-
"2025 Annual SOS Donation Drive Underway"
Please consider making a Donation to SOS to support our continuing growth and developement. It is greatly appreciated !!!
*** Read More - - Click Here ***
https://www.paypal.me/DonateSOS
- Boxwood (especially European or Swiss boxwood) is considered the gold standardfor fine model shipbuilding. It’s very dense, has an ultra-fine grain, carves and machines beautifully, and holds sharp detail like no other. It’s a creamy yellow in color and naturally smooth.
- Pros: Incredible for carving, detailing, and getting razor-sharp edges. Highly stable.
- Cons: Expensive, heavy, and can be hard on blades.
- Pearwood (usually European pear or Swiss pear) is also excellent— smooth, fine-grained, and very stable — but it’s a little softer and lighter than boxwood. It’s often pinkish to warm reddish-brown in color (especially when steamed), and it takes finishes beautifully.
- Pros: Easier to work than boxwood, lovely color, fine grain, a bit less expensive.
- Cons: Not quite as dense or hard as boxwood, so extreme fine carving (tiny fancy details) might be a tiny bit softer.
- If you're carving heavy ornamentation, super-tiny parts, or want the absolute best, boxwood is king.
- If you want a gorgeous, professional-quality build without spending a fortune, and still have excellent carving and planking material, pearwood is fantastic.
Pearwood vs. Boxwood: A Comparative Overview
Boxwood
- Density & Grain: Extremely dense with a fine, uniform grain, making it ideal for intricate carvings and detailed work.
- Color: Pale yellow to creamy white, offering a neutral base that can be easily stained or left natural for a classic look.
- Workability: While it holds details exceptionally well, its hardness can be challenging, requiring sharp tools and patience.
- Cost & Availability: Generally more expensive due to its superior qualities and limited availability.
Pearwood
- Density & Grain: Slightly less dense than boxwood but still offers a fine grain suitable for detailed work.
- Color: Ranges from pinkish to warm reddish-brown, providing a rich, natural hue that many modelers appreciate.
- Workability: Easier to work with than boxwood, making it a popular choice for both beginners and experienced modelers.
- Cost & Availability: More affordable and readily available, offering a balance between quality and cost.
Glad to be helpful, mate
nice to know..I just picked up 2x4's of holly,pear and boxwood ...not worked with holly or boxwood for scratch building stuff,
Holly is popular with some builders for the deck planking (me included) and even for the strakes of planking below the wales in lieu of white stuff before ships were sheathed in copper plating. I also love holly for planking ships' boats.
Another wood that has gained in popularity over the past decade or more is so called Castello boxwood. It is fabulous and far cheaper than Europeon boxwood. It is not a true buxus as it is a calycphyllum multiflorum but is denser than pear and works for planking, frames, and carvings rather nicely. I think it gained an audience due to its availability, quality and pricing compared to European boxwood.
The photo below has castello hull planking and holly deck planking.
Allan
This must be costing a lot in such size. Where did you buy it if not a secret?
There is also a castello (sp?) boxwood which is not truly a boxwood (according to the post from Dave at the lumberyard).
He did a great explanation a little while ago in the forums. You might look it up.
Last edited:
Here is a link to the thread that Dave from the Lumberyard created which has a ton of information on different woods for shop modeling.
Link to thread on woods
Link to thread on woods
- Joined
- May 18, 2022
- Messages
- 11
- Points
- 58
After reading through that link…1) tons of great information and 2) I don’t think I’ll ever know what I’m really buying. Ha ha!
ROFL When if you have any questions, I'm sure Dave would be more than happy to help.
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
- Messages
- 5,709
- Points
- 728
ROFL When if you have any questions, I'm sure Dave would be more than happy to help.
yup i am here and happy to talk about wood.
