Pink Ivory wood from Griffin Exotic Wood

Griffin Exotic Wood

Pink Ivory
(rhamnus zeyheri and also berchemia zeyheri)

Pink Ivory wood, a sacred wood of Zulu chiefs in Southern Africa, has long been treasured as a rare wood. At one time, it was said to be rarer than diamonds. The wood grows in various parts of Africa, and takes hundreds of years to reach a size suitable to make a bowl blank. It has a very fine grain and takes as high a polish as you would like to give it. Finishes that block UV light can be advantageous, since sunlight will gradually darken the wood. A fantastic ornamental turning wood also. Very hard and heavy, with the ability to take very fine details. Most of our Pink Ivory is dried (will be marked on the item if dried, except pen blanks which are always dried). This is no simple process. The logs are allowed to dry for 5-10 years and they crack profusely during the process. We then get an average yield of 18% from each log that is free of defects and has good color (good color is less then half the usable wood) to make the pieces we sell, and mostly we get pen blanks. Many logs can't produce a single 1.5 x 1.5 x 6, and larger is truly rare. Selling wet pink ivory is very different and has far lower costs. To dry a piece that is 2 x 2 x 12 from the wet/waxed state will take at least 3 years (usually 4) of constant humidity above a certain level and a fairly constant temperature using the right techniques. It takes years of monitoring and occasional adjustments to dry a piece of wet pink ivory if you can provide the right conditions. For that reason, the pieces not marked dried are far cheaper since there is about 75% less labor to produce them. Truly dry Pink Ivory is so much trouble to produce that it is rare on the market in these defect free pieces we make. Be aware of some vendors false claims of dry wood, it seems to be a very common claim for many woods we have tested to be completely wet after we buy a piece to verify claims of dryness.

Grading:

Primo: best pink to red color over 95% before turning. No more than one tight knot under 1/8" that is light in color, usually knot free (burl eyes are not knots).
Excellent quality: has good color over part of the piece after turning round, might have a tiny (max of 3/16" )knot or two that is black and some off color wood .
Good quality: Has off color wood even after turning, some pink to red though and is still a good piece. Small tight black knots up to 1/4" allowed.
Seconds: Have some (50-100%) off colors and may be as short as 4.75 " if a pen blank.
Figured: has some curl figure as well as at least excellent grade.

SIZES ARE IN INCHES
unless specified otherwise.


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Pen Blanks:

Sample photo of primo color.

Click photo for side 2

Dried pink ivory, many with figure too. Cut in our own shop (the only way to assure quality with this wood type). If we start with a good looking board/log, we can get about 18% of it that is nearly all pink (very faint pink to red), including all sizes like pen blanks. In other words, we have to buy about 5 1/2 pounds of good boards to get about 1 pound of turning blanks. It can take up to 25 minutes to cut one blank in some cases because of all the complex defects and off colors we need to work around. With labor costs being so high, we don't offer pink ivory that often. You can find pink ivory elsewhere, but basically they cut a low quality blank, usually with defects and off colors, and in that case they can get up to 60% of the wood into blanks, instead of our 18%, but it will leave you unhappy in almost all cases as most of the pink ivory tree isn't very attractive wood. The pink and red parts are also usually the parts that have the most cracks, so that is how we've ended up at our average of 18% over a number of years of recording weights and outcomes. Hopefully based on that you can see why these pieces are expensive to create and in reality one of our lowest profit items on the entire website. We think this is a great wood though, we want to continue to offer it as it is one of the top turning woods in the world. (and it is one of my favorites too!)

No surprises: ALL four sides visible in photos:

Click here for a third side view.

Click here for final fourth side view.

	Pink Ivory Piece 19 1 x 1 3/8 x 6 inches Dried Price: $15.50	Pink Ivory Piece 20 1 x 1 x 6 1/8 inches Dried Price: $15.00

	Pink Ivory Piece 25 1 x 1 x 5.25 inches Dried Price: $16.00
Pink Ivory Piece 27 1 x 1.5 x 4.5 inches Dried Price: $20.00		Pink Ivory Piece 29 1 7/8 x 1 7/8 x 4 inches Dried Price: $25.00

Click photo for side 2
Dried pink ivory, many with figure too. Cut in our own shop (the only way to assure quality with this wood type). If we start with a good looking board/log, we can get about 18% of it that is nearly all pink (very faint pink to red), including all sizes like pen blanks. In other words, we have to buy about 5 1/2 pounds of good boards to get about 1 pound of turning blanks. It can take up to 25 minutes to cut one blank in some cases because of all the complex defects and off colors we need to work around. With labor costs being so high, we don't offer pink ivory that often. You can find pink ivory elsewhere, but basically they cut a low quality blank, usually with defects and off colors, and in that case they can get up to 60% of the wood into blanks, instead of our 18%, but it will leave you unhappy in almost all cases as most of the pink ivory tree isn't very attractive wood. The pink and red parts are also usually the parts that have the most cracks, so that is how we've ended up at our average of 18% over a number of years of recording weights and outcomes. Hopefully based on that you can see why these pieces are expensive to create and in reality one of our lowest profit items on the entire website. We think this is a great wood though, we want to continue to offer it as it is one of the top turning woods in the world. (and it is one of my favorites too!)

No surprises: ALL four sides visible in photos:

Click here for a third side view.

Click here for final fourth side view.

Pink Ivory Piece 31 1 9/16 x 1 9/16 x 12.25 inches Dried Price: $50.00		Pink Ivory Piece 33 1 9/16 x 1 9/16 x 11 inches Dried Price: $67.00
Pink Ivory Piece 34 1 7/16 x 1 7/16 x 10 1/8 inches Dried Price: $53.00	Pink Ivory Piece 35 1 7/8 x 1 7/8 x 9 inches Dried Price: $80.00
	Pink Ivory Piece 38 1 9/16 x 1 9/16 x 7 1/8 inches Dried Price: $45.00
Pink Ivory Piece 40 1.5 x 1.5 x 6 3/8 inches Dried Price: $26.00	Pink Ivory Piece 41 1 5/8 x 1 5/8 x 6.25 inches Dried Price: $40.00

Click photo for side 2
Dried pink ivory, these are truly rare pieces. These are some of the reddest pieces of pink ivory we can produce, and they ALL have some figure or a lot of figure. Some people actually prefer the pink, but red is quite an amazing color in this wood. Not enough to go around, so if interested, do not delay. Notes: piece 48 has one rounded edge. Piece 46 is not a square, shaped like a knife blank. Figure is hard to see in photos, all these pieces do have figure and a few are high figure.

No surprises: ALL four sides visible in photos:

Click here for a third side view.

Click here for final fourth side view.



Pink Ivory Piece 49 1 7/8 x 1 7/8 x 6 1/8 inches Dried & Figured Price: $54.00	Pink Ivory Piece 50 1 9/16 x 1 9/16 x 5 3/8 inches Dried & Figured Price: $30.00

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