# twisty sea grape from Bluegrass



## phinds (Apr 19, 2014)

One of the pieces Les sent me was this stick of sea grape / Coccoloba uvifera (Les, you had this as "Coccolobara" but all of my references say "Coccoloba".

When I got it, it was significantly twisted so I flattened out both face grain surfaces on a floor belt sander (that sucker with a 40 grit belt just EATS wood) and smoothed it with some finer grits. When I picked it up just now to do the color correction on the pics I fould that it is AGAIN twisted noticeably. Les, I assume this is unseasoned but even so I was surprised. I don't work much with unseasoned wood so it does surprise me sometimes. (Les, I'm not complaining, I'm just mentioning it, as I do with everything about wood).

The first time I ever ran across this wood, it was called "cocoloba", which is a bastardization of the genus and just another of the many common names it goes by, but at a first glance at just the name, I though somebody had switched a couple of letters in "cocobolo", which I HAD heard of 

Here's the piece:




face grain




end grain




closeup of a 1200-grit-sanded end grain showing semi-diffuse porous. Kinda neat the way the grain lines bulge and narrow. Guess some sides grew more on some years.

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## Blueglass (Apr 19, 2014)

Yes I am still drying it and it is surprising me how much it moves as well. I was warned and cut all my pieces significantly larger than needed. I probably did write it down wrong. As it dries and especially if you leave it out in sunlight it becomes a very nice dark red.

It is out of my inlaws yard. They are a very twisty tree. Kinda like a full size well worked Bonsai. They would be great for Bonsai if the leaves weren't so big.

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