Goncalo Alves info?

"toller" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> Almost seems like two different woods have the same name.

I bought some with plans to use it for portions of shooting boards and the
bottoms of wooden planes. Its so beautiful, I thought I would try inlaying
some of it into a maple box. Ron Hock sells a wooden plane kit that uses
Goncalo Alves as the sole plate. I built one of the kits and have been
using the plane for several months. My limited observation: no problem
drilling, sanding, gluing and trimming it with a hand plane. Its a tough
wood. Otherwise, I'm sure that Ron would not have used it as the sole plate.
In use on the plane, its developed a shiny glass-like patena and makes a
very slick plane bottom.

Bob

"toller" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I bought a beautiful piece today to use as a box lid. It has streaks of
> black and beige against a brown background. I will need to glue three 4"
> pieces together. (The rest of the box will be an extremely dark walnut)

Sounds much like the goncalo alves that I used. Beautiful brown,
black, and yellow streaks in the wood. I used wenge as the accent.
Here's a pic: http://home.earthlink.net/~nateperkins1/Woodworking/projects/dadwbox.htm

> I read everything on the web about it, and am thoroughly confused. If
> anyone has actually used this wood I would appreciate some advice.
>
> 1) One website says it is easily worked. Another says it chews up carbide.
> Any problem planing it after the glue up?

It seemed pretty hard, but it machined very well. I don't recall any
particular problems with handplaning, although I didn't do too much
handplaning on that piece. I did a fair amount of scraping and that
was no problem with a sharp scraper.

> 2) One site says it glues well. Another says it glues poorly, even if you
> wipe with solvent first. Huh?

The stuff I used was very oily. This was my first experience gluing
up oily woods, so I tested a few variations. I found that as long as
you wipe the joints with acetone to remove the surface oils prior to
gluing, then either PVA (Titebond) or polyurethane (Gorilla) glues
would work fine. But I found that without the acetone wipe, the joint
was extremely weak regardless of the glue used.

> 3) One site says it darkens over time to a uniform dark brown; the others
> stress how beautiful the various colors are. Does it darken? Anyway to
> stop it, if it does?

I don't know. This one hasn't changed color appreciably yet. It's
five months old.

> 4) One site says it sands to a glass like finish. Another says it cannot be
> sanded, but must be scraped.

Sands or scrapes very well.

> Almost seems like two different woods have the same name.

Might be, I don't know about that.

Good luck with the project. Goncalo's a nice wood and I'd like to
find more of it sometime.

"toller" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> > Sounds much like the goncalo alves that I used. Beautiful brown,
> > black, and yellow streaks in the wood. I used wenge as the accent.
> > Here's a pic:
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nateperkins1/Woodworking/projects/dadwbox.htm
> >
> You have a beautiful piece of wood, and a very fine box.
> My wood is rather different.
> http://www.frontiernet.net/~toller/GA.JPG
>
> I think it will some figure when I clean it up.

Hi Toller,

Your board looks very similar to what my boards looked like prior to
planing, sanding, and finishing -- except with a little more figure.

Good luck with the project!

Nate

> Sounds much like the goncalo alves that I used. Beautiful brown,
> black, and yellow streaks in the wood. I used wenge as the accent.
> Here's a pic:
http://home.earthlink.net/~nateperkins1/Woodworking/projects/dadwbox.htm
>
You have a beautiful piece of wood, and a very fine box.
My wood is rather different.
http://www.frontiernet.net/~toller/GA.JPG

I think it will some figure when I clean it up.

> What he said. Very hard, very dense. Leaves a lovely shiny surface
> when carved. Somewhat hard on tools. I'd want my plane as sharp as I
> can get it.
>
How about the part about it all going to dark brown over time. Does that
happen? Can it be prevented?

I recently made a table top out of Goncalo Avles (the table has a
honduran mahogany base). I found it difficult to hand plane because
of the interlocked grain. I had to hand plane a couple of boards flat
because they were too wide for the jointer and had a hard time doing
it without tear out. A 60 degree wooden plane worked but that thing
is hard to push. Once flat I ran it through my dewalt 755 planer,
scraped the planer lines and then sanded with 320. It was relatively
easy to scrape and sand. The wood is very hard but also very brittle
-- watch out for tearout and chips on edges and corners.

