Pomegranate Wood - Punica Granatum

Originally Pomegranate is from Iran and northern India, but pomegranates (Punica granatum) appear in Egyptian mythology, the Old Testament and in the Babylonian Talmud.
Pomegranates are not particular about their soil, but they do need full sun and regular water -- once a week or more during extremely hot weather.
In Morocco, the bark of the pomegranate tree, with its high tannin level, was traditionally used for curing leather. In Japan, the bark is used as an insecticide. Both the rind and the flowers from pomegranates can be used for making dyes for fabric. And while production is limited, some producers make walking sticks and small wood implements from the hard pomegranate wood.

The amministration of my town has bought some years ago an old pomegranate tree and planted in the middle of a roundabout road, as an ornament. I heard that they have spent 3.000 euro for that old plant!
however, last summer was really intractable hot and the town gardener forgot to watering the old tree, and becouse of that it has deadly dry.

Shots taken are really terrible, I was not able to eliminate the reflection of the flash on the surface..
I took a pictures with a really old digital camera, a toy called Kodak C743.

Paolo

Cocobolo - Dalgerba Retusa Wood

Cocobolo Wood is also known as: Black rosewood, cocobola, cocobolo nambar, cocobolo negro, cocobolo prieto, cocoboloholz,foseholz, funera, granadillo, granadillo de chontales, manarizoby, namba, nambar, nambar de agui,nambar legitimo, Nicaraguan cocobolo, Nicaraguan rosewood, nambar,
palisandro, palissandre cocobolo, palo negro, prieto, red foxwood, rosewood, yellow rosewood

Dalgerba . retusa is a small to medium-sized tree native to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.
Cocobolo’s distinctive characteristic is its production of natural oils,
which provides the wood with a natural waterproof polish.

True Rosewoods in the dalbergia family have colors as widely diverse as a rainbow.
An incredibly figured wood, cocobolo is very hard with brilliant colors and amazing black stripes.
 Oranges, reds, browns and blacks all swirled uniquely together.

Advice:Woods with an oily content, such as cocobolo,
can achieve better gluing strength by wiping the surface of both pieces being glued with acetone first.
After the acetone has dried, the piece is glued as normal.

Have a look at this Wood Database:
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/index.htm


The Wood Block was 15 cm and 7,6 cm thick

Cheers
Paolo

Prunus Spinosa - Blackthorn Burl

The specific name spinosa is a Latin term indicating the pointed and thornlike spur shoots characteristic
of this species.
The common name "blackthorn" is due to the thorny nature of the shrub, and its very dark bark.

The blackthorn wood i got has some years ageing in a friend's woodshed,
the burl had clearly several deep cracks,
make me think that if i had to turn it safety i have to fill in all those cracks with epoxy resin,
otherwise i have it cut at least in half and check how it was inside...that is what i choose.
and by cutting into half i saw a lot of bark inclusion and cracks that try to met in the same place...
so i cut into more pieces...and that is one of them...

24 cm x 13 cm h

                                                                       texture details

Cheers
Paolo

Woodturning rendez vous - Rovato 2014

I'll write a better article about a woodturners meeting i had last week in Rovato,
precisely at "Scuola Ricchino" : http://www.scuolaricchino.org/
Unfortunatly i'm quite busy these days cleaning up my house from top to the botton...
I decided to put it on sell...and have quite a change in my life...

by the way, i want to show the work i brought with me for the exposition called: Cubo Vision
The only very one rule was to start with a wood cube of 15 cm..
that could be just a single species wood, or laminated wood or whatever...but a 15 cm Cube..

i put in my work some about me:
the layers i create in the wood, by using a steal weel brush mounted on a  drill,
it represented the stratigraphic investigation on wood that i'm doing when a piece of wood came to my hand.
I'm curious of what i got, how many years i could reckon on it, how it grow year by year..
i like a lot make myself comfortable and think what i can do by reading it....
I spent a couple of years studing Conservazione Beni Culturali in Ravenna,
with greater interest toward the Middle East and Indian subcontinent,
i made a couple of archeological mission with university too, one was in Suaza, in Val Cesana, Marche region, a Roman settlement, funny was i found a bone nut, rigged on the 2....
other was in Tharros, (Oristano),Punic Phoenician settlement...but necropolis was emptied, spoiled by what we called "tombaroli" ....graves thieves.

well..

i just like to show you a funny moment that i have at Rovato.

The guy with black shirt name: Luciano Molinari : http://www.molinariebanista.it/
Definetly you should pay a visit on his website...
And the other man name Gianni "Homo Faber", a really good friend of mine....
It's about a really good friulan grappa...Friuli Venezia Giulia it's a place that must be seen and taste if you came to Italy.

The pictures above have been made by a great man name Dario Fumagalli,
man it was really a pleasure! you don't know how much happy these pictures made me!!

                                  I'm bewitched by Luciano Molinari works and woods collections
     Behind me, the long hair guy,yeah...his name Michele Monaci,a really great segmented turner

http://www.artistadeltornio.it/

To see all the artistic woodturning works made for "un bosco italiano" manifestation:
http://www.aiatl.it/


Cheers
Khuuda Hafiz

Paolo

Populus nigra - Cottonwood

Nice wood,
its surface reflected very good the light,
i think buffed with wax is the best way to finish cottonwood.

i'm preparing myself to go to brescia,
i have my first woodturning exposure at "scuola Ricchino" di Rovato,
its just a cuople of day...
i'll talk 'bout it soon...

Cheers
Paolo

Morus Alba

Morus alba, known as white mulberry, is a short-lived, fast-growing, small to medium sized mulberry tree,
which grows to 10–20 m tall.
The species is native to northern China, and is widely cultivated and naturalized elsewhere.
It is known as शहतूत (Shahatuuta) in Hindi,Tuta in Sanskrit, Tuti in Marathi and Toot in Persian and in Armenian.

In traditional Chinese medicine, the fruit is used to treat prematurely grey hair, to "tonify" the blood,
and treat constipation and diabetes.
The bark is used to treat cough, wheezing, edema, and to promote urination.
It is also used to treat fever, headache, red dry and sore eyes.

(all this is from Wiki)

Cheers
Paolo

Finely Arbutus

Arbutus is a genus of at least 14 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae,
native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, and North America.
The name is borrowed from Latin, where it referred to A. unedo..


It's an Old World Tree,
This particularly piece fo wood i got it came from an Arbutus Unedo L. called Strawberry tree.

by first eperience with this wood i can say it broke itself very easly,
but i have to consider that the tree i cut down was grew like a spire...
i believe that any glue or old vernice or wax would have avoid cracks..
he is too strong and tenacious anyway, he always win ...

This is the only piece Arbutus wood left whole, the others have all irretrievely cracked...
i called it catfish...

Cheers
Paolo