Saturday 17 October 2009

The last of the Mystery Rosewood


This is a very sad “first” for me - using up the last bit of a particular species of wood. I have been slowly eating away at this large piece of unidentified Rosewood... aka Mystery Rosewood. There is a precious little bit remaining - the photo above shows what is left. I do have a set roughed out for an A5 and an XSNo.4 that are not spoken for. And I still have to rough out an A1 panel from the above piece. Whatever is left over is all there is.

Below is a photo of the original piece - the one on the far right (along side three amazing pieces of almost quartered Honduran Rosewood).






Here is a detail shot of the rear infill of an XSNo.4 infilled with Mystery rosewood.



And another shot of the entire plane along with another interesting example. The XSNo.4 in the foreground is infilled with some very old East Indian Rosewood. It has been quite some time since I have worked with East Indian and it was a real treat. I am surprised East Indian Rosewood does not show up more often in old tools - it is a wonderful material.



6 Comments:

Blogger mckenzie said...

Those are stunning works. I'd love to see more of your shop. I noticed we have the same planer, great machine.

20 October 2009 at 13:49  
Blogger Unknown said...

Amazing Konrad, I understand the emotion, incredible wood, you have done it so proud with your skill and gift of respect.

20 October 2009 at 22:13  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks T&G. Not a bad idea - maybe I will take a few shots once I have it cleaned up a bit. Right now it is a little over run with quarter sawn white oak. I also have a General 880 - another great machine.

21 October 2009 at 22:28  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks Jim. It is a funny thing how attached one can get to a piece of wood. I just came in from the shop after roughing out some more infill sets for various customers. I was cutting into a very large piece of Brazilian Rosewood and I must have flipped it 300 times to make sure the first cut would be just right. Thankfully - it appears it was as everything is working as I had hoped. It has taken quite a while to grow accustom to splitting open a 50lb piece of Brazilian Rosewood! I still get sweaty palms.

21 October 2009 at 22:33  
Blogger David said...

I wish I would be the owner of one of these plane with this amazing wood!
You have to keep one for you!
Love your work!
David

22 October 2009 at 17:49  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks David.

I am hoping there will be enough left over so can make myself a small plane. It may be 4-1/2" long... but I really hope there is enough left.

22 October 2009 at 18:03  

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