Boxwood
David Stevens
Probably the most available of the other woods called boxwood is the South American or Venezuelan boxwood, gossypiopermum praecox. Other names for this wood are Maraciabo boxwood, Agracejo, Palo Blanco, Cuchillo, Limoncillo, Manzano, Sapatero, and Zapatero. These are names used in the local areas where the wood in located, West Indies, Columbia and Venezuela. Grain straight and uniform, fine texture, carves and turns easily, cream or pale yellow in color.
Other woods sometimes found that are called boxwood are African boxwood (Kamassi), gonioma kamassi; Brazilian boxwood, esenbeckia atata Pitt; Florida boxwood, schaefferia frutescens Jacq., other names are Amansa guapo, Cimarron, Guairaje, Bois capable, Petit garcon, Limoncillo and Fruta de paloma, found in Southern Florida, West Indies, Mexico, Columbia and Venzuela; San Domingo boxwood, phyllostylon brasiliensis, other names include W. Indian boxwood, Jatia, Bois blanc, Ceron, Sabonero, Pau blanco, Vareteiro, Palo amarillo, and Ibiracatu.
And about 20 years ago there was a large shipment of wood that arrived in Los Angeles from Laos and Cambodia that was called Laotian boxwood. It had a thin greenish colored bark about one sixteenth inch thick and was in small logs, 4 to 8 inches in diameter. It is not available from the dealer anymore. You will occasionally run into a piece at a small wood dealer from time to time. I have misplaced the latin name for this wood but it is NOT a genuine boxwood. It is a very fine grain, hard and brittle, cuts fairly easy but is very reactive. It twists and bends as it comes off the saw, very difficult to keep straight, even after twenty years of standing the corner of the shop. If you do get a straight piece and leave it lay on the bench, within a hour it could look like a piece of bacon. I use it for making blocks and deadeyes and small parts.
At this time there are 71 woods sold as boxwood. there is actually only one true boxwood and that's Buxus Sempervirens. I see no advantage to using true boxwood when the false boxwoods look, feel, work, and finish like a true boxwood. As a matter of fact my wife who does wood turning hates true boxwood. She will be working on a piece and for no reason it will shatter. Even more discouraging it will shatter after the piece is finished. At one time maybe 100 years ago you could find true boxwood logs 12 to 20 inches diameter I have a wood book published in 1919 London which talks of large boxwood logs. Today the average is 4 to 6 inch. Logs that size have a lot of waste, one reason is the logs will heart split, that is a crack starting from the center and will crack outwards and to make matters worse the crack always spirals around the log making it impossible to get any lengths more than a few inches. When you buy boxwood logs you buy it by the pound so you buy everything even the defects which will amount to quite a lot of waste. Some South American woods sold as boxwood such as White Peroba are sold by the board foot because you can get planks 2 x 8 x 8 foot perfectly clear and straight grained so the lumber is sorted and measured by volume. or BDFT. Pau Marfim is a lemon wood and looks like a pale coloured boxwood. However Pau Marfim also has a beautiful curly grain and that's the stuff importers are looking for and not the dull looking straight grain stuff a ship modeler would want. Pau Marfim is a large tree I have a piece 8 x 10 inches X 18 feet long holding up a lumber pile. It does not have a single defect in it. It's also a very heavy wood, that's why its on the bottom of the pile.
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