"AArDvarK" wrote in message
news:gf9ic.20249$432.1602@fed1read01...

Anyone who knows please ... what is the hardest damn
wood that exists on the face of this entire planet ... ?


My vote would be for Desert Ironwood -- I am turning a large piece on my
lathe at the moment. I have never seen anything so hard and heavy. I just
finished a piece from Lignum Vitae, and it was soft by comparison, and the
oil content made it easy to turn. The Ironwood came from a large section
which I found at a junk dealer and it appears to very, very dry and old.
The color and weight made identification easy, and when I started to turn
it, the density, pattern and color became obvious. I am using HSS lathe
bits to turn it down to a manageable size, and they just barely cut it.
--
Ken Vaughn
Visit My Workshop: http://home.earthlink.net/~kvaughn65/