Down in Paraguay, nothing beats an ox cart for hauling tropical logs to the mill
In 1999 Keith, the owner of Woodworkers Source, went to Paraguay to visit a sustainable yield lumber project. He came back with a container load of unusual woods following shortly after.
When we bring in unusual woods, it’s often with a bit of stand-back-and-wait because even though we’ve seen a sample piece (or maybe not at all), it’s often a surprising what really shows up on the truck. 
I have a suspicion you may have been eyeballing some exotic, pretty woods but you just weren’t sure if you were ready.
Or maybe you thought they were out of your budget.
Well, no longer.
Throughout the month of October, consider yourself out of excuses.
Down in the Amazon, we have a long time connection who keeps us informed about interesting woods and timber projects.
Keith Stephens steps off a water taxi after checking out logs in Peru
Before you think that sounds like a great job, consider the heat, the bugs, the bureaucracy, the red tape, the “we’ll get to your requests mañana” culture shock, the joys of long flights, delayed boats, slow buses, and then the half-dozen or so immunizations via needle you need to get before embarking on an Amazon wood expedition. Glamorous? I don’t know about that part.
African exotic wood turning squares: padauk, bubinga, zebrawood, wenge, and sapele
They’ve practically taken over in here. Just within the last week, we’ve had a number of new squares show up demanding some attention. It’s like a turning square convention in our warehouse. Everywhere you turn . . . there they are.
All kinds of woods, too.
All these beautiful perfectly cut exotic woods are stacked, piled, and ready for good service in your woodworking shop.
Even though we call them turning squares, we’ve been lucky enough to have some crafty woodworkers walk through the doors, see these squares and say, “I can make something cool with those without even using a lathe.”
Beauty and Braun: The Powermatic Model 66 is not only a gorgeous saw but it performed at the top
Back in 1966, Powermatic made huge leaps in table saw design with their Model 66 saw, and since then it’s become an iconic benchmark for all other cabinet style table saws.
This Made-In-The-USA saw ran smoother than any other table saw and would do so for decades without a hitch. Powermatic set the bar high with the no-nonsense cast iron and steel construction, exclusive 3VX belt drive system, an extra wide stable trunnion, and the tilting arbor on butter smooth worm gears driven by heavy cast iron wheels. The mighty Model 66 was the heaviest saw in its class, which meant vibration free operation. In turn, the saw became renowned for unmatched accuracy and dependability for over 40 years.
And it was also just a beautiful machine. Woodworkers would invite their neighbors over for a barley pop while they stood around in the shop just admiring the size of this thing. And the perfect gold painted cabinet. They’d take turns looking at their reflection in the polished table top. The real fanatics would turn it on and just watch it run for a minute, humming along without a single vibration.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
