Post #258928 by AlohaStation on Wed, Oct 4, 2006 10:47 AM

Here are my 2 cents:

Baswood - Perhaps the best for beginners and practice - soft and easy to manipulate - finishes excellent.
Mahagony - Excellent for carving - firm and holds good detail
Cherry - my favorite for carving!! - finishes nicely
Cocbolo - excelent wood for advanced carvers - hard wood but bee-u-tee-ful - skin reactions are common
Paduak - excelent wood for advanced carvers - fantastic reddish color - skin reactions are common
Zebrawood - Not so good for carving - the grain makes this wood scetchy, soft and hard - worth the aggrevation
Ficus - Hard wood with a smotth grain - finishes nicely
Ebony - almost as hard as bone - but oooooooooo black!!!
Purpleheart - hard with a stingy grain - purple and purty!!!! - skin reactions are common
Oak - Hard and holds great detail - good wood to use power tools with
Lacewood - very difficult to carve - has a cool looking grain
Palms - Coconut, Chinese Fan, Sabal are good - Queen and Royal are bad

A lot of my experience with the exotic woods has come from using these on a lathe and carving.