It is important to note at this point that there is another wood known as Mora, which more specifically is Mora excelsa<\/em>. The existence of this species is why it is important to note the Mora I worked with as Guatemalan Mora, which as the name implies, comes from Guatemala. M. excelsa<\/em> comes from northern South America, mainly Guyana and Suriname and it is rarely imported to the United States. Generally speaking, when a vendor offers “Mora” they mean Guatemalan Mora.<\/p>\n For the sake of simplicity and common understanding, I will refer to Guatemalan Mora from here forward.<\/p>\n The heartwood of Guatemalan Mora is a light to medium reddish brown with streaks of lighter and darker material. This streaking is uncommon in M. excelsa and the presence of streaks of color is a good indicator that a piece labeled “Mora” is in fact Guatemalan Mora.<\/p>\n Guatemalan Mora has a straight to interlocked grain with a fine to medium texture.<\/p>\n Guatemalan Mora is very durable and has good weathering characteristics<\/p>\n Guatemalan Mora is also resistant to termites.<\/p>\n Working with Guatemalan Mora can be difficult due to its hardness and density.<\/p>\n Despite its relative hardness, Guatemalan Mora is reported to have little dulling effect on cutting edges.<\/p>\n Guatemalan Mora turns well.<\/p>\n Guatemalan Mora also takes stains, glues and finishes well.<\/p>\n Guatemalan Mora should be moderately priced 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 vendors, WoodTurningz<\/a> and Exotic Woods USA are both offering Guatemalan Mora in bowl blank formats. Prices range from $18.50 for a 7″ x 7″ x 2″ up to $49.50 for a 8″ x 8″ x 3″ noted to be highly figured.<\/p>\n Woodfinder<\/a> is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Guatemalan Mora 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 Guatemalan Mora is commonly used in heavy construction (within the tree’s natural range), flooring, furniture, turnings, and other small specialty wood items.<\/p>\n Guatemalan Mora is not listed in the CITES Appendices nor is it on the IUCN Red List.<\/p>\n To the best of my knowledge, the United States government does not place any additional restrictions on Guatemalan Mora.<\/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, Guatemalan Mora sap has been reported to cause dermatitis.<\/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 did not experience any adverse effects while working with Guatemalan Mora.<\/p>\n Guatemalan Mora was certainly a hard wood and it was a real challenge to cut it to round on the bandsaw. In fact, the Guatemalan Mora burned up a bandsaw blade.<\/p>\n Mora 7 x 2.5<\/p><\/div>\n I wouldn’t say that Guatemalan Mora is a favored wood since it didn’t cut cleanly for such a hard wood so it required a good deal of clean up sanding, which wouldn’t be so bad except that Guatemalan Mora quickly gums up sandpaper, somewhat similar to what happens with most rosewood, so Abranet<\/a> is truly valuable when working with Guatemalan Mora.<\/p>\n Mora 9 x 2<\/p><\/div>\n I was pleased with the variations in color and streaking between the three different blanks. The largest piece reminds me of Bocote because of the super strong streaking. Each piece is so unique that it is almost hard to believe that they are all of the same species.<\/p>\n I don’t regret working with Guatemalan Mora but given only so much time to turn I would probably choose a more favorable wood in the future except that I know I have some more Guatemalan Mora in my stocks. I will work with it again when I get to it but I won’t be on the lookout for more either.<\/p>\n Mora 9.5 x 2<\/p><\/div>\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> as well as Abranet sanding screens from Craft Supplies USA<\/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":" Geographic Distribution: The wood commonly known as Guatemalan Mora is of uncertain heritage and it’s botanical name is disputed. It is possible that Guatemalan Mora is a member of the Inga genus. It is important to note at this point that there is another wood known as Mora, which more specifically is Mora excelsa. The existence of this species is why it is important to note the Mora I worked with as Guatemalan Mora, which as the name implies, comes from Guatemala. M. excelsa comes from northern South America, mainly Guyana and Suriname and it is rarely imported to the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":3890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,128,136,137,129,138,139,130],"tags":[154,161,168,171,181,188,200,210,221,230,239,240,241,247],"yoast_head":"\nGeneral Characteristics:<\/h2>\n
Working Characteristics:<\/h2>\n
Pricing and Availability:<\/h2>\n
Common Uses:<\/h2>\n
Sustainability:<\/h2>\n
Health Hazards:<\/h2>\n
My Personal Experiences:<\/h2>\n