Chapter Text
[at some point, Qrow asks James what his favorite wood is. James replies that he doesn’t think he has one. It’s something he hasn’t considered. Qrow pulls his wood library from a shelf in the office. It’s two boxes, nestled together, each filled with coaster sized samples of wood. One box is many different species of wood, the other is many different finishes and stains on a few species. A third, small box contains domino chips of rare and dense woods - lignum vitae, ebony, chobloko, kingwood.]
Eventually James asks if ironwood is really a thing. Qrow chuckles, explains that yes, ironwood is a thing. Unfortunately, it is in fact many things.
“‘Ironwood’ has long been used to refer to any hardwood dense enough to sink in water. And there are a lot more of those than you think. Lots of tropical woods get that dense, and they have their uses. For instance, I’ve got a mallet of ulin - Bornean ironwood - that I use for setting polished metal fittings into place, and lignum vitae is sometimes used instead of metal in bearings and fittings. However, among the domestic species…” Qrow searches through the species box for a moment, selecting samples. He points James at the box of dominoes. “You’re looking for a chip that’s partly medium-dark brown, partly pale honey colored, labeled ‘Krug. ferreum.’” It took him a moment, but he found the requested chip, and passed it to Qrow, who had pulled three of the larger samples. He spread them on the desk. “Of domestic woods commonly - for a generous definition of the word - used in woodworking around here, there are four that get called ironwood. These all tend to grow as pretty small trees, or even shrubs, so they’re usually used in tool handles or turned into pens and the like. Oceanspray,” He pointed to the first sample, a pale, creamy wood, “is very common around here; people grow it for its flowers, which grow as a plume of tiny white blossoms, like sea spray.”
James smiled. “That sounds lovely.”
“It is. It’s kind of my favorite thing in the spring. Anyways, indigenous peoples once used it for spears and harpoons, as well as tools. Heat-harden it a bit and it’ll take a nice sharp point. I like using it to make trunnels and wood nails, on the rare occasion that I can talk a client into it. That sticks pretty close to the coast out west here. Further east, you start getting hornbeam.” Qrow pointed to the second sample, even paler than the first. “Everyone makes their hammer and axe handles out of hickory, but I prefer hornbeam. I find it’s even less inclined to splinter, and about as strong. It doesn’t tend to be commercially harvested, though. Down south you get desert ironwood, or olneya.” This was the third sample, a medium-light orange toned wood streaked with a very dark brown. “Pretty, isn’t it? That gets used for pen bodies a lot, though I like throwing it in for decorative bits on boats I build on spec. It’s no good for anything structural - who’d have thought, desert woods have no rot resistance - but it’s so pretty it’ll drive up the selling price of a boat on aesthetics alone. And then, rarest and most expensive of the four —“ he held up the little domino.
James was fascinated, in spite of himself. He leaned forward and responded to Qrow’s prompting. “Krug ferreum.”
Qrow grinned. “Properly Krugiodendron Ferreum, commonly known as black ironwood, leadwood, or, as I call it, Florida ironwood. Because there’s at least four species that get called black ironwood, but this is the only one from Florida. This stuff is gorgeous. This is a fairly tame sample, but the dark heartwood can have streaks and flares of red, orange, and violet. It’s a bitch to cut into — it’s considered the densest wood in the country for a reason. But it will polish to a hard shine without a drop of finish, and it will keep that polish against anything short of carbide. It’s black fucking magic, and one of these days Raven is going to tell me she found a supplier who deals in it and she will be my favorite sister again.”
James took a moment to respond. Qrow had become wonderfully animated throughout this whole lecture, but now, with his eyes wide and sparkling, his grin easy and careless, waving his hands about to punctuate his speech… James found he had a favorite wood now. He wrenched himself out of his staring. “I thought she was your only sister?”
Qrow’s grin softened into something sweeter. “You’ll understand once you meet Summer.” He looked down at the sample chips under his long fingers and cleared his throat. “So yeah. Ironwood. Covers a bunch of stuff.”
“Generally dense, inconvenient, and a tool.” James said wryly.
“And gorgeous, don’t forget that.” Qrow looked up and winked at him.
James hummed agreeably, rather than betray the effect that had on him. “Do you have a favorite?”
“A favorite Ironwood? Yeah, he’s sitting right in front of me.”
James felt his cheeks warm. “A favorite wood, Qrow.”
Qrow just held his mischievous grin and waggled his eyebrows. James flushed harder, and Qrow fell back into his chair, laughing. “Yeah, Jimmy. It’s black walnut. The one wood that is generally agreed to be cursed for boatbuilding.”