8/4 x 10" wide x 10 feet long azobe - a west African hardwood used primarily
for railroad ties and bridge tressles. The price: $5 per board. According
to my Mr. Math calculator, that's 30 cents a board foot.

Azobe is nearly 160% harder and 50% heavier than red oak. Each board weighs
over 100 lbs. I took 5 boards home and groaned the whole time loading and
unloading. He still has 500 board feet left. I have no idea what I'm going
to do with this stuff, but I'm going to mill some down tomorrow and play
with it. It's probably hell on planer blades.

Bob

bob wrote:
8/4 x 10" wide x 10 feet long azobe - a west African hardwood used primarily
for railroad ties and bridge tressles. The price: $5 per board. According
to my Mr. Math calculator, that's 30 cents a board foot.

Azobe is nearly 160% harder and 50% heavier than red oak. Each board weighs
over 100 lbs. I took 5 boards home and groaned the whole time loading and
unloading. He still has 500 board feet left. I have no idea what I'm going
to do with this stuff, but I'm going to mill some down tomorrow and play
with it. It's probably hell on planer blades.

Oh great vacuumous one, how do I run into these guys?

er
--
email not valid

"bob" wrote in message
. ..
8/4 x 10" wide x 10 feet long azobe - a west African hardwood used
primarily for railroad ties and bridge tressles. The price: $5 per
board. According to my Mr. Math calculator, that's 30 cents a board foot.

Azobe is nearly 160% harder and 50% heavier than red oak. Each board
weighs over 100 lbs. I took 5 boards home and groaned the whole time
loading and unloading. He still has 500 board feet left. I have no idea
what I'm going to do with this stuff, but I'm going to mill some down
tomorrow and play with it. It's probably hell on planer blades.

Bob
"Very difficult to work with hand and machine tools; severe blunting effect
if machined when dry"
Can't imagine what I would do with them, but at $5 each I would buy a bunch;
got to be good for something.
You suck, a little.

Yea, you sucketh. If your find is anywhere near like the Jatoba I recently
acquired, your machines will be groaning just like you were carrying the
stuff around! --dave
"Toller" wrote in message
...

"bob" wrote in message
. ..
8/4 x 10" wide x 10 feet long azobe - a west African hardwood used
primarily for railroad ties and bridge tressles. The price: $5 per
board. According to my Mr. Math calculator, that's 30 cents a board
foot.

Azobe is nearly 160% harder and 50% heavier than red oak. Each board
weighs over 100 lbs. I took 5 boards home and groaned the whole time
loading and unloading. He still has 500 board feet left. I have no idea
what I'm going to do with this stuff, but I'm going to mill some down
tomorrow and play with it. It's probably hell on planer blades.

Bob
"Very difficult to work with hand and machine tools; severe blunting
effect if machined when dry"
Can't imagine what I would do with them, but at $5 each I would buy a
bunch; got to be good for something.
You suck, a little.

bob wrote:
8/4 x 10" wide x 10 feet long azobe - a west African hardwood used primarily
for railroad ties and bridge tressles. The price: $5 per board. According
to my Mr. Math calculator, that's 30 cents a board foot.

Azobe is nearly 160% harder and 50% heavier than red oak. Each board weighs
over 100 lbs. I took 5 boards home and groaned the whole time loading and
unloading. He still has 500 board feet left. I have no idea what I'm going
to do with this stuff, but I'm going to mill some down tomorrow and play
with it. It's probably hell on planer blades.

http://www.azobe.com/physical.html

I know azobe as bongossi, which was the wood used for the decking of
Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport in NYC. The stuff also doesn't
burn (support combustion), is heavier than water and is high in silica
content, so it dulls the crap out of your cutting tools. When it was
installed they drilled holes at opposing angles and drove in stainless
steel rod to fasten the decking to the sleeper system.

It's your basic forever wood, so I'd think that outdoor tables, arbors,
benches and chairs would be perfect for it. At that price you could
buy his whole lot and resell the excess for decking. You'd make a good
profit.

R

It's a little two man sawmill operation near Birmingham, AL


"Enoch Root" wrote in message
...
bob wrote:
8/4 x 10" wide x 10 feet long azobe - a west African hardwood used
primarily
for railroad ties and bridge tressles. The price: $5 per board.
According
to my Mr. Math calculator, that's 30 cents a board foot.

Azobe is nearly 160% harder and 50% heavier than red oak. Each board
weighs
over 100 lbs. I took 5 boards home and groaned the whole time loading
and
unloading. He still has 500 board feet left. I have no idea what I'm
going
to do with this stuff, but I'm going to mill some down tomorrow and play
with it. It's probably hell on planer blades.

Oh great vacuumous one, how do I run into these guys?

er
--
email not valid

bob wrote:
It's a little two man sawmill operation near Birmingham, AL

O thou who sucketh unremittingly, thank you for thine answer. It is
said, "ask and ye shall receive" and, indeed, it hath all the appearance
of being so--but! It is also said "give a man a fish and he will eat,
but teach a man how to fish and he will never go hungry again". For
this fish, O great lignin tornado, I am thankful. Thou hast given me a
fish, placed some 2000 miles removed from my hearth.

But I will read what I can from the entrails of this fish, and go out,
and seek me a sawmill operation in the waste, yea verily, in the deserts
of Southern Upper California as it is called (but in another language,
not Aramaic, not Greek, not Latin, but sort of like Latin, yea, derived
from Latin, etc.) and bring with me a whiske broom, knife, and sixe packe.

"Enoch Root" wrote in message
...

bob wrote:

8/4 x 10" wide x 10 feet long azobe - a west African hardwood used
primarily
for railroad ties and bridge tressles. The price: $5 per board.

schnibble

Oh great vacuumous one, how do I run into these guys?

er
--
email not valid

Watch the dust from "any" exotic. I bought a load of cheap wood
a few years back and found that the dust was VERY nasty.
(tali/missanda)

A good many of the African woods have some really nasty features.


bob wrote:

8/4 x 10" wide x 10 feet long azobe - a west African hardwood used primarily
for railroad ties and bridge tressles. The price: $5 per board. According
to my Mr. Math calculator, that's 30 cents a board foot.

Azobe is nearly 160% harder and 50% heavier than red oak. Each board weighs
over 100 lbs. I took 5 boards home and groaned the whole time loading and
unloading. He still has 500 board feet left. I have no idea what I'm going
to do with this stuff, but I'm going to mill some down tomorrow and play
with it. It's probably hell on planer blades.

Bob