Fortunately for me, the hardness and density of Marblewood make it an excellent turning wood, provided that tools adequate to the task are employed.
Fortunately, once the cutting operations are done, Marblewood consents to gluing and finishing quite nicely.
Care must be taken when working with the green wood as there is a high likelihood that Marblewood will exude resin and/or check (crack) during drying. Dense woods are notoriously slow to dry and Marblewood will be no exception. It may be one wood that is best allowed to dry completely, so that checks can be identified, cut out, or worked around, instead of investing considerable effort in the green turning process only to have resin and cracking ruin the work.
To add to the pleasures of working with Marblewood, many users have reported that there is a distinctive, although usually faint, odor present while Marblewood is being worked.
Marblewood Bowl Side Wall 2
Pricing
Marblewood comes from a fairly small area of the South American continent, regardless of which species is being identified and sold as Marblewood, so users should expect prices to be at least moderate if not high when compared to other exotic imported hardwoods.
I always recommend both West Penn Hardwoods and Bell Forest Products as excellent sources of both domestic and exotic hardwoods. I have had multiple dealings with both vendors and have always been very satisfied.
West Penn Hardwoods has decent stocks of Marblewood in bowl and spindle turning stock, including pen blank, sizes, as well as thin dimension lumber. As a price example, a very large 8x8x3 bowl blank of Marblewood currently sells for slightly over $30. This price seems, to me, to be rather low for a wood reported to command high range pricing; you certainly can pay a great deal more for other exotic hardwoods of that size. Also, please note that West Penn Hardwoods is listing their Marblewood as Tigre Caspi (Z. cataractae). Stock photos show wood that looks very similar to the Marblewood I worked with, but I wouldn’t swear to the species level identification of this, or any other dealer’s, stock.
Bell Forest Products does provide a listing for two spindle sizes of Marblewood, but they are currently out of stock. They do, however, have some stock of dimensional lumber available, 4/4, for $25 per square foot.
While the two dealers above are personal favorites, Marblewood should be readily obtainable from other dealers in tropical hardwoods, probably including one near you. If you don’t have a favorite supplier that you have worked with extensively in the past, by all means shop around for the best prices and the best selection to meet your particular wood working needs.
Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising exotic wood dealers. In your search for Marblewood, 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 near their home in person to hand pick nice pieces at a comfortable price.
Marblewood Bowl Bottom
Uses
The most common uses of Marblewood outside of its native ranges include, but are certainly not limited to: Flooring, sliced veneer, turned objects, cabinetry, and fine furniture. These are familiar uses for fine and highly sought after tropical hardwoods. Perhaps Marblewood is fortunate in that it is not considered to be a tone-wood, suitable for musical instruments, because tone-woods tend to be among the most highly endangered woods.
Sustainability
At this time Marblewood is not listed in the Convention in 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.