Harewood

Dean Koga <dkkoga [at] panix__com> writes

>John Kjelland's experience with harewood leads me to believe that
>the wood he had to match was not the dyed English Sycamore, but
>another wood also called harewood, San Domingo Satinwood

The English Gray and White Harewood that I encountered on the mural
was identified and documented by its designer and maker in 1937.
Sycamore veneer was sent to me and many similarities existed. The
grain figure sought which is best described as rays, sort of curly,
numbering 4 to 8 per inch and cross the grain straight at about 90
degrees was not found. Satinwood is quite different.

It is interesting to know of the four types of harewood used by
artisans from by gone days. It appears that premium harewood is
unavailable. And so is the case of a lot of materials, gone, no
longer available nor readily understood. This is truly an
unfortunate situation and leaves few economical/realistic choices
save for creative replication or masking the obvious loss.

>Because of the
>building's experience with the English harewood, they decided not to
>use the traditional product when the lobby was restored.

What was the experience with English Gray Harewood, aesthetic or
structural problems?

John Kjelland, Conservator
Missoula, MT

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:31
                Distributed: Tuesday, September 29, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-31-003
                                  ***