If one who is not familiar with modeling wood species is contemplating the large expenditure necessary to purchase a kit purporting to contain pear or boxwood, I would urge caution. While most specialty wood retailers can be considered reliable (because, if nothing else, their customers tend to know what they are looking at and expect select stock,) some modelers over the years have found themselves paying very high premium prices for what are exotic species, only to find that what their kits contained was not true boxwood or pear, or if the species was as advertised, the stock was sub-par. There is a very wide range of quality grades in all commercially milled wood species and while a species may be known as particularly desirable for ship modeling, a poor-quality example may very well be relatively useless for the purpose intended. I would certainly want to be able to personally inspect the wood provided with any kit before shelling out the big bucks for one.
Great idea but probably too impractical to execute. The vendors should at least be able to provide the proper name of each species and source if asked.
If, for example, the answer comes back that the boxwood is from Paraguay or Argentina, you can bet it is Castello, not boxwood.
Last edited:
From a gentleman in FL who quit shipbuilding due to health issues..
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
- Messages
- 5,709
- Points
- 728
Wondering, as far as ship kits go, what are the differences between pearwood and boxwood. Seems there’s a fair difference in price for kits that offer both as an option.
if it is a commercial mass produced kit odds are it is not Boxwood and unlikely pearwood. Or should i say not real Boxwood there is the trade name applied to wood. If it kind of, sort of reminds me of true Boxwood lets make up a trade name like "Castello"
the difference in price come from the fact these woods are still very good for model work the trade name applied like "boxwood" makes them exotic and demand a higher price. Higher pricing comes into play when exporter/importers come across an odd or interesting wood in a mixed container. A wood dealer may look at it and figure who can i sell this to. An example is Par Marfin at one time years ago it was sold as Boxwood and sold for a high price.
it really does not matter exactly what wood is actually in the kit if it does the job. nor is it a case of bait and switch if the kit says boxwood then some place down the line in the commercial trade it is labeled boxwood. So the kit maker is telling the truth he bought it as boxwood and is selling it as boxwood.
Any manufacture of kits is not going to use a rare exotic wood at a cost of $38.00 a board foot in a hobby kit. That would put the kit price far above the hobby level. However there are kits that do use "specialty" woods regardless of what they are labeled they are a better quality then you Basswood kits and cost more.
if it is a commercial mass produced kit odds are it is not Boxwood and unlikely pearwood. Or should i say not real Boxwood there is the trade name applied to wood. If it kind of, sort of reminds me of true Boxwood lets make up a trade name like "Castello"
the difference in price come from the fact these woods are still very good for model work the trade name applied like "boxwood" makes them exotic and demand a higher price. Higher pricing comes into play when exporter/importers come across an odd or interesting wood in a mixed container. A wood dealer may look at it and figure who can i sell this to. An example is Par Marfin at one time years ago it was sold as Boxwood and sold for a high price.
it really does not matter exactly what wood is actually in the kit if it does the job. nor is it a case of bait and switch if the kit says boxwood then some place down the line in the commercial trade it is labeled boxwood. So the kit maker is telling the truth he bought it as boxwood and is selling it as boxwood.
Any manufacture of kits is not going to use a rare exotic wood at a cost of $38.00 a board foot in a hobby kit. That would put the kit price far above the hobby level. However there are kits that do use "specialty" woods regardless of what they are labeled they are a better quality then you Basswood kits and cost more.
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2024
- Messages
- 729
- Points
- 298
There are at least two kit suppliers offering kits with pear wood planking. They are also advertising Castello and one offers Yellow Cedar. If their advertising is truthful this is better than the kit supplied mystery woods.
Roger
Roger
You're absolutely right, Roger. There are more than just two kit manufacturers offering their kits in pearwood and boxwood, not only for hull and deck planking, but also for the framing, deck furniture, masts, and spars.
Thanks for sparing me the discomfort of having to play the role of "kit basher" again! Well, anyway, sort of.