It will hold with glue but I suggest wiping down with laquer thinner
or acetone. I did not and the glue joints were somewhat weak based on
my tests of the ends of table that I cut off.

As for darkening, I don't have any long term experience with Goncalo
Alves but the pieces from the lumber yard were much lighter after
planing. My guess is that it will gradually darken but will not loose
the basic dark/light wood contrast.

I finished the top with a "sealer" coat of de-waxed shellac and two
coats of polyurethane varnish. I strongly suggest a sealer coat. I
tried varnish directly without the sealer on a sample piece and it was
not dry after 3 days. The oils in the wood can prevent some finished
from properly curing. Shellac does not have this problem although be
sure to use de-waxed shellac if you will put varnish over it.

Robert

On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 17:22:27 GMT, "toller" <[email protected]> wrote:

>I bought a beautiful piece today to use as a box lid. It has streaks of
>black and beige against a brown background. I will need to glue three 4"
>pieces together. (The rest of the box will be an extremely dark walnut)

Make sure it's well dried first, as it's prone to irregular warping.
I'd want it a few years old before I used it for cabinetry. I'd
certainly not use one of those wax-dipped partially-dried turning
billets immediately.

>Any problem planing it after the glue up?

The grain is interlocked, so hand planing needs care. It seems to work
well enough though.

>4) One site says it sands to a glass like finish. Another says it cannot be
>sanded, but must be scraped.

Are they talking about turning or bench work ? "Sanding" can mean
"doesn't plane easily" or it might mean "hard work, but you can let
the lathe do it".

In my limited experience of it. it was a very dense wood, so hardly
easy going, but it wasn't especially troublesome.

>Almost seems like two different woods have the same name.

Lots of those exotics can _be_ like two different woods. Take
different billets, or even two ends of the same one, and you might
barely recognise it.


--
Smert' spamionam

On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:12:15 +0000, Andy Dingley
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 17:22:27 GMT, "toller" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I bought a beautiful piece today to use as a box lid. It has streaks of
>>black and beige against a brown background. I will need to glue three 4"
>>pieces together. (The rest of the box will be an extremely dark walnut)
>
>Make sure it's well dried first, as it's prone to irregular warping.
>I'd want it a few years old before I used it for cabinetry. I'd
>certainly not use one of those wax-dipped partially-dried turning
>billets immediately.
>
>>Any problem planing it after the glue up?
>
>The grain is interlocked, so hand planing needs care. It seems to work
>well enough though.
>
>>4) One site says it sands to a glass like finish. Another says it cannot be
>>sanded, but must be scraped.
>
>Are they talking about turning or bench work ? "Sanding" can mean
>"doesn't plane easily" or it might mean "hard work, but you can let
>the lathe do it".
>
>In my limited experience of it. it was a very dense wood, so hardly
>easy going, but it wasn't especially troublesome.
>
>>Almost seems like two different woods have the same name.
>
>Lots of those exotics can _be_ like two different woods. Take
>different billets, or even two ends of the same one, and you might
>barely recognise it.

What he said. Very hard, very dense. Leaves a lovely shiny surface
when carved. Somewhat hard on tools. I'd want my plane as sharp as I
can get it.

--RC

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
Never get your philosophy from some guy who ended up in the looney bin.
-- Wiz Zumwalt

On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 04:14:44 GMT, "toller" <[email protected]> wrote:

>> What he said. Very hard, very dense. Leaves a lovely shiny surface
>> when carved. Somewhat hard on tools. I'd want my plane as sharp as I
>> can get it.
>>
>How about the part about it all going to dark brown over time. Does that
>happen? Can it be prevented?
>
Well it darkens, but it doesn't become a uniform color. You still get
the darker streaks.

I have a piece on my desk I've been working (the operative word with
GA!) on carving into a spoon for a couple of years now. Still
attractive after all that time.

--RC
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
Never get your philosophy from some guy who ended up in the looney bin.
-- Wiz Zumwalt