Howdy All,
Does anybody have any experience butchering tagua nuts? One of the catalogs, I forget which one at the moment, sells a five-pound bag of ’em for not too much money. They say it looks and works like ivory. Every time I pick up their catalog, I think “Gee, I should buy a bag. They’d be great for inlay, or something.” Alas, I never get around to it.
Anybody out there overcome my block any actually try working with tagua nuts?
Replies
Yitz,
I bought a few some years ago. It works like a hard wood, or maybe more like plastic, as there isn't really a grain direction that I noticed. I turned a couple of tiny knobs for a desk repair without problems. If you soak it, it is soft enough to easily carve (somewhat brittle and chips easily when dry), but thin sections will distort somewhat as they dry out. Some nuts will have voids inside, limiting the size of workable chunks.
Regards,
Ray
Thanks! The distortion is good to know about. I was thinking about slicing them and using them for inlay (working around the voids). As an experiemnt, I might slice them to 1/8th thick, let them dry for a couple weeks, and then sand or plane them to a flat 1/16th.
Buttons made from tagua nuts are used in the fashion industry for outerwear. They are very stable and withstand drycleaning. They should be just as suitable for woodworking projects, but I'm not a turner, so what do I know?
I once made a nut for a banjo [no pun, really] out of a tagua nut. The strings rusted. Something I've never seen with bone or wood nuts. Anyway, it looked nice until then.
I have turned a lot of them and used them for inlay, they make unique drawer pulls. They work well for plugs over screw holes too.
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