Yes, indeed, it's almost a certainty that any kit advertising itself to contain boxwood or pearwood isn't because nobody would buy a "hobby kit" (your term and, I believe, an accurate distinguishing adjective) at the price they'd have to charge for it if the wood were really as advertised.
I can't say whether kit manufacturers make up "trade names" or not. Wood's your business, so I believe you, but I disagree with your assertion that "it really does not matter exactly what wood is actually in the kit if it does the job." I agree that it doesn't matter to the model if it does the job. There are many, many wood species that are very suitable for modeling besides the good ones the old Navy Board modelers had available: pear and box. It does, however, usually make a hell of a lot of difference in the price the manufacturer is asking for the kit and it makes a lot of difference in the value of the model. If a person is paying a premium for a boxwood and pearwood ship model, it damn well better be made of boxwood and pearwood. I strongly disagree that "The kit maker is telling the truth he bought it as boxwood and is selling it as boxwood." If a kit maker, or any other retailer for that matter, sells it as boxwood, it's their responsibility to ensure that it is boxwood. It makes no difference if he bought it as boxwood and was defrauded by his wholesaler. If he retails it as something it isn't, he's at worst a liar and a cheat and at best an irresponsible merchant that is liable for overcharging his customers. If it ain't Buxus sempervirens, it ain't "boxwood." If it ain't Pyrus communis, it ain't pearwood.
This isn't to say that there aren't many instances of woods having properties so similar to each other than they can be used interchangeably as a practical matter, but given the premium prices charged for some exotic wood species, there's a lot of "counterfeit" and falsely labeled wood on the market these days. Aside from ensuring that you're getting what you are paying for, the use of exotic wood species which may be controlled in international trade can be a critical issue. Like many professional musicians who find their instruments made of exotic woods on the "restricted lists" confiscated by customs agents when they arrive in a foreign country to perform, a ship model can also become subject to confiscation if the woods used in it are, or become, illegal to sell or even possess. Every woodworker should have https://www.wood-database.com/ on their "favorites list." There are a lot of woods in the world and "you can't tell the players without a scorecard." Of particular interest is https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/restricted-and-endangered-wood-species/ which catalogs all of the wood species that can land you in hot water. At the moment, for ship modeling purposes, to offer a general caveat, we should all double check and be especially careful of any "real rosewood" or "real ebony." There are some exceptions with regard to specific subspecies, but these two general types should be considered "major no-no's" unless carefully vetted as to type and date of harvest. (In many cases, there are exceptions for possession prohibitions if the possessor can prove that the wood was acquired prior to its being placed on the prohibited list and in most cases, even artifacts which contain the prohibited wood and may have been made centuries before, are restricted without adequate proof of an antiquated provenance. It can really get amazingly sticky and, depending upon the enforcing nation, amazingly serious. See: https://www.offthegridnews.com/how-...drops-criminal-charges-against-gibson-guitar/
Ah, Bob, the eternal plight of the “kit basher”! Seems like no matter what we say, someone ends up holding the sanding block of judgment.
But for what it’s worth, I wasn’t aiming to hand out any discomfort or kits to bash, for that matter. Just keeping the conversation afloat (without drifting too far off course, of course!). Always good to have your voice in the mix.You raise some valid concerns, Bob, and I completely agree that when a kit is marketed as containing boxwood or pearwood, especially at a premium price, it’s fair to expect those exact species, not just something "boxwood-like" or "pearwood-ish." Transparency is key. That said, it’s worth noting how much variation exists even within the same species. For example, in Ukraine, pear trees are so common that the wood is often used as firewood, and yet it’s still technically Pyrus. The same species grown in different climates and soils can yield wood with vastly different color, density, and grain. So even when a label is botanically correct, what one person thinks of as “true pear” or “true box” may still look and behave quite differently from what another expects.
It’s a tricky balance: we want honesty in labeling, yes, but also a little flexibility in understanding how nature and the lumber trade actually work. Maybe more detailed info from kit makers, like species name and country of origin, would help clear the fog.