Aside from the dulling effect on tools, which is surmountable, Makore turns well.
Makore is also easy to glue and takes a finish nicely.
Makore is not reported to have any specific or characteristic odor when freshly cut or turned.
Pricing and Availability
Makore is widely available in both veneer and lumber formats. It is also sometimes possible to find it in turning stock sizes, especially pen and knife blanks, but bowl blank sizes may also be obtained on occasion from specialty vendors.
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.
Of these vendors only two are currently offering Makore. Bell Forest Products only offers short thin cuts of 1/2″ x 3″ x 6″ priced at $3.00 each. WoodTurningz has pen blanks for $0.95, 3″ x 3″ x 12″ spindles for $14.95 and 6″ x 6″ x 2″ bowl blanks for $10.95. I sourced my platter blanks of considerable size, up to 16″ x 2″ from Got Wood but they no longer have any in stock.
While Makore is reasonably priced I do believe that its endangered status has limited supplies across the board.
Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Makore 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!
Uses
Makore finds many of the same uses as much of the exotic hardwoods, especially those with highly figured appearance. Such uses include but are certainly not limited to: Veneer, plywood (not cheap chipboard, but rather veneered Makore over a cheaper substrate), furniture, cabinetry, flooring, turned objects, and other small wooden specialty items. Makore is also used as a tone wood for making musical instruments. A use of Makore that surprised me is in boat building, although I am not certain what parts of the boat are constructed of Makore.
Sustainability
While Makore is not listed with the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices, both species that produce Makore lumber, T. heckelii and T. Africana, are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as being endangered. This listing is due to a population reduction of over 50% in the last three generations due to both losses of original habitat range and excessive exploitation.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no special restrictions placed on Makore 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.