Uses for Brazilian Rosewood

[Lou Jacobs]

I’ve just been given a load of furniture parts of rosewood. Beautiful, heavy straight grained lumber, 1” