LL'S WOOD

The avocado (Persea americana) is a tree native to Mexico and Central America. The subtropical species needs a climate without frost and little wind. When mild frost does occur, the fruit drops from the tree, reducing the yield. The avocado was introduced to the U.S. state of California in the 19th century, and has become an extremely successful cash crop. Ninety-five percent of United States avocado production is located in California.

All of the items seen here were hand turned. Use e-mail link above to contact me for more information and/or about custom orders (Deposit required). A two week minimum notice is required for special orders to be completed. More complex projects may require longer to complete. Add an additional 10 days if laser engraving is to be included. Use payment button to the right for deposit payments. I will notify you of deposit amount required. Amount will vary dependant on the project. Pricing and timelines will be agreed upon and deposit paid before work begins.

Katolox is a very hard, dense, heavy, Central/Latin American wood. It has a generally dark purple and brown heartwood, with light colored "new growth (sapwood) that can show considerable color variation. While being moderately difficult to work with, it can be quite attractive and it takes a high natural polish.

Often grown as a shrub but can be grown as a tree; thicket forming; spreading branches; broad crown; thorn like side branches. Wood is slightly on the soft side so sanding to a high polish is difficult.

Redwood grows in an irregular strip scarcely 35 miles wide and 500 miles long, extending along the west slope of the Pacific Coast from the Chetco River in Oregon to about 100 miles south of San Francisco. .As a soft wood, sanding to a high polish is extremely difficult. The grain

striping gives it a "special" look

Found in tropical regions,red palm trees are heavy, hard and dense, with stringy type grain. This stringy grain produces a very interesting "feathery" pattern when turned.

Mimosa is native to Mexico, Uruguay, and Central America, but is widely used as an ornamental tree in the Southern US and other warmer climates.

Lychee is a tropical fruit tree native to southern China. It is also found south to Indonesia and east to the Philippines. It is currently found all over the world, wherever the climate allows. Very hard, beautifully grained wood which polishes to a high natural shine.

Cherry is found in the eastern half of the United States, from the plains to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. It also occurs in high elevations in Mexico. Moderately hard and heavy, the heartwood, which is salmon pink to brownish. This piece was by itself was unusable but cast with PR(poly resin) to fill the voids, an unique resin/wood hybrid was formed.

Padauk is found in Central and West Africa,specifically Cameroon, Zaire, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Nigeria. The sap wood is a cream color, the heartwood is a rich crimson red with reddish-purple streaks that can fade with exposure to the sun. The color will deepen, turning to a darker, reddish brown.

The trees center of distribution is in the north-middle part of the Brazilian Amazon region; combined range of all species from Mexico through Central America and southward to southern Brazil. It is a dull brown when first cut and then turns to a deep purple upon exposure to UV light. It is similar to oak in durability and grain structure.

It is found from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. It occurs across East Asia, through to northern Australia, and west to India. It also occurs in Africa, and in the Americas from the southeast of the United States south to Chile. Bamboo is a woody perennial evergreen plant in the true grass family. As it is a grass, it has a very "stringy" appearance to the grain.

Choke Cherry trees are found throughout southern Canada and most of the United States. It is a strong, heavy wood, but due to the small size of the tree, it is not valuable commercially as other cherry trees are.

The Black Walnut is a native of eastern North America. The Black Walnut was introduced into Europe in 1629. It is cultivated there as a forest tree for its high quality wood. Black Walnut is highly prized for its dark-colored true heartwood. It is heavy and strong, yet easily split and worked.

Cedar is most closely related to the Firs, sharing a very similar cone structure. They are native to the mountains of the western Himalaya and the Mediterranean region. The trees have a spicy-resinous scented wood and thick ridged or square-cracked bark. The soft red-brown timber is valued for its resistance to decay. Color ranges from white to red to purple to a marbled mix of each.

Found in tropical dry zones throughout the West Indies, Central America and southward to Brazil and Argentina. The most common source is Mexico. Bocote is a hard, heavy, strong and dense wood, with compression strength reportedly comparable to mahogany.

It is a relatively rare wood. You won't find thousands of square feet of it. But it is available. Because of its fine texture, pear is compared by some to boxwood; both are used for making printing blocks. Today, pear trees grow in the United States, Europe, Australia and Western Asia. The heartwood ranges from a flesh color to pinkish-brown.

Lama is Hawaiian ebony, it can grow about 25 feet tall and 14 inches in diameter. Lama is naturally white but if the tree is injured during growth it can develop a dark black color so typical of ebony. Lama also spalts very nicely, the wood is medium hard and works well.

Koa is endemic to Hawaii and grows no where else in the world. It can grow an inch in diameter per year and it can grow to more than 100 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter. Koa is very heavy wood, color ranges from dark to light brown as well as nice red colors and it can have very curly grain as seen in this piece.

Olupua is another hardwood from Hawaii. It is generally a creamy golden color with darker streaks an splotches within it. As this piece shows, it is also a wood that can develop nice spalt lines under the right conditions.

Cocobolo is a hardwood from Central America. It is a very beautiful wood, it is typically orange or reddish-brown in color, often with a figuring of darker irregular traces weaving through the wood. Only relatively small amounts of this prized wood reach the world market and it is expensive. It is naturally water and stain resistant which makes it a favorite for high-end pool cues, knife handles, musical instruments, and is also used in making luxury pens.

Lychee is a tropical fruit tree native to southern China. It is also found south to Indonesia and east to the Philippines. t is currently found all over the world, wherever the climate allows. Very hard, beautifully grained wood which polishes to a high natural shine.

Spalted maple is just what it says, Maple with spalt lines. The spalting is caused by the coloration change in wood as it decomposes. Spalting can occur in many woods, some are more prone to it than others. There is a fine line between beautifully spalted wood and useless rotten wood.

Apple is confined, in a wild state, to the temperate and cold parts of the northern hemisphere. The Apple species cannot be grown within the tropics or north of the Arctic Circle, but it rejoices in the dry climate and warm summers of Canada and the U.S

Canary wood is Native To Panama, Ecuador and Southern Brazil. it has colors ranging from the fairly bland to planks that have marvelous red streaking. The wood is hard and heavy. The wood is most commonly used in heavy construction, railroad crossties, flooring, fine furniture, and cabinet work

Black Cherry is a species of cherry, native to eastern North America from southern Quebec and Ontario south to Texas and central Florida, with disjunct populations in Arizona and New Mexico, and in the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala. Moderately hard and heavy, strong, stiff, capable of a very smooth surface.

Siberian elm is native to northern China, eastern Siberia, Manchuria, and Korea, and was introduced to the U.S. in the 1860's. The tree flowers in spring before leaves begin to unfold. The samaras follow quickly and are disseminated by wind, allowing the species to form thickets of hundreds of seedlings in bare ground.

Russian-olive is a small, usually thorny shrub or small tree. It is found primarily in the central and western U.S. In the West, it occurs mainly in the Great Basin Desert. It is also abundant in riparian zones of the Great Plains, for example, the Platte River in Nebraska.

This wood is a hard (three times as hard as oak), dense and durable wood, the most dense of any known wood. , It is actually so dense and heavy it will sink in water. The Lignum Vitae tree is native from Florida to Costa Rica and from Panama to the Bahamas.

Hickory wood is extremely tough, and is valued for tool handles, bows (like yew), wheel spokes, carts, drumsticks, lacrosse stick handles, walking canes, etc. Hickory is sometimes used for hardwood flooring due to its durability and character.

Box Elder is a member of the Maple family native to the central and eastern United States. It typically ranges from white with red and/or purple streaks and/or swirls to some samples appearing almost entirely reddish in color.

Box Elder is a member of the Maple family native to the central and eastern United States. It typically ranges from white with red and or purple streaks/swirls to some samples appearing almost entirely reddish in color. The "burl" is a abnormal growth on the tree. Burls have wild, irregular grain often with bark inclusions internally.

