# Zebrawood



## Tom Smart (Sep 17, 2019)

I purchased an 8/4 Zebrawood board to try some end grain cutting boards hoping to get some interesting patterns. Also did a few turnings. The smaller board is from cutoffs from the larger. The cutting boards have mineral oil and the turnings TY Oil. The boards are darker because they are end grain. All from the same piece of wood.

Reactions: Like 3 | EyeCandy! 8 | Great Post 1 | Way Cool 6


----------



## trc65 (Sep 17, 2019)

Very nice group of projects, a complete set, perfect for entertaining! 

The grain and patterns are beautiful, great that you were able to get all of these out of a single board.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


----------



## Tony (Sep 17, 2019)

Very cool Tom, I really like the heart bowl! Tony

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 2


----------



## T. Ben (Sep 17, 2019)

All gorgeous,I like the heart bowl the most. I really like the zebra wood also. Nice work.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## DKMD (Sep 17, 2019)

Cool! I love the look of zebra wood in cutting boards, but I’m guessing your shop smells like the southern end of a north bound zebra!

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 3 | Funny 3


----------



## Tom Smart (Sep 17, 2019)

DKMD said:


> Cool! I love the look of zebra wood in cutting boards, but I’m guessing your shop smells like the southern end of a north bound zebra!


Not bad, I’ve had one or two other things down here that have smelled much worse.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## rocky1 (Sep 17, 2019)

Cool dishes, how did you work the back of the heart shaped one Tom? The others I can see those would be easy enough to turn and sand, but the heart shaped one took some power carving, or a bunch of sanding, or both, although it could maybe be sanded with a detail or even palm sander.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## Eric Rorabaugh (Sep 17, 2019)

Those are all really cool! Good work

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## Karl_TN (Sep 17, 2019)

All the pieces look great. What glue did you use on the cutting boards?

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## Tom Smart (Sep 17, 2019)

rocky1 said:


> Cool dishes, how did you work the back of the heart shaped one Tom? The others I can see those would be easy enough to turn and sand, but the heart shaped one took some power carving, or a bunch of sanding, or both, although it could maybe be sanded with a detail or even palm sander.


All done on the lathe, Rocky. Each of them, the heart shape too, done with a screw chuck to initially hold. Then create a recess on the bottom. Turn the bottom and sand to finish. Reverse, hold by expanding chuck, turn and sand. Sand with the lathe off and just move the piece by hand.

The heart shape is cut from a piece of 8/4 on the band saw.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## Tom Smart (Sep 17, 2019)

Karl_TN said:


> All the pieces look great. What glue did you use on the cutting boards?


Tight Bond III.


----------



## Mike1950 (Sep 17, 2019)

Nice work, not sure i could use a zebra wood cutting board. Some of it smells beyond bad


----------



## Tom Smart (Sep 17, 2019)

Mike1950 said:


> Nice work, not sure i could use a zebra wood cutting board. Some of it smells beyond bad


Yours is the second “smell bad” comment. I’ve never detected it, either when turning or cutting. Finished pieces have no odor.

Reactions: Informative 2


----------



## Nature Man (Sep 17, 2019)

Super nice! I've not worked with Snakewood before. Great variety of projects! Chuck

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## phinds (Sep 17, 2019)

Beautiful stuff. Nice work !

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## Mike1950 (Sep 17, 2019)

Tom Smart said:


> Yours is the second “smell bad” comment. I’ve never detected it, either when turning or cutting. Finished pieces have no odor.


Some are ordorless. But some reek...


----------



## Tom Smart (Sep 17, 2019)

Mike1950 said:


> Some are ordorless. But some reek...


Got lucky I guess.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## NeilYeag (Sep 17, 2019)

Tom Smart said:


> Yours is the second “smell bad” comment. I’ve never detected it, either when turning or cutting. Finished pieces have no odor.



Interesting me either, I had a couple of knife scales I made and never noticed it. Not like DIW! And the results on the knife were awesome.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## Tom Smart (Sep 17, 2019)

NeilYeag said:


> Interesting me either, I had a couple of knife scales I made and never noticed it. Not like DIW! And the results on the knife were awesome.


Agree, DIW has a distinct odor. But the results are well worth it.


----------



## William Tanner (Sep 17, 2019)

Nice display for sure. I’ve got a very nice zebra bowl blank. Thanks Mike for the tidbit about a possible odor issue.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## barry richardson (Sep 18, 2019)

Those are great! really like them all.... I'm in the zebra wood stinks camp though, my first thought too, when I saw all that work with it, guess you got lucky. BTW When I was briefly turning pens, I found that x-cut zebra wood made very cool looking pens....

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1


----------



## Tom Smart (Sep 18, 2019)

barry richardson said:


> Those are great! really like them all.... I'm in the zebra wood stinks camp though, my first thought too, when I saw all that work with it, guess you got lucky. BTW When I was briefly turning pens, I found that x-cut zebra wood made very cool looking pens....


I have a few cutoffs left, I’ll try and get some crosscut pen blanks out of.


----------



## Tom Smart (Sep 18, 2019)

@barry richardson I had enough left over from the corners on the turnings to get cross cut pen blanks. So this completes the Zebrawood “tableau”. I did detect a bit of a locker room odor while drilling, but hey, it might just have been me. No residual smell on any of the pieces though. These are Cigarillo pens from Craft Supply.

Reactions: EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 1


----------



## phinds (Sep 18, 2019)

Nice.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## barry richardson (Sep 18, 2019)

Dang your quick! those look great, wood looks a little different than the ones I made though, that and the difference of smell makes me wonder if there are more that one wood species sold as Zebra wood, what say you @phinds

Reactions: Thank You! 1


----------



## phinds (Sep 18, 2019)

Oh, it's zebrawood all right. Zebrawood varies greatly in the amount of streaking and in the relative ratio of light and dark streaks. Then, of course, the cut matters a lot. Those pens are most of the way to quartersawn. Flat cut would have a significantly different look.

EDIT: my analysis above is wrong, and I should have realized it. They are end grain, not quartersawn.

Ah, nuts. You weren't asking about that at all. Probably know all of that.

As for the species, there at at least 27 species that use that name, but only 2 of them are what we really call zebrawood; Microberlinia brazzavillensis and Microberlinia bisulcata

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/zebrawood.htm

from my site:

“There are different varieties of it,” said Myles Gilmer of Gilmer Wood Co., a retailer and wholesaler in Portland, Ore. “You get some of it that has a very fine stripe, and others that are wider, with a more diffused stripe."


----------



## Tom Smart (Sep 18, 2019)

barry richardson said:


> Dang your quick! those look great, wood looks a little different than the ones I made though, that and the difference of smell makes me wonder if there are more that one wood species sold as Zebra wood, what say you @phinds


These are essentially turning end grain. Much tougher than regular long grain pen blanks to turn. I blew up 2 because I got in a hurry and didn’t let the glue up sit over overnight. Then I got too aggressive with the turning. Shoulda used a skew.


----------

