Goblet Wood

[archistrage]

Well, I'm going to start a project I've been wanting to for a while, I'm going to carve a wooden goblet.

However I was wondering if you guys could give me recommendations for what kind of wood to use to carve it out of. I want to use a single block; I'm not going to glue several pieces of wood together. So if you guys could recommend, say, the top 3 best types of wood to use, that would be great.

Also, this cup is going to be used primarily for wine, so if you guys know of any special type of sealer/preservative/glaze whatever, that would be great as well. The two most important parts of this are:
A) It can't change the chemical nature of the wine.
B) Of course, it can't be toxic.


Thank for any help you can provide,
Jacob

[Claude]

Cherry, maple, oak, purpleheart (in any order). I'd seal the inside with an epoxy of some sort - outside could be oil/wax combo, polyurethane or whatever you like. No matter what you put inside, except for epoxy of some sort, the wine will eventually soak through the finish and stain the wood. Also has potential for bacterial growth in the wood. There are slow-drying epoxies available - think bartop finish with coins embedded... BTW, you'd have to use powertools for carving the purpleheart - that stuff is hard!

There are other woods that are beautiful, but many of them are toxic. I suppose you could seal the whole goblet with epoxy, though.

Here's a link about wood toxicity: Wood Toxicity

Claude