Re: Making deadeyes
Wood varies in hardness plus or minus 25% depending on moisture content. The common scale used to measure hardness is the Janka scale, based on air dried to 12% moisture...some relative hardnesses for a few woods are:
Lignum Vitae........20
Osage Orange........9.1
Ipe......................16.4
Greenheart............10.5
Bubinga.................12.0
Angelique................5.7
Indian Rosewood.....14.1
I used Osage orange for the shells of blocks on my boat, and for the handles on the belaying pins. I did make several from Indian Rosewood as that's what I had scraps of when doing the interior trim/handholds etc. All the exterior wood was dropped into boiled linseed oil in an old crock pot set on low, and left for several days to 2-3 weeks. Longer would have worked well also.
Wakan Tanka Kici Un
..a bad day sailing is a heckuva lot better than the best day at work.....
Fighting Illegal immigration since 1492....
Live your life so that whenever you lose, you're ahead."
"If you live life right, death is a joke as far as fear is concerned."