Front Entrance - West Penn Hardwoods

 The new facility is approximately 85,000 square feet which has given us more room for the exotic woods you love most, like cocobolo, ebony, olivewood, african blackwood and more. When you enter the warehouse we ask you check in at the offices…we do this because the warehouse is so big we don’t want to lose anyone!! Our offices are where the staff process the orders, check shipping rates, and prepare the documents for shipping out all our mail orders. In the first warehouse room you will find recent imports awaiting unpacking and inventory counting, racks of turning stock to fill outgoing orders and our famous bubinga slabs on catalever racks. This is the area where we package the outgoing orders and the trucking companies can back up to the dock for loading each afternoon.

First room - West Penn Hardwoods

When you enter the second warehouse you will be amazed by the height of the racks and the sheer quantity of inventory we have at West Penn Hardwoods.  We purchase turning stock in container loads so we use this room as overflow storage as well as some filling of outgoing orders.

Second Warehouse

The third area you will see is the domestic lumber room. Here we have racks along the walls that hold all species of domestic hardwoods, such as oak, maple, cherry and walnut.  We also specialize in figured domestic lumber like spalted maple and curly cherry…definitely something for everyone!

DOmestic Lumber Room

At the end of the domestic lumber area is our workshop. We are very excited to  have a full working workshop that features a 52″ planer for those big bubinga boards! We will soon be adding a Baker resaw to complete our woodworking ensemble.

Workshop

The last part of the warehouse is the Exotic Lumber room. Here you will find lumber from all around the world, including Sapele, Purpleheart, Bloodwood, and African Mahogany to mention a few.

If you are ever in the neighborhood of Olean, New York which is on Route 86 in the Southern Tier of Western New York (South of Buffalo) please make a sidetrip to visit our new warehouse.  But be sure to give yourself plenty of time as we find people have a hard time leaving all that great wood!

Happy Holidays from the Staff of West Penn Hardwoods…

Staff of West Penn Hardwoods

Today I wanted to talk about a beautiful, unique  exotic wood called Pink Ivory. While it is not real ivory, it is truly pink and comes from Mozanbique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The botanical name is “Berchemia zeyheri”. We have been importing this wood for approximately 10 years.  It has become one of our most popular exotic woods due to the unique coloring and fine grain pattern which make it highly suitable for ornamental turnery. 

The grain is straight to irregular, while the texture is very fine. Pink Ivory sapwood is almost white, and the pink heartwood, after long exposure, tends to become orange-colored. With proper finishing with a UV finish you can prolong the color.  Pink Ivory seasons very slowly and needs care to prevent checking. The timber is reported to be very strong and stiff. It is difficult to work with hand tools, but is an excellent wood for turnery and carving. It takes a high polish.

When we attend the Vendor Trade Show at the AAW National Symposium  each year, this is one of the woods that people seek out and it sells very quickly.  At the show we tend to sell a lot of pen blanks and bottle stopper blanks, which are not so pricy and are a great way for the beginning turner to give Pink Ivory a try.  At that show we also sell many large 3×3x12 and 4×4x12 blocks to turners that make higher end projects like vases and threaded boxes. 

We have seen many unique things turned out of this very beautiful wood. For example, one of the most skilled and highly respected craftmen in the woodturning industry, Malcolm Zander, has done some amazing things with Pink Ivory.  The technique he is best known for is filigree or lace work as shown below:

Many of you may have read the article in the April 2008 issue of Woodworker’s Journal, about how this now famous bubinga log made it’s journey from Africa to Minnesota with the help of Rocky Mehta of West Penn Hardwoods. I thought I would share some more behind the scenes details of how long this journey actually was and the trials that happened along the way…

Rocky has travelled to Africa several times to purchase bubinga and ebony for our company, West Penn Hardwoods. His trips to Africa can be very stressful and there have been moments when he has thought of giving up. This has made for some interesting stories!

I remember the first trip he made to Cameroon, on his first day’s journey into the jungle. He was amazed at how deep they had to trek into the jungle where there was no electricity and yet, the small village they came across had COLD BEER!! He still hasn’t figured out how they keep the beer cold with no electricity…

Now Rocky is from India where it can get quite hot and yet when he came back to his hotel from the jungle, he called to tell me how he had to wring the sweat out of his underwear! He even had sweat on his eyelashes…Now that is HOT!!

