camphor

open main page for all woods open page 2 for articles

NOTE: there is rarely any "standard" or "typical" look for a wood so take what's in this table with a grain of salt
the REST of the pictures on this page will give you a better overall feel for this wood

camphor / Cinnamomum spp. (mostly Cinnamomum camphora)
2" x 2" flat cut, 2" x 2" quartersawn, 3/4" wide end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup.

Semi ring porous, sometimes diffuse porous, with medium sized pores surrounded by fat vasicentric parenchyma, marginal parenchyma. Rays are obvious at 10X and growth ring boundaries are clear. Occasional pore multiples, generally radial. What is shown to the left is semi ring porous but there are examples below of diffuse porous.

my samples:
NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K)
colors will vary under other lighting conditions

sample plank and end grain sold to me as camphor tree / Cinnamomum camphora

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above, although I see that I got it upside down

both sides of a sample plank of camphor tree / Cinnamomum camphora --- HUGE enlargements are present

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of camphor tree / Cinnamomum camphora --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

sample piece and end grain listed as camphor / Cinnamomum camphoratum

end grain closeup of the sample piece directly above --- color is too gray

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of figured camphor / Cinnamomum camphora --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of figured camphor / Cinnamomum camphora --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

NOTE: all of the pieces from here down to the figured sample were contributed by Bob Hunt, whom I thank for the generous donation to the site.

both sides of a small bowl blank

both sides of a sample of camphor / Cinnamomum spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This was made from the bowl blank directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

first face and the end grain of a sample of camphor / Cinnamomum spp. --- This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION C

the second face, before and after slicing off 1/8" showing how the patina from aging is only surface deep. Actually, on this one, the first face has the strong patina and the second face is already much lighter so slicing off a bit didn't make much difference

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

several views of an irregular chunk

two small planks

the other sides of the two planks above

end grain of the two planks above

misc pieces

two views of a small cube; there is a hair too much red/orange in the pics

later I sliced this cube into tiny planks and this is the one off of the top, sanded down; these colors are more correct than those of the full cube above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a small plank

later, I resawed the plank directly above and here are all 4 sides of the 2 resulting planks, sanded down. Note how sanding muted the color slightly; this is because there was a light patina on the unsanded plank that added color.

end grain and end grain closeup of the two planks directly above, with the end grain pieces showning how it was resawn; the end grain closeup pick has a pink tint that shouldn't be there

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

two small pieces and end grain of the two

NOTE: based on the fact that this sample is CLEARLY ring porous (see end grain closeup below) where as camphor (Cinnamomum spp.) in general, and all the other samples on this page in particular, are clearly diffuse or semi-diffuse, I no longer believe that this is Cinnamomum spp.

end grain closeups of both of the pieces directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end of the samples contributed by Bob Hunt

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of camphor burl / Cinnamomum spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

a crotch slab, a different crotch slab with a plastic guitar form on it and the same slab in closeup. All are moistened for the pics, which were contributed by Funktionhouse, who milled these pieces in Florida and whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

burl veneer with a lot of sapwood --- it's possible this is redwood (vavona), not camphor

burl veneer and closeup

another veneer piece from the same flitch as the one directly above. All of the closeups below are from the same flitch (most are from this piece)

burl veneer closeups

another burl veneer piece from a different lot --- hm ... this looks more like redwood (vavona) burl than camphor.

bookmatched burl veneeer pairs with very accurate color (see web pic directly below)

the ebay posting pic of the samples directly above --- yeah, I know, they don't even look like the same wood. This vendor's ebay pics always look SO much better than the actual wood, including a shine that is never on the wood itself but always shows up in her pics.

web pics:

slabs --- I'm doubtful about the color on the second one

camphor laurel plank and closeup

camphor laurel plank

planks

plank listed as camphor laurel / Cinnamomum camphora and a closeup

plank listed as camphor laurel / Cinnamomum camphora

plank pic provided by Dave Davenport, whom I thank. Dave had it listed as camphor laurel with the botanical name Cinnamomum camphora)

cutoffs

turning stock

bowl blanks all from the same vendor, probably all from the same log --- both levels of enlargement are present

The pics in this section were contributed by a Florida sawyer who goes by "Funktionhouse", whom I thank.

some freshly sawn slabs and then the same set with even more slabs in front

a slab and closeup

a slab, a bookmatched slab set, and a slab closeup

slab pairs

a couple of log halves

plank and end grain

end of pics by Funktionhouse

slabs

curly slab, moistened for the pic

misc pieces, moistened (with some dry areas showing the contrast)

two sides of a camphor burl

waxed burl plank and closeup

three pairs of camphor burl slabs and a closeup of each pair. Both levels of enlargement are present for all of these.

burls of all shapes, sizes and colors !

burl turning stock listed as camphor / Cinnamumum camphora

listed as camphor burl planks, but these looks awfully boring compared to pretty much every other camphor burl I've seen pictures of

burl turning stock

pen blanks

bookmatched burls

burls listed as camphor / Cinnamomum camphora (actually the vendor had VERY carelessly listed them as Cinnamumum camphor, thereby managing to misspell both the genus AND the specific epithet.). All from the same vendor and all with both levels of enlargment. These pieces have been moistened for the pics.

turning stock, all from the same vendor, all listed as camphor burl / Cinnamomum camphora, and all with both levels of enlargement (some of which are HUGE)

bookmatched burl veneer sheets sold as guitar sets

bookmatched burl planks

burl veneer

burl veneer listed as campor / Cinnamomum camphora --- the first pic is of a bookmatched pair

burl veneer sheets and a closeup

burl veneer all from the same vendor and mostly in bookmatched pairs. This vendor exaggerates the pics of her offerings, and she adds a shine to the images which is never present in the actual wood. See my own samples up above to compare my pics to hers of the same veneer sheets.