06 Apr Tools from Zimbabwe: These tools have truly travelled the world
Sweden(?)...
Rarewoods News
14 Oct Home is where the (Purple)heart is!
One of nature’s unusual masterpieces, Purpleheart (Peltogyne) is a true stunner. It comes mainly from Guiana, but also from various other South American countries. Its hard and heavy at around 58 pounds per cubic foot (860kg per m3), but it machines well, although with a dulling...
26 Sep African Blackwood: dream or nightmare?
About 8 years ago we thought we had hit the jackpot, when we were offered 110 tons of second quality Blackwood logs at the crazy low price of $50-$100 per ton FOB at a Mozambique port. As prime quality African Blackwood was selling at about...
13 Sep Amazing Crotch Mahogany
We have in stock approximately 5000 ft of the most unique mahogany anywhere in the world. This is genuine mahogany (Swietenia Macrophylla) from the Amazonian jungles of Brazil. Harvested approximately 15 years ago for the veneer trade, the best sheets of veneer were sliced off and...
30 Jul Lie Nielsen Open House (16-17 July 2010)
Recently we had a fantastic opportunity to participate in one of Lie-Nielsen's great Open House events. We are very fortunate in that Lie-Nielsen, the world's leading maker of quality hand tools, is based just down the road in Warren, Maine. Tom Lie-Nielsen is probably same age...
18 Jul Wedding of the century
Nope, not Chelsea Clinton. My son Seamus and his beautiful wife Lucy were married in Surrey, England, this last weekend. It was a magical day and a powerful reminder of how much we should cherish our families, friends and life itself! CONGRATULATIONS SEAMUS AND LUCY, AND MUCH...
04 Jul Rack and roll!
In South Africa where we had cheap wood and cheap and plentiful labor (as a result of a heart-breaking 65% unemployment rate) we built solid wooden racks, which over time are looking dangerously not four-square. Here in the USA there are brilliant interlocking steel racks...
28 Jun A fool and his bandsaw are easily parted
Bad days… We all have them and so often they are caused by our own damn foolishness. With this little mishap I have only myself to blame and I do feel pretty stupid about it. But first some background...
20 Jun Live and let dry?
Our South African operation runs 23 low temperature dehumidification kilns to dry wood. They work well for most 1 inch wood but get a bit iffy on thicker sizes. They are also incredibly costly to run (on average $266 / cubic meter compared to cost...
13 Jun More toys: Pineapple-headed thicknesser and surfacer
More than anything else, it is the high precision German four-sided tungsten carbide replaceable cutters in a pineapple head that allow us to achieve smooth finishes on some of our highly figured and abrasive woods. The small individual cutters also have the added bonus of...