Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Garrett
Another cool one!
Is Japanese Chestnut a hardwood?
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I got this from a guy who does tree work. He calls it Japanese Chestnut. American Chestnut died out with the blight by the mid - late 1940'. It was a very hard and durable wood and some can still be found around in the center of old logs or old bridge beams...some wood paneling and flooring in old houses and barns. American Chestnut still grows but before maturing fully has a tendency to get blight and die. There is an ongoing attempt at restoration with a blight resistant hybrid.
Apparently there is a Chinese Chestnut that will grow and resists blight, as I understand it is a distant cousin to the American Chestnut. This wood could possibly be that.
However...
There IS a Japanese Chestnut as well, apparently. Some equate the Japanese and Chinese as the same thing. Dunno, never really went that far into researching it.
I will say the grain pattern of this wood is not anything like the American Chestnut. Which is like a lot of our hardwoods, pretty straight and featureless grain, unless crotch or burl.
So I've just gone with what the guy who provided the wood says it is. It is very durable, hard, and I have a knife, one of the original "Hunters" I made that I use in the kitchen almost daily and I can tell no wear on the wood or finish at all.
And the grain is very interesting. It has not only a "tiger stripe" pattern but those "swirly" patterns that reminds me of a horse's mane.