two persimmon boxes

[TomFromStLouis]

I made a long low box of persimmon and african blackwood a couple years back which attracted enough attention in a recent St. Louis Artist Guild show that I decided to revisit the overall shape. Here is the original:



The texturing on the top was done with a round bit in the Dremel:



The latest is entirely of persimmon, with portions ebonized with india ink and a small amount of greenish oil paint:



Open:



Carving was done with a small gouge radiating from the knot on top:





Persimmon takes carving beautifully, showing every nuance of your effort (for better or worse):

[Ingjr]

I love it.  The grain is fantastic.  How is it to work?  I've never used it.

[Steve N]

Love that eyeball.  


Everytime I'm down at my buddies place in Ky I sneak into his woodshed to see if he has any new Persimmon stash laying about


His woodlot has had some really wide heartwood, Forestry guy says it's all soil related, and the mix of red rock, and sandy red soil does it. The big buyer for Persimmon down that way is Louisville Golf, they make Persimmon head clubs, "Niblits"




A bunch of unfinished boxes from Mike's stash. If the stuff wasn't so like a dogs hind leg, it would be my favorite wood

[TomFromStLouis]

As Steve mentioned, persimmon warps A LOT when drying, but in service I find it stable enough and it's working characteristics are extraordinary. It is whatever the exact opposite of stringy is; the wood can be worked by rasp, gouge, or plane in any direction without tearout and is plenty hard to hold whatever shape you make it. If my gouge chattered there would be a clear mark of every vibration left in the wood. Some persimmon is fairly bland in coloring, but obviously I chose a special chunk for the top of that box.

I really like working walnut but I think for a small box like this I prefer persimmon. I made something similar in walnut and cherry and the results did not hit me like the persimmon.

[Bibliophile 13]

Persimmon and blackwood.  You like the hardest of the hardwoods, don't you?


That is truly beautiful work.  I love the effect of the gouge work especially.  

It looks like you made the box to store something special.  Did you have specific contents in mind when you designed it?

[TomFromStLouis]

Thank you biblio. The original was sized off the Blackwood board I had and I liked the proportions. Turns out lots of things can fit in a box of this shape: candles, knitting needles, naval treaties, that sort of thing. LOML has knitting and crochet stuff in the original.

[Steve N]

It wasn't until Steve's comment about liking hard wood that I smiled about Persimmon hardness. Per the wood database it's Janka hardness comes as 2300, which sure sounds hard I agree with Tom the grain is so easy to work, and it sure is not stringy. Actually WO at 1350 Janka is a lot tougher to work IMHO. Now I have never played with any African Blackwood which is listed as 3670 Janka hardness Now that does seem pretty tough. Is the grain easy to work Tom?

[TomFromStLouis]

I don't remember much trouble working Blackwood with a sharp plane and of course it is a top notch turning wood. The texturing I did was with a power tool. Both woods leave a flawless surface from a sharp tool.