Although he stayed at a five-star hotel, Douala is not a very safe city. He was told by the staff that he should not leave the hotel after dark and during the day you must carry your passport and shot records with you at all times. The military police can stop you at any time and if your documents are not in order they will arrest you and detain you for in indefinite period of time.

After buying the log, it was sent to Germany. Many people have asked us why send it to Europe instead of the USA? The Europeans, especially the French and Germans have strong ties in Africa and are sawing these kind of big logs on a regular basis…no lumber company in the US can handle a log this big. This particular log was so big that even the saw mill in Germany couldn’t slice through it completely. They actually had to saw off one edge of the log to make it smaller so it could fit in the saw. Rocky spent several days from morning until night standing in front of this huge saw overseeing the cutting of this very special log.

At one point, the log got stuck in the saw and it took several hours for a crew of men to unjam it. This was a potentially dangerous situation and luckily they were able to get the log back on track.

When the log finally arrived at our warehouse in Olean, NY, we were just amazed. The figure is among best we have come across and there are boards that are up to 60″ wide! This is definitely a one-of-a-kind log and we are so happy that it is going to be accessable to the whole country through the Rockler Woodworking Stores.

On a recent trip to Central America to purchase cocobolo for West Penn Hardwoods, Rocky was happily surprised to discover an area where the cocobolo stumps have grown vertically along and under the ground! It seemed as though wherever a cocobolo tree had been cut down, the stump sprouted new shoots that not only grew up but also vertically.

Over time the lower branches were covered with sand, water and other sediment and only recently did our supplier discover this untapped stash of old growth cocobolo. It seems that during the rainy season the trees may become water logged and bend with the weight of the water. They continue to grow along the ground and can only be harvested during the dry season. We have found this cocobolo to be some of the most beautiful we have seen yet…maybe the exposure to water has deepened the color and grain? We have been able to get ahold of some really nice large cants that have been resawn into turning stock, pen blanks and of course, lumber. Some of the material is left in cant form for luthiers who want to buy to to make guitars.

They also found old growth cocobolo which was left over from a fire and was buried under the sand. These logs were most likely the leftovers from a planned fire to clear land for farming which is common in this region. The logs looked quite ugly on the outside, but when they were cut open the richness of the color and figure were incredible. This material was mainly sold to luthiers for guitars because of the unique color and quality.

Hopefully Rocky will continue to find these unexpected treasures in the jungles around the world!

Our main goal is to share insight into the fantastic world of exotic wood and our travels around the world to find it. To get you up to speed on who we are and how we came to be involved in this, here’s a short history our company, West Penn Hardwoods, Inc.

My husband, Rocky and I met in New York City and after getting married in 1993 we decided to move to Olean, New York to be closer to my family. Rocky is originally from India and emmigrated to the USA in 1991. Coming to Olean was a challenge, as neither of us had jobs here. Rocky had always wanted to own his own business. My father is a domestic lumber wholesaler and exporter. He recommended that we start a retail store where hobbyists and craftsmen could buy lumber with no minimums. When we started in March 1995, we carried only the basic domestics, like Cherry, Maple, Walnut and Oak.

Soon after starting, Rocky came to me and said he would like to buy $10,000 worth of Quartersawn White Oak. I thought he had gone insane! To spend that much money on just one type of lumber was a huge risk with our savings. He just said, “Trust me”, so I did. He was able to sell that lumber very quickly and with a nice profit. I have not questioned him since!

We started carrying curly and quartersawn material in all the domestic species. We even added some that were both curly and quartersawn! The next venture was to add exotic lumber. We started out with the basics like Purpleheart, Yellowheart and Cocobolo. It seemed the more crazy material we added to our product list the more customers loved it. We added figured exotics and are always looking for new and wild species to add.

Soon after that, a vendor asked us if we would like to buy some turning stock. We didn’t know what this was, but after doing some research we realized that wood turning is the second largest hobby in the country. Turners are also a little crazy (and I say that with a smile and love in my heart!) in that they are also wood collectors. They may have a garage full of wood, but if they see something they have never turned they have to buy it. One day in the future they will decide what beautiful project will come out of the piece. They are also some of the nicest and happiest people I have ever met…so kudos to the turners of the world!

That brings you up to date with our ventures. I will be focusing future posts on topics like places Rocky has travelled to, some of his experiences with different cultures, new and exciting species we are importing and projects made by our customers with our wood. I am open to any topic you can recommend as well. Be sure to leave me a comment!

Once again, thank you for taking the time to read all of this. Watch for posts about once a week!

Peace,
Kim Mehta
“The World of Exotic Woods”