Palm tree wood

I haven’t posted for a long old time, but I’m still around, beavering away in the workshop. I’m working on a project at the moment, which is nearing completion. No doubt to seasoned woodworkers out there, this project will appear to be fairly elementary. But for me it is the most complicated ‘hand tool only’ project I’ve attempted so far. I’ll probably post about it soon but, for now, I need some more advice.

A while ago I posted about my brother’s exploits with my chainsaw and the fact that he gave me some willow logs, which are still drying in the rafters of my workshop. Well, this weekend he borrowed the chainsaw again and I ended up with a log from a palm tree. It is about 3′ long and 6″ in diameter. I’m not sure what I can do with it, if anything. The end grain seems to be very furry, but I’m not sure if this is because of the chainsaw or not. I haven’t tried cutting it with a hand saw yet, to see if that makes a difference, and maybe things will be different when it has dried out a bit. I’ve asked my brother for another smaller piece to experiment on while still green, if he has any left that is. Failing that I’ll probably leave it for a few months before doing anything.

The reason I’m posting about this is that I’ve had a quick look online for information on this species of wood, but everything I turn up looks different to the log in my shop. I was wondering if any of you know anything about this that might help. Perhaps someone out there has some experience with this type of timber, and could let me know in the comments if it is good for anything.

Cheers.