Okay so today I’m gonna talk about my little adventure with hevea hardwood. Honestly didn’t know squat about this stuff when I first saw it at the lumber yard last Tuesday. Guy at the counter goes “hey that’s rubber tree wood, good price for you” and I was like… rubber trees? For real? Figured why not give it shot since it was cheap as dirt.

First thing I did was grab this rough-looking plank home in my pickup truck. Was heavier than pine but lighter than oak – kinda weird middle child vibe. Hauled it straight to my garage workshop and tossed it on the sawhorses. Started running my palm over the surface – felt crazy fuzzy like peach skin. Got my orbital sander going with 80-grit paper first. Sanding dust flew everywhere making me sneeze like crazy – turned out this stuff throws off mad fine powder when you work it.

Then came the real headache. Tried cutting angles for picture frames with my miter saw. Blade just chewed through it like soft butter – left these ragged fuzzy edges worse than my dog’s chew toy. Thought “this ain’t gonna work” so I switched to my sharpest hand plane. Bad move! Shavings kept tearing out chunks instead of curling nicely. Nearly chucked the whole plank across the yard right then.

Changed tactics after coffee break. Took me three tries to figure this out:

• Taped masking tape over my cut lines before sawing
• Switched to fresh 120-grit sandpaper and went slower than cold syrup
• Sealed the wood with cheap shellac before any fancy staining

Boom! Suddenly the fuzzy nonsense stopped. Sanded surface came out smooth as my grandma’s china after that.

Finished up with some amber-tinted Danish oil. Watched that grain pop like fireworks – all these wild swirl patterns I never saw coming. Now it’s sitting as fancy coasters on my coffee table. Moral of the story? Cheap wood ain’t always easy wood but man, when you beat it into submission? Looks damn fine for something that used to leak white goo in the jungle.