Boxwood and how to get it

[Huw Crompton]

Hi model boat builders, I supply musical instrument grade boxwood around the world and make up model building packs of marquetry strips for inserts and tool making, these are by-product from music, 3kgs at a time say commonly bespoke orders. Huw Crompton in England huwcrompton@aol.com

[BETAQDAVE]

   I inherited an old pantograph from my grandfather (circa 1925) that is made from boxwood. I used it once in awhile to enlarge or reduce ship model drawings. Unfortunately there are a lot of screw holes down the center of the beams that would really limit the width of wood to be salvaged. On the other hand, the arms are almost three feet long, so long narrow pieces could be ripped from them. 

   Since I usually work at 1:96 scale I can fashion lots of masts, spars and decking from them.  Come to think of it, it's really hard to find such well seasoned straight lumber so perhaps they could used to convert the plastic masts and spars for my 1:87 scale Wanderer to wood.

[No Idea]

On 11/14/2023 at 3:49 PM, Huw Crompton said:

Hi model boat builders, I supply musical instrument grade boxwood around the world and make up model building packs of marquetry strips for inserts and tool making, these are by-product from music, 3kgs at a time say commonly bespoke orders. Huw Crompton in England huwcrompton@aol.com

Hi Huw - I sent you a message a couple of weeks ago but not heard anything back?

[cotrecerf]

 

This is what I bought from dictum.com a couple of years ago: www.dictum.com/de/europaeische-hoelzer-caa ;www.dictum.com/de/europaeische-hoelzer-caa/buchsbaum-sortiment-4-5-kg-520038

 

Present price offer: 54.00 € for 4.5 kg incl. VAT

 

assortment of European Boxwood ; Buchsbaum-Sortiment, 4,5 kg.

The rectangular piecves are like pen blanks and the wood chunks are not in the right dimensions for very large (long) parts as one-piece, but to make e.g. carved decorations for scale 1:48 or 1:50 it's fully ok.

 

I do not know about shipment cost to the USA

 

best regards

 

Joachim

 

 

 

 

[allanyed]

On 11/14/2023 at 10:49 AM, Huw Crompton said:

Hi model boat builders, I supply musical instrument grade boxwood around the world and make up model building packs of marquetry strips for inserts and tool making, these are by-product from music, 3kgs at a time say commonly bespoke orders. Huw Crompton in England huwcrompton@aol.com

Huw

Is your post an offer to sell your boxwood?

Allan

[grsjax]

On 1/6/2022 at 2:00 PM, Jaager said:

identified Crabtree's carvings as being Washington Hawthorn

Hawthorn seems to be a fairly common tree in the Northwest.  I have seen it growing in parks and along roadways.

[Jaager]

10 minutes ago, grsjax said:

Hawthorn seems to be a fairly common tree in the Northwest. 

I believe that August Crabtree started his project while living in Oregon or Washington - he called it fire thorn.

That it is common there would explain his using it.

Here, fire thorn is a hedge - foundation plating - it is in the rose family and is plenty hard, but it only gets to stick diameter. 

[Dr PR]

There are seven species of hawthorn in the northwest (Oregon):

 

https://oregonflora.org/taxa/search.php?search=hawthorn

 

English hawthorn is the most common - it is a nuisance weed. It has pretty flowers in the spring and lots of red berries in the fall - that the birds spread everywhere. I don't know if the wood is any good for modeling, but there is one in my neighbor's yard that I would happily cut down to see.

 

None of the seven hawthorns is known as "fire thorn," at least today by modern botanists. Common names are not reliable. They are often applied to several different species. Apparently "firethorn" is a totally unrelated species to hawthorns:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyracantha

 

We have these here also, and they too are a nuisance weed.

[Jaager]

19 minutes ago, Dr PR said:

there is one in my neighbor's yard that I would happily cut down to see

So far, I have found that the wood of closely related species has many if not most of the characteristics that we desire in the species on our list.

The color will probably be different, but the basic structure seems to hold.

If carving is of interest or perhaps bitts, catheads, belfry, etc.  It would probably be worth investigation.  

I am guessing that your neighbor wants to keep it and you would rather the situation was otherwise.

If you can get at it - all together now:  debark, seal the cut ends, and sticker - out of the weather😉.

 

Yup, I was discussing Pyracantha - the name was in deep memory and did not come in readily- painful to prune.  I had an even worse small thorny bush - the numerous thorns had a constriction just behind the tip, so that it would break off and stay in skin - really sharp so it went deep with little force. No wood with that one. Too small. 

[Toolmaker]

On 11/25/2023 at 5:22 PM, No Idea said:

Hi Huw - I sent you a message a couple of weeks ago but not heard anything back?

 

On 11/30/2023 at 7:59 PM, allanyed said:

Huw

Is your post an offer to sell your boxwood?

Allan

Maybe this link will help close that circle. Seems like this is where it originated

 

https://ebts.org/uk/2021/the-best-english-boxwood-is-to-be-found-in-wales/

Edited December 20, 2023 by Toolmaker

[mtaylor]

On 11/25/2023 at 9:22 AM, No Idea said:

Hi Huw - I sent you a message a couple of weeks ago but not heard anything back?

Did you used the email addy in his post or the MSW Message system?