I need help identifying wood and getting ideas...

[FS7]

My wife's step-grandfather passed away recently, and he was in his day a very avid woodworker. As his general mobility declined years ago, his wife tried to give me all of the wood in his shop. He wouldn't part with much of it, but I did get about 50 board feet of bubinga and some walnut that I used mostly to make a crib for my kids. At this point his kids are getting his house ready for sale and like most grandparents there's a LOT of stuff there. My grandparents were poor and still had a lot of junk, so a former surgeon with some means had quite a bit more. The stuff accumulated over a lifetime.

I had my truck bed almost full of lumber, and the front seat was full of mostly turning stock. He did not have many large boards with a few exceptions - some padauk, and a few bubinga (including a figured board about 18" wide and 6' long). Most of the wood is highly figured.

There is a small stack of curly koa, including a trunk slice and what is more or less a 16" plate blank. Varying thickness, between 1" and 3", maybe 24" to 36" in length. I have no idea what to do with this. Koa isn't readily available in plain form, let alone wormy spalted boards, extremely curly boards, or thick "blocks." I want to make good use of it.

Lots of rosewood. Cocobolo boards and lots of cocobolo turning stock. Several kingwood boards. Tulipwood boards. Ocelot Ear boards. African blackwood bowl blanks. Other rosewoods I don't remember, but were labeled and smell like rosewood. There's even a cocobolo live edge slab that would make a great table. Another two live edge slabs that I can't identify.

There is a "brick" of what is labeled curly eucalyptus that's about 6"x10"x24". It weighs a ton. Large bowl blanks of sheoak (never seen before) and something labeled red lacewood. There are small leopardwood shorts that are very warped. I had no idea short and narrow boards could warp that badly. Those might not be usable in their present form.

I have a board labeled "Madagascar ebony" that looks somewhere between Macassar ebony and Black and White ebony (though brown instead of white). Very beautiful board. I think there's another piece about 4"x4"x36" that looks to be perhaps some type of ebony. I don't know. The only truly black ebony is a small 1"x2"x30" piece. 

There's more off the top of my head. When I have time to let my back recover I will try to catalog it. I tend to do larger pieces that require a lot more of an individual species, with cutoffs used for cutting boards. I would have a hard time using a lot of this wood for something as mundane as a cutting board. I don't even want to use the bowl blanks without a coring system to save as much as I can. If any of you have a need for a particular piece, I would be willing to part with it, especially if I have no perceived use for this. I'm fortunate in that I am a woodworker and aware of the value of this stuff. It would break my heart if this sat in my shop and fifty years from now one of my grandchildren thinks it's firewood.

The only task I have from this wood is something for his six children. Aside from that, I am charged with making his urn, a great honor as he will eventually be interred in Arlington Cemetary.

[FS7]

Some pictures.

Koa trunk slice:

Unidentified:

The "curly eucalyptus" block:

One of the nicest pieces of cocobolo (I think) I've ever seen. It was labeled on both sides - snakewood (I got excited), and figured cocobolo. It's rosewood though.

An unidentified slab:

The cocobolo slab:

Curly koa:

The unidentified board originally labeled "Madagascar ebony" next to a bloodwood board priced at 2.75 per board foot (ha):

[Bill Holt]

Wow, you have a problem most of us would love to have.

[shoottmx]

WOW!! Just WOW!! Along with some fantastic wood comes the responsibility to do him and the material proud.

Gary

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

Me personally, I wouldn’t hesitate to move it along if I didn’t see myself using it. That also depends on your storage space. I can have a problem, if I’m not careful, keeping wood around that I will most likely never use until I get fed up with moving it or tripping over it. That said, I also hate paying retail for wood and I’ve been spoiled with coming across wood really cheap. I think we all struggle at least a bit with even getting rid of our cut offs.

[iclark]

Wow!

If you are doing a flatwork (as opposed to turned) urn, then I would suggest picking a type of wood that you have enough to make the urn and to make the 6 items out of. Perhaps the 6 items could be small ring or keepsake boxes with the same basic shape as the urn.

That Koa trunk slice looks like it would be a beautiful top for an end table.

[FS7]

Wow!

If you are doing a flatwork (as opposed to turned) urn, then I would suggest picking a type of wood that you have enough to make the urn and to make the 6 items out of. Perhaps the 6 items could be small ring or keepsake boxes with the same basic shape as the urn.

That Koa trunk slice looks like it would be a beautiful top for an end table.

I have a few pieces of mixed sapwood/heartwood with worm holes (I guess) that don't have the figure of the rest. The trunk slice isn't really big enough for an end table (maybe a small one) but this gave me an idea to make a "frame" of the sapwood/heartwood wormy wood and put that trunk slice in a corner and fill the rest with epoxy, forming a "coast" of sorts.

With regards to the urn, it will be in a niche in Arlington Cemetery. There are fixed limitations - 9"x9"x9", for starters, though I don't know beyond that. That's not that much wood. I hadn't thought about making the gifts from the same wood, though that's an interesting idea.

Curly Koa goes for around $50 a board foot here.

The really curly stuff can go as high as $200 a board foot.

It's very curly. It's not necessarily much, but it's exceptionally figured. I do not have much experience with koa so I can't say whether that figure is normal or not. It seems like certain species have different amounts of curly figure by nature. I did run another piece of wood through and I think it's afrormosia, which also seems to have high figure. I do not know what availability was like in the past, but some of these pieces were gray and weathered and looked like barn wood. The planer gave me results I most definitely did not expect. I'm glad I bothered to take it. 

[EightFingers]

Curly Koa goes for around $50 a board foot here.

The really curly stuff can go as high as $200 a board foot.