Bullet Wood???

[J. Hartt]

I have just purchased a piece of bulletwood, a.k.a. bloodwood, that I thought looked really nice. It is a light chocolate brown to burgundy color and is sussosed to machine well and not absorb moisture and humidity.
Does anybody have any experience with this stuff??
I was going to put it on a small kitchen knife to give it a good test, any ideas?

Thanks, J. Hartt
Sorry, I made an error.
Bulletwood is also known as Beefwood, NOT Bloodwood.
Bloodwood is a wood from a different part of the world.

[whv]

there are several unrelated beefwoods from various places around the world. i have not used any of them personally, but i do know that the aussie makers use quite a bit of the australian variety in their knife handles.

[txwoodchip]

Beefwood makes a great handle. You'll have to work at the finish if you want it to be glassy smooth though...it has a pretty course grain. Here's how it looks with a satin finish:

[Jason Cutter]

I am from Australia and do use Beefwood / Bulletwood. Its a nice timber and that knife is superb, by the way. I've used it both natural and stabilised. Its a very nice wood to work with and seems to hold up against moisture quite well, though not as good as say, South east asian Rosewood or African Blackwood, my preference for kitchen knives.

In stabilised form, its beautiful even when the "lacey" grain is tighter. The only problem I've noticed is that the stabilisation agent actually forces out some of the natural resins that make it water resistant. So, after final finishing, you might notice little drops or pearls of ? oil coming out the handle which has to be wiped / sanded off. I've had to leave my handles for 2 weeks before final finishing to eliminate this problem. I suggest not buffing stabilised beefwood as the matrix can pick up the wax and look dirty, but use OOOO grade steel wool and a hand satin rub with white 3M polishing sheet to get a beautiful satin polished finish.

Just my 2 cents. The wood is worth the trouble.

Cheers.