|
Exotic Woods.
One of the very reasons that I got into designing humidors is the great selection of exotic woods found all around the world. Sometimes us, in modern culture are astute only to typical woods found for cabinetry, flooring or structural framing.
Not many of us know woods beyond the typical domestic woods such as Pine, Mahogany, Oak, Maple, Birch. But did you know that there are over 23,000 species of trees and found on this earth? And of course not all of them are suitable for decorative humidor construction, but it just goes to show that is a plethora of options and tones available to design a gorgeous unique humidor from. Many of these different woods hold stories of their own, and go right along with the Adventurous theme of Vanderburgh Humidors.
|
Click Radio to hear Audio File
|
There are some remarkable natural wood textures out there, that no painter or artist could ever duplicate. For instance, Australian Lacewood, when polished turns into an almost liquid, flowing, 3-Dimensional appearance as it reflects and refracts the sunlight in its fibers.
Some woods – like Ironwood or Greenheart are so hard and dense that they will burn out a solid carbide drill bits within a few holes. Greenheart was actually used on Shackleton’s ship The Endurance to protect the hull from sharp and abrasive icebergs.
Other woods, like Purple Heart, have a magnificent natural amethyst tone that you would swear was purposely stained.
One of my favourite woods, called African Ebony, is hard and dense, and is pure black. It offers a wonderful contrast to other decorative woods.
One exciting woods that I can’t seem to get my hands on here in Canada is ancient Kauri wood from New Zealand. When polished, it has almost a fluid, liquid caramel appearance, and depending upon the tone it can even look like sunlight shining through a pint of fine red ale. I would love to design a humidor around the tones and character of this wood. These logs are excavated from the earth and are only found in New Zealand. Some specimens can be up to 40000 years old. To have a humidor built from this would be such a conversation piece!
My final wood story is from my own country of Canada. Hundreds of years ago when loggers were harvesting the very first of the ancient trees in Canada, many of them had become waterlogged and sank to the bottom of lakes during transit since they were floated to the nearest lumber mill. Some of these logs date back to as early as 1050 AD and have been perfectly preserved because of the cold, fresh waters in some of the Canadian lakes and bays. These woods are called Wetwoods, and carry fantastic natural character not found in new growth woods. The logs are actually brought up from the bottom of the lake, dried and sized revealing wood with character never seen for hundreds of years.
With so much selection and options out there for decorative exotic woods, there are lots of opportunities to have a custom designed humidor that is completely one of a kind. Many of these woods hold a story of their own, and will inspire good conversation for hours.
<Back to Resources>
|
