# skyscrapers in kempas



## phinds (Feb 15, 2017)

@Mr. Peet stopped by a few days ago and dropped off another goodie box for me. Among the lot was a batch of flooring pieces of kempas / Koompassia excelsa (which he calls by the alternate common name of tualang). There's a lot of interesting grain patterns and at the end, I show the skyscrapers




flat cut with beautiful cathedral grain




quartersawn




another flat cut




mottled




swirly grain due to knots




A section that from a distance has the exact look of a piece of bamboo because of the way the wavy grain all happens to get interrupted at the same time, creating an area that looks like the knot (ring) in bamboo




A side view of a piece with particularly wavy grain




A face grain area from the quartersawn piece, showing a pattern that is like nothing that Mark or I have ever seen. We decided to designate it "skyscrapers". Really weird! I have not yet figured out how the wood characteristics cause this. The light horizontal streaks are pores that have been sliced in half lengthwise so it's like looking at half of a straw.

Reactions: Like 1 | EyeCandy! 5 | Way Cool 2


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## phinds (Feb 15, 2017)

some 1/4" x 1/4" end grain cross sections. These have NOT been through my end grain processing yet but they have been sanded to 220 grit. I'll replace them with the 1200 grit versions once they are processed.


 

 



LATER:
I don't even remember which pieces the ones above are from, much less which area on what piece, so here are 3 other ones after the end grain fine sanding:

Reactions: Like 2 | EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 2


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## Ray D (Feb 16, 2017)

Those last pictures are really cool. Thanks for what you do.


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## gman2431 (Feb 16, 2017)

Very interesting!


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## phinds (Feb 16, 2017)

Ray D said:


> Those last pictures are really cool. Thanks for what you do.





gman2431 said:


> Very interesting!



Yeah, I LOVE those kempas end grain closeups when they are well focused. My son REALLY loved one particular one from a sample that I got years ago and he asked me to make him a poster out of it. I couldn't get anything quite as big as a 3'x2' poster and keep decent resolution but I DID do a blowup for him and put it in a solid black frame. I liked it so much I did another for myself and hung it next to my home office desk. This is a 3/4" x 1/2" section of wood, blown up by a factor of 24 times to get this 18" x 12" pic.

Reactions: EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 4


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## barry richardson (Feb 16, 2017)

Sweet, Ya can't beat mother nature's beauty. Thanks for the 'Wonderful world of Kempas' tour


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## phinds (Feb 18, 2017)

I've added the fine sanded end grain pics to the original post

Reactions: Way Cool 1


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