Post #646350 by MadDogMike on Tue, Jul 31, 2012 5:52 PM

I picked up a small piece of Ironwood (Olneya tesota). I think it's a protected species and may be illegal to collect so I won't say how I got it :D

Probably not the best wood for a new carver but anyone have tips for working with it? I've seen carvings done of it in Mexico that have beautiful dark grain and a mirror-like finish.

Here it is "floating" in water. It has a desity of 1.2, similar to Lignum Vitae or Ebony and about twice as dense as Walnut