Eschweilera sp. <\/em>is harvested in Honduras.<\/p>\n For the sake of simplicity and common understanding, I will refer to Jicarillo from here forward.<\/p>\n The heartwood of Jicarillo tends to be a light to medium reddish brown with darker black streaks mixed throughout. The sharply demarcated sapwood of Jicarillo is a grayish white.<\/p>\n Jicarillo presents with an uniform medium to fine texture with good natural luster.<\/p>\n Jicarillo is reported to have good rot resistance. This report must be based on heartwood as in my experience the sapwood will rot and spalt easily.<\/p>\n My regular sources are silent on the working characteristics of Jicarillo.<\/p>\n Jicarillo is generally only available as smaller turning blanks or craft blanks. Prices for Jicarillo are in the mid to upper range for an imported hardwood.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, Bell Forest Products<\/a>, NC Wood<\/a>, WoodTurningz<\/a>, Amazon Exotic Hardwoods<\/a>, Griffin Exotic Wood<\/a>, Exotic Woods USA<\/a>, Got Wood?<\/a>, and Wood Turning Blanks 4U<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of my favored wood vendors only Exotic Woods USA is currently offering Jicarillo in sizes ranging from knife handle blanks to 6″ x6″ x 2″ turning blanks retailing for $17.30 each.<\/p>\n Woodfinder<\/a> is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Jicarillo 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.<\/p>\n 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!<\/p>\n Jicarillo is commonly used in furniture, knife scales, turned objects, and other small specialty wood items.<\/p>\n Jicarillo is not listed in the CITES Appendices, but many Eschweilera<\/em> species are on the IUCN Red List, including Eschweilera mexicana.<\/em> It is listed as vulnerable due to a population reduction of over 20% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range.<\/p>\n To the best of my knowledge, the United States government does not place any restrictions on Jicarillo.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n However, due to the commercial scarcity of some woods, resorting to auction sites such as Ebay or Etsy may be the only way to obtain some desirable domestic, or in some cases exotic imported, species that are not routinely commercially harvested. The potential risks of buying in these marketplaces have to be balanced against the desire to work with a specific species of wood. That is inherently an individual decision.<\/p>\n I also realize that many, if not most, wood workers do not have endangered species lists memorized, therefore I think it worthwhile and important to do even a small amount of research before purchasing any lumber, domestic as well as imported, to be certain of the potential impact you are having, even in a small way, on threatened or endangered populations. This information is easy to come by and takes only minutes to locate through any Internet search engine, including those you can access on your phone as you are standing in the lumber yard or store. Unfortunately, you simply cannot count on a vendor to tell you a product they are selling is endangered.<\/p>\n Besides the standard health risks associated with any type of wood dust, no further health reactions have been associated with Jicarillo.<\/p>\n It is important to remember that although many people may, or may not, be sensitive to any given wood, the only experience that truly counts is your own, so use reported side effects as guidance but not as a substitute for cautious and safe practices.<\/p>\n Appropriate protective equipment is therefore always recommended when working with this, or any other, wood, exotic or domestic, unless you have worked with the species before and are certain you are not sensitive to it.<\/p>\n Complete information about health hazards<\/a> associated with a wide variety of exotic hardwoods is available from The Wood Database<\/a>. Additional information about how to best use a dust collection system and personal protective equipment, such as respirators, can also be found through this excellent and comprehensive resource.<\/a><\/p>\n Fortunately, I experienced no significant difficulties while working with Jicarillo.<\/p>\n Jicarillo was hard but not particularly dense or heavy for its size. Jicarillo cut easily on my bandsaw with no burning or slowing. Jicarillo cut very cleanly along the grain but was rather rough on the cross grain which I find to be rather unusual for a particularly hard wood. Jicarillo required a fair amount of concentrated sanding to achieve a smooth finish. The sanding was greatly complicated by presence of a large amount, approximately half of the entire blank, of sapwood which was also spalted and therefore very soft. This soft sapwood sanded much faster than the heartwood and resulted in a divot in the interior of the bowl. However, the contrast between the heartwood and sapwood, with a very clear demarcation line present, provides a great deal of interest in the finished piece.<\/p>\n Jicarillo<\/p><\/div>\n This piece measures 5.5″ x 2″.<\/p>\n I am happy that I had the chance to work with Jicarillo, but I don’t expect that I will be seeking it out in the future either.<\/p>\n All major cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool<\/a> system on my Robust American Beauty<\/a> lathe, although I do use Robert Sorby bowl gouges<\/a> for light final passes before sanding. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck<\/a>, while reverse chucking was done using a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws<\/a>. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks<\/a>. Final finish is Shellawax.<\/a><\/p>\n As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever your wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jicarillo was hard but not particularly dense or heavy for its size.\u00a0 Jicarillo cut easily on my bandsaw with no burning or slowing.\u00a0 Jicarillo cut very cleanly along the grain but was rather rough on the cross grain which I find to be rather unusual for a particularly hard wood.\u00a0 Jicarillo required a fair amount of concentrated sanding to achieve a smooth finish.\u00a0 The sanding was greatly complicated by presence of a large amount, approximately half of the entire blank, of sapwood which was also spalted and therefore very soft.\u00a0 This soft sapwood sanded much faster than the heartwood and resulted in a divot in the interior of the bowl.\u00a0 However, the contrast between the heartwood and sapwood, with a very clear demarcation line present, provides a great deal of interest in the finished piece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":3714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,128,136,137,129,138,139,130],"tags":[154,168,171,181,188,200,217,226,230,239,240,241,247],"yoast_head":"\nGeneral Characteristics:<\/h2>\n
Working Characteristics:<\/h2>\n
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Common Uses:<\/h2>\n
Sustainability:<\/h2>\n
Health Hazards:<\/h2>\n
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