There are approximately 125 species of maple, most of which are native to Asia, but several species also occur in Europe, northern Africa, and North America. Ambrosia maple is the name given to wood that has been invaded by the ambrosia beetle, which causes the staining of the wood as the woods cells start to decompose.

Native to tropical western Africa from Sierra Leone to Angola. It is plentiful in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. It prefers tropical regions and is tolerant of light shade. It is not related to the Walnut, being so named because its nuts bear a superficial resemblance to the Walnut. The wood is bronze-coloured, yellow-brown with irregular dark lines. It is extremely hard, heavy, close-grained, and resists water well, making it a valuable hardwood.

Macadamia is native to eastern Australia. Outside of Australia, commercial production is also established in Hawaii, South Africa, Brazil, California, Costa Rica, Israel, Kenya, Bolivia, New Zealand and Malawi. Macadamia was extensively planted as a commercial crop in Hawaii from the 1900s. The Hawaiian-produced macadamia established the nut internationally.

Ponderosa Pine is a widespread and variable pine native to western North America. The bark of the Ponderosa Pine has a smell similar to vanilla. The Ponderosa Pine has a very distinct bark. Unlike most conifers, it has an orange bark, with black lining the crevasses, where the bark "splits". This is very noticeable amongst the older Ponderosa Pines that live along the west coast of Canada. This piece was obtained from a tree that was in a burned area from a forest fire. The "superheating" caused by the fire caused dramatic and very random discoloration of the wood.

Russian-olive is a small, usually thorny shrub or small tree that can grow to 30 feet in height. Russian-olive is found primarily in the central and western U.S. In the West, Russian-olive occurs mainly in the Great Basin Desert. It is also abundant in riparian zones of the Great Plains, for example, the Platte River in Nebraska. This piece was by itself was unusable but cast with PR(poly resin) to fill the voids, an unique resin/wood hybrid was formed. The combination makes for a striking look.

Called "snakewood" because of the fairly obvious snake-skin look. Snakewood is an incredibly beautiful wood which originates mostly in Suriname, South America. This wood is usually felled with axes and carried on the backs of hard working natives over streams and through snake infested jungle areas. Each tree felled is monitored, and the government has developed a strict permit process to control harvesting. Much of the wood has inferior or no figure, but the small amount that has attractive figure is exported. It is very rare in general and fully figured pieces are even more rare and very expensive. Used in "high end" products, it makes for an extrodinary collectors grade writing instrument.

Originally grown in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, the tree takes its name and its identity from its early use for making archery bows and war clubs by the Osage Indians, who occupied the area. Very hard, heavy, strong, resilient, and exceptionally durable.

Norfolk Pine isn't generallly very useful - rather coarse and knotty from open-grown specimen trees, and throws sparks if used as firewood. The timber is good for woodturning, and is extensively used by Hawaiian craftspeople. They once were used in the building of ships masts.

The body of this pen is made from curly maple. The inlay shapes are laser cut out and replaced with laser cut shapes from other woods(redheart and African blackwood). The "blank" is then turned on the lathe to smooth out the transition between the inlays and the barrel for a seamless smooth finish.

Irregular growths, called burls, can grow on most any tree (some more commonly than others) and blanks cut from these burls produce a grain pattern that is usually swirled and erratic, often with bark inclusions internally. This makes for often stunning results when turned.

Mallee (an Aboriginal word) is a growth-form rather than a particular specie, that is, a Eucalypt having many stems arising from a large, underground, woody swelling composed of stem tissue called a lignotuber. The Mallee Eucalypts produce abundant germinable seeds. Despite this, naturally occurring seedlings are only rarely observed. This piece was by itself was unusable but cast with Alumilite® resin to fill the voids, an unique resin/wood hybrid was formed. The combination makes for a striking look.

This biblical wood is from trees that have been bearing fruits in the Nativity town of Bethlehem since the time of Jesus. No trees were damaged or destroyed in the harvesting of the wood. The wood was obtained from the essential prunings of these Holy trees to ensure the continued health of the trees in the future.