"Kate" wrote in
news

The boxes I am making right now are from an OLD bookshelf. I believe
it is walnut.

Re-using old furniture is a *great* way to get small pieces (and sometimes
large too). Walnut is a kinda hard wood for carving. Mahogany is softer
but hard enough to hold detail. I've also worked in juniper (aromatic
cedar) and plain cedar, as well as redwood and poplar.

I went looking for wood sources in my area and got a couple of leads.
One person mentioned cabinets shops. He said that their scraps might
be a good thing to use. I thought it was a great idea!

That sounds like a good tip. My brother and his wife went for a second
honeymoon back to Hawaii. They stopped at a cabinet shop on a side street
and picked up a "bucket" full of scraps of koa, teak, mango, and monkey
pod. There are some spectacular pieces there. A locak wood/tool dealer
used to sell wood by the pound. They had very rough cut (think furry)
pieces of walnut. I never knew what I had until I sanded/planed all the
fuzz off. I got several chunks of highly figured wood for almost nothing.