Cocbolo Hunters

Every now and then I meet a woodworker that loves to work with woods with a unique look and that look great when polished. The most famous is cocobolo wood. Most of the people who work with exotic lumber know that it’s rare, even the wood workers (after all they pay the higher costs for this wood, thus probably know why it’s so much more expensive than other exotic hardwoods). But while realizing it’s rarity and beauty they at the same time don’t have a clue as to how it’s harvested. Once you learn that cocobolo is usually harvested a single tree at a time then a lot of you most common questions about cocobolo will be answered.

Check out the video above. It’s first in a series of videos from some of my lumber industry friends. The series follows them through the little adventure that is harvesting cocobolo lumber. In this first short and sweet episode, our intrepid party finds themselves, suddenly, alone in the the Mexican rain forest wondering if their guide will come back. Was the rigors of Cocobolo hunting too much for him? Did my friends mis-translate something and offended the guide? Did something eat him? Did he get eaten?