Jim Moore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you ever see a place that sells fancy
> hardwoods, stop by and pick up pieces of Boxwood
> and Ironwood, which are pretty much the extremes
> (except for balsa on the soft end, which you've
> probably seen and felt.
>
> Ironwood is incredible -- it woun't float, you tap
> it against something metal and it really does
> sound like you're tapping with an iron bar. It's
> incredible to saw (worse than maple and birch,
> which are tough on saws).

Yep, it grows locally, here.

Sigh, back when I moved out in '78, I came across entire logs of it (2' thick!) lying in washes about a mile from my house.... so I "assumed" this was nothing special & left them there (despite having access to a backhoe).

Then a few years later I went looking for a large chunk, and found virtually nothing left (just scattered live trees.... mostly small, a few stumps, & buried pieces in poor condition).... seems that the logs I'd seen had been from groves bulldozed down for a construction project (a huge canal, plus upslope levees to protect it against "flashflood" type runoff).... and that snowbirds (RV living retirees here for the winter, mostly from Canada & the northern U.S.) had discovered the ironwood deposits & been (arduously) cutting it up for firewood. I REALLY wish I'd saved out a few good logs.

I can probably still locate a few small chunks, as samples, in case anybody is interested. (& this is a wet year, we might actually get seeds this summer, for the first time in a decade).

Kenuchelover.