days due to it's hardness. I don't know what kind of bearings sailing ships had, though.
 
Real lignum vitae has a very distinct odor, and a green color. The grain can many times look like a herringbone tweed pattern, or sometimes described as 'animal fur patterend' as well. Sometimes it even looks almost like the wood, in a very straight grained piece, is a laminate due to the alternating angles within each growth ring.

There are two woods that people call lignum vitae, one is true lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale) the other is Argentine lignum vitae or guayacan lignum vitae, also known as verawood . Theyr'e closely related and many times hard to tell apart.
 
Verawood tends to turn brown as it is exposed to air while lignum vitae usually retains it's darker green color in my experience. Here are some close ups of the one piece of lignum vitae in my shop. a "top" and "size" view of the same block showing the color and grain

lignum1.jpg



lignum2.jpg
 
found a picture of a closeup of verawood just to show how close it is. They're very very similar, and many people don't make a distinction between the two species

verawood%206%20s100%20q60%20plh.jpg
 
Justin.Mercier said:
Real lignum vitae has a very distinct odor, and a green color. The grain can many times look like a herringbone tweed pattern, or sometimes described as 'animal fur patterend' as well. Sometimes it even looks almost like the wood, in a very straight grained piece, is a laminate due to the alternating angles within each growth ring.

There are two woods that people call lignum vitae, one is true lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale) the other is Argentine lignum vitae or guayacan lignum vitae, also known as verawood . Theyr'e closely related and many times hard to tell apart.
Click to expand...

It is hard to see the colors in the photo since the blocks are dry and not fully sanded. The color of the grain alternates between orange, green and brown. I don't think this is verawood because that wood oxidizes to a greenish color soon after cutting. (Phillip Dobson had sent me a photo showing the color change with verawood which I misplaced) Phillip, if you see this thread maybe you could post that photo.

When this wood sits in the sun it turns a golden brown instead of gray like most woods. I refound this piece next to my garage when I moved. It had been sitting outside in the sun for 3 years. I did a google image search and found a lot of variations as you will find with any woods.

Here is a photo with the wood dampened with water. It is hard to see in the photo but there are a lot of small flecks that may be grain or figure. Too subtle to tell. The colors are off just a little in the photo but real close to what it looks like in person.
lig.jpg



Based on your photos my piece has the coloring closer to the verawood, but the grain pattern is a bit different than either piece in your photos. Looking at the end grain of mine, it is rift sawn so that may account for the difference????
 
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Burl Source said:
It is hard to see the colors in the photo since the blocks are dry and not fully sanded. The color of the grain alternates between orange, green and brown. I don't think this is verawood because that wood oxidizes to a greenish color soon after cutting. (Phillip Dobson had sent me a photo showing the color change with verawood which I misplaced) Phillip, if you see this thread maybe you could post that photo.
Click to expand...

Verawood actually cuts and is very green as it's cut, but turns brown shortly after, when i'm turning verawood on my lathe the chips are all bright green for about 30 minutes before turning dull brown.

If you cant see the grain in the wood even unsanded and without water (as my photos were taken just 10 minutes ago) , it's probably not 'true' lignum vitae, which is pretty distinct. There are a number of other 'ironwoods' that are similarly as dense and sink. If you take a piece of this and sand it, does it exude a waxy residue? Real lignum vitae, and even verawood are both very waxy and oily naturally, and if sanded smooth, say 400 grit, you can actually polish it with just a cloth and nothing else and make it shine just like it was buffed with the natural oils and waxes in those two.
 
Yes. Sanding either is almost like sanding a candle it's so waxy. I've heard that this is one reason that it was used as ship propeller bearings: natural lubrication and natural water resistance.

I like it.
 
I have a BRKT Bravo 1 in Lignum Vitae, and it's amazing. That wood is like steel- I have been unable to put so much as a dent in it after plenty of hard use. It's an ugly, expensive, heavy, fairly boring looking wood- but man is that stuff tough. It is very waxy- it always feels like it has a semi-dry coat of varnish on it- slightly tacky to the touch. I'm confident that handle will outlast me, and then some.
 
Lignum Vitae is used to make lawn bowling balls in the UK. It was also used for pulleys on sailing ships
 
I've heard from a few that have posted that it eventually splits if you use it for scales. I have a whole bunch, too.:grumpy:
 
Justin,
I hope you are still there. I took one of the pieces and did a quick palm sanding at 220 grit. The wood is very hard sanding but does not gum up the paper. The dust stays heavy and does not float around. The wood does not feel like an oiled cutting board, but like one that has been oiled in the past and needs to be oiled again. Very slight.

The photo of the sawdust was from the belt sander. It did not change colors. When sanded finer the hue changed from orange toward red. There are some subtle bands of a similar herringbone but not very pronounced. Could that be because it is rift sawn? I am tempted to cut a piece dead on 1/4 sawn to see what happens.

220.jpg
 
Burl Source said:
Justin,
I hope you are still there. I took one of the pieces and did a quick palm sanding at 220 grit. The wood is very hard sanding but does not gum up the paper. The dust stays heavy and does not float around. The wood does not feel like an oiled cutting board, but like one that has been oiled in the past and needs to be oiled again. Very slight.

The photo of the sawdust was from the belt sander. It did not change colors. When sanded finer the hue changed from orange toward red. There are some subtle bands of a similar herringbone but not very pronounced. Could that be because it is rift sawn? I am tempted to cut a piece dead on 1/4 sawn to see what happens.

220.jpg
Click to expand...

Mark, please educate me. Wouldn't "dead on" quartersawn be a rift cut?
- Thanks
 
Just got in from sawing up some maple burl remnants too small for knife handles into pen-turning sized blocks =P Hrm, looking at that, I'm honestly not sure what it is, except that it's certainly does not appear to be lignum vitae or one of its close relatives. Lignum and it's very close relatives (like verawood) would not leave dust like that.

I wonder if that might be mountain mahogany, not a relative of normal mahogany but which is so dense that, like lignum vitae, it sinks in water, or maybe satinwood, which also sinks, they're both more of a brown color like that and not oily like lignum vitae
 
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I sacrificed a piece that I cut at an angle to get it quartersawn and flatsawn to see if it would show the herringbone. Quick sanded at 120 grit. Shown dry. Looks like it will keep getting darker with finer sanding.

1/sawn
qtr.jpg


flatsawn
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Looking to me that it is probably something else.......but what?
 
That looks like Ipe to me.
 
I know for sure it is not mountain mahogany. We get that around here sometimes. Hard to cut and sand but different than this stuff.
 
As Justin mentioned, there is a VERY distinctive odor given off from freshly cut L.V., sort of spicy and aromatic, but pronounced. You'll notice it.

Also, I have several pieces of L.V(Guaiacum officinale) here and its a much browner color when freshly cut, but it will soon oxidize to a wonderful greenish color. Much different than yours. This is the species that is well known for its use for bearings in the propeller shaft of large ships.

You may have the "other" Argentinian L.V., again as Justin said. I've never seen that variety.
 
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