A LONG time ago, I got some free wood from Lumber Liquidators that came out of pallets shipped from South America.  Apparently, because of the crazy US import/export laws, the “raw wood” can’t be shipped in, but if they process the raw wood into flooring, there are no restrictions.  The shipping pallets are made from whatever they have laying around.  Cumaru is an odd wood to work with.  It is hands down the most splintery wood I’ve ever seen!  If you get a splinter, it will fester almost immediately.  BUT…  once you put sandpaper to it, the grain lays down and it becomes smooth as glass.  It’s also something like 4 times harder than oak!

Since I’m supposed to help teach a class this next week on spindle turning, I figured I’d better get in a little practice.  Here’s the result.  The stem is MUCH, MUCH thicker than I would have normally made it, but since I’m taking it as a piece to be shown and handled, I left it a little thicker.  If the wood wasn’t “exotic”, this would definitely be in the “destroy all evidence” burn pile.