"Iron Wood"?

[Taggart]

I have an "iron wood" walking stick that was bought in Jamaica. It has an interesting grain to it and it's very heavy.

Has anybody here seen this kind of wood or used it in a project?

 

[oldnamvet]

Lots of different woods in different countries go by similar names, like iron wood. It is probably a tropical hardwood and not what people in the northern US would call iron wood.

 

[chocoguy]

I’m not familiar with that wood. Like OLDNAmvet said it must be some wood that can only be found in your country. In my country the hardest wood is called the “Narra”.

 

[Taggart]

It is probably a tropical hardwood and not what people in the northern US would call iron wood.

I'd say that it was a hardwood, and it looks similar to some of the furniture I've seen in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.

I live in Ontario and don't recall hearing the term iron wood before.

 

[oldnamvet]

Looking at my sources, there are about 2 dozen different woods from all over the world that are referred to as "ironwood" locally. Just whatever they decide is a really hard wood I guess.

 

[woodmadman]

ironwood

Although there are many species referred to as "ironwood" the name is usually is reserved for a very heavy, hard, oily wood called "lignum vitae". It is so hard and dense that one of it's uses has been for propeller shaft bearings on submarines.