Wood from the Black Palmyra Palm (Borassus flabellifer), that is growing native in India, but now cultivated in nearly whole Asia. The wood is very hard, it consists of numerous thick short fibers looking like black toothpicks embedded in a light brown to grey foamy, less dense matrix. Palms have no tree-like stem forming a durable heartwood core, but have a weak, soft and fibrous core. Their useful hard wood is the ring forming the outside of the tree's stem only. The wood is getting progressively softer towards the middle, resulting in only small sizes being available. The most stunning view is the view on any crosscut piece of palmwood end grain: it shows the effect of lizard or snake skin! Very beautiful material for woodturning too!
