Byrney

I like to make bits and pieces out of woods in as many different *natural* colours as possible. Padauk is red; Australian sheoak is orange; pau amarello is yellow; Colombian verawood is green; purpleheart is (duh) purple; ebony is black; Rio rosewood is brown. These aren't tints, they're bold, rich colours - as rich as if the wood had been dyed. Pretty much the only one I'm missing is blue. Is there such a thing as wood that is naturally blue in colour?

And yes, I could use blue wood dye but that would be "cheating"

Boardman

There is something called Blue Mahoe

http://www.eyeontherainforest.org/bluharvests.php

but it's variable in color and not all that blue.

Gerry KIERNAN

Beetle killed pine from British Columbia is blue green in colour. The tint is not very dark, but is bluish.

Gerry

dirtclod

That would be denim pine. It comes from many type of pines that have started to degrade. Doing a web search for denim pine should turn up many matches. Beyond that I'm at a loss for true blue.

You didn't mention red?

How about holly or (properly handled) hackberry for white?

Rare yellowwood for it's distinct phosphorescent color. And you ought to see what the heartwood of native smoketree looks like.

This site has the most extensive list of wood pictures I've seen: http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/person...pics/index.htm

There's another site I have saved in my favorites that lets you pick wood by color. I just can't remember what it's called. If it turns up I'll post it.

Byrney

Thanks for the answers guys, I appreciate it!

dirtclod, padauk is my red wood of choice. Although now I think about it, it goes browny after some exposure to sun. Perhaps I should try bloodwood (can never seem to find the stuff). Ta for the hints about other exotically-coloured woods, I'll check it out.

dirtclod

Good luck on finding yellowwood and smokewood. I''m in yellowwood's home range and it's rare. While smoketree rarely grows large enough to harvest. I've seen some examples of both. I may get a small yellowwood on the mill sometime. And I put some small smoketree in the firewood pile. That distinctive heartwood didn't seem to lose its color even when exposed for some time. There's nothing like them. I've been watching ebay for some time but they haven't been up for sale. I'm after our suppliers to drop off whatever they can find. I'll try to make a fortune off of them when they...

Maybe black cherry for red?

I'm on the trail of Brazilian Bluewood for blue. But I can't seem to find any pictures of the wood. Lore has it that they used to make a blue dye from the wood. But info hints at the wood being red. I searched for more than an hour and I'm ready to give up on it. I couldn't find any first-hand experience with using it. Maybe Texas Timbers could shed some light on it since it grows in his home state?

Daren

That got me thinking. So I stepped out the back door and took a couple pictures across the alley to my neighbors yard. He planted one in the front yard and 4 more have grown up volunteer in the flower beds. I have had some volunteers pop up in my yard from wind dispersed seed, wrong spot and got mowed down. Pretty little tree, almost black leaves in the summer and really robust blooms early spring. Wonder if it is good turning stock ?...I guess I could find out, Ninja style he is camping this weekend . Now I am curious. He has some dead limbs on the original tree. Not an itch I can't scratch with a bow saw, do him a favor and it is 60' from my back door.

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