Has anyone tried turning coconut lumber/wood? How does it turn, and how is the wood? I'm asking cause the stuff can be pretty cheap to come by in tropical areas and is a potential cheap dama material. Disclaimer: i know nothing about wood or woodturning so I hope you all could help a neophyte out.
Don't know about how it turns but here's some info on it. It may have the similar problem of bamboo not a large enough for a solid piece, i.e. you'd have to make a laminate since, if I understand correctly, only the outer wood is hard. Red Palm/Coconut Palm Common Name(s): Red Palm, Coconut Palm Scientific Name: Cocos nucifera Distribution: Throughout the tropics worldwide Tree Size: 65-100 ft (20-30 m) tall, 1-1.3 ft (.3-.4 m) trunk diameter Average Dried Weight: 51 lbs/ft3 (820 kg/m3) Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): .68, .82 Janka Hardness: 1,900 lbf (8,430 N) Modulus of Rupture: 12,970 lbf/in2 (89.4 MPa) Elastic Modulus: 1,654,000 lbf/in2 (11.41 GPa) Crushing Strength: 9,590 lbf/in2 (66.2 MPa) Shrinkage: Radial: ~5.5%, Tangential: ~5.5%, Volumetric: ~11.0%, T/R Ratio: ~1.0 (Weight and hardness is for the higher-grade outer material, not the inner material.)
I've heard about the inner/outer dichotomy of coconut palm wood. Could make for an interesting kendama if used properly.
@Edric Owen Ladera mentioned something about using Coconut wood to me a while back for a locally made kendama but it wouldn't just be about how to create a "turnable" and durable size piece of wood but also the talent and/or machinery to turn it.
I don't think coconut wood would be suitable for making kendamas, as it is almost hollow in structure. As @goenKendama mentioned, the only usable would be the outer layer. But considered making it into plywood probably it works, just maybe not that durable as other common kendama woods.
i remember @htimSxelA turning a palm wood in the terra shop when I ask about the same question @Emil Apostol asked. i don't know how it turned out couple months back..
All i know about coconut trees is that the shoots make a great dish, the shoot is somewhat similar in texture and taste to a bamboo shoot, but sweeter. The Malays call it “umbut”, and we normally make a spicy mixture of coconut milk, chili and turmeric, it ends up in a nice yellowish color, and we also include some dried spanish mackerel to the mix, or smoked beef slices. Fantastic with rice and a side of stir fried bean sprouts, and i’m sorry to hijack this thread and make some unsuspecting people hungry.
I have some black palm in the shop, I'm going to make a kendama out of it sometime soon, I've had it for a while!
This is actually a good idea. About 2 years ago I went to a village in Java, just near to my house. I went to a carpenter's house. He's about 80 years old. He makes a "doran" it's a handle for hoe which is made of, surprisingly, palm wood. He uses the outer part of the wood because because it's hard. sorry I didn't take any picture, but i found this one on the internet. The "doran" from coconut wood. Yes it's pretty common among Javanese people to use coconut wood as household and also building materials because it's cheap. The wood is pretty hard and solid, the serrate is so dense and strong. And I think it's strong enough to be turned to kendama. And I can say that it's way much harder than bamboo. I couldn't find strong literature about this wood. I guess it's not common wood for Indonesian either. Only Javanese and Sundanese but it's hard to find good literature of this. I'll dig more information about this, hopefully I can find some useful information to share.
Okay, the hardest part of the wood is only 5-7 centimeter. and only 10 centimeter of the stump. We need huge palm tree, haha