Geographic Distribution:
The wood commonly known as Almond is known to botanists as Prunus dulcis. As a member of the Prunus genus, this tree is closely related to plums, cherries, peaches, and apricots. Although planted as an orchard tree in temperate regions of the world, most notably in California, A. dulcis is native to southwestern Asia in what is today Iran.
Almond Growing Regions of California
My piece of A. dulcis was sourced from California and I would imagine my piece came from an orchard specimen that was removed.
For the sake of simplicity and common understanding I will hereafter refer to A. dulcis as Almond.
General Characteristics:
The color of the Almond heartwood tends toward a deep golden or reddish brown. The sapwood of the Almond is pale yellow and is demarcated from the heartwood.
Almond has a fine texture with good natural luster.
There is no data available about Almond’s ability to resist rot or insects.
Working Characteristics:
As Almond is not generally traded commercially there are no standard reports about its working characteristics but I will report my own experiences at the end of this post. It would be reasonable to assume that many of the characteristics of Almond will mirror those of other Prunus spp. such as Cherry or Plum.
Pricing and Availability:
Almond is not typically harvested commercially for lumber. Pieces of Almond are occasionally available for sale from hobbyist or small custom sawmills. Prices should be in the mid to upper range for a domestic hardwood.
In this blog, I almost always recommend several vendors with whom I have done considerable business and in whom I have great confidence. These vendors are: West Penn Hardwoods, Bell Forest Products, NCWood, WoodTurningz, Amazon Exotic Hardwoods, Griffin Exotic Wood, Exotic Woods USA, Got Wood?, and Wood Turning Blanks 4U. Note: ALWAYS green turn wet blanks from NCWood as their wax will not hold for extended drying periods.
None of these fine vendors is currently offering Almond.
Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Almond, this can be an invaluable resource provided you use multiple search terms to capture all the possible listings. I can’t speak to the quality of any of the listed dealers, but Woodfinder does have the advantage of allowing searches to be performed based on location which might allow an interested buyer to visit a listed wood dealer in person to hand pick pieces at a comfortable price.
A significant problem with using Woodfinder is that many vendors are listed for woods that, upon further investigation, they do not offer. I don’t know if perhaps once they did and they didn’t update their listings or if some vendors use a standardized list of woods that include most everything conceivable with the idea that once you land on their page you will find something you want to buy even if you didn’t know it beforehand. It happens to me all the time!
Common Uses:
When used for wood working, Almond is known for small turned items and some furniture, but its most common non-orchard use is as an excellent, hot, long-burning, limited ash producing, firewood.
Sustainability:
Almond is not listed as being endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices nor does it appear on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no special restrictions placed on Almond by the United States government.
I realize that inherent in working with wood is the killing of a part of the natural world that may be slow to return and if I become deeply concerned about this fact, I will have to find a new hobby. I hope that such a time does not come to pass or at least not any time soon. In part because I am concerned about legally and responsibly obtained wood, I am reluctant to buy from sellers outside of well-established and known vendors. I am highly unlikely, for example, to purchase any wood from auction sites, such as Ebay, because of uncertain sourcing and documentation, as well as the potential, even likelihood, of material being misidentified in order to achieve a higher selling price.