Tulipwood fro Tail block

Has anyone ever used Tulipwood for a tail block, or nose blocks? I have a very nice piece and this is lovely wood with a pretty grain pattern and colors and would love to use it for a tailblock.

 

I know that there are certain species of woods that have a very high oil content that make glassing not so fun…  Not sure about Tulipwood. It is very hard and has a decent density, probably comperable to walnut. I have not found any info on the oil content of this particular type of wood, though I have seen many projects that have some type of fiinish with tulipwood, so I am thinking i may be safe. I would do a test batch, but the piece I have is too small to cut off a chunk to glass. I would be using UV cured Poly.

 

 

 

thanks in advance

Drew

 

 

 

you’re right, it’s one of the world’s most beautiful and endangered woods (root version not unlike root pink heart)

brought a lot of smiles to friends and family the past couple years

easy to work with and bring to a highly polished sheen without alot of chemicals

a hard wood with oils for sure

for resin/surfboard work I’d seal with epoxy thinned 30%+ with xylene to be safe

I actually have a box of tulipwood veneers i’ll be using for a tflex skin

t1

 

t2

 

 

t3

 

t4

 

t5

ive used tulip wood for stringers without any problems real pretty!!

i use poly uv and works fine.

 

Thansk both for the replies/////

Very nice samples Oneula.

 

 

Yikes!  Oneula is right about the high oil content in that stuff and I wouldn’t even get near it with poly (especially UV) if you’re in a warmer climate.   On woods like that one (I’ve got a short list going) it may look as though the poly has stuck without a hitch - glass and all.  Eventually though the oils will migrate to the glass/wood interface and start creating delam points at the pores where the oil came from.  Warm temps only speed that process up.

Either go with epoxy all the way or seal with at least 2 cheater coats of epoxy - first one never seals everything.  If you’re glassing with poly over the epoxy seal, you may want to make sure that epoxy is** very well cured** and keyed for the poly to stick. 

One thing I have tried before with UV poly that I remeber working ok was to let the cheater coat sit for an hour or so before kicking it off.  The second coat before glassing didn’t need to sit.  Good luck.

 

 

im in ireland and bought my tulipwood in the uk and it doesnt have the colours that oneulas has in it mainly cream with black swirls maybe mine is a different tulipwood?

when i spoke to the wood company they said it had very low oil content!

i did a test piece first no probs with uv or cat poly.

 

    Howzit Bernie, That is some beautiful wood and great work. You are one talented guy.Aloha,Kokua