In general we use about 10 different woods-cocobolo,ebony, padouk, purple heart, walnut, cherry, lacewood, pau Ferro, maple, and Hawaiian koa.
Each species of wood has its own characteristics that makes it work especially well for certain products. For example, ebony is very dense with a fine grain which makes it the perfect choice for a letter opener. Cherry on the other hand is much softer and considerably less expensive than ebony. This makes it a good choice for the larger pieces such as our jewelry stands and hand mirrors.
Once we have decided what wood we will be using we chose pieces where we can get the maximum yield. Finished chopsticks are 9” long. Therefore, lumber in 10” increments will give us the best yield. A piece of lumber that is 25” will give us the length for 2 chopsticks with 5” left over. 5” pieces are too short to be used.
We also look at how figured the piece of wood is. For our really small pieces like cuff links and money clips we want the best figure and color we can get. The more spectacular the lumber the better the piece will sell.
The lumber we use grows all around the world. For well over 20 years we have been buying lumber from World Timber in Hubert NC. Locally, if we need something like cherry or maple we can get it at Dwyer Hardwoods.
Can you tell I've just learned the beauty of adding links? Can a blog post have too many links? Thoughts?
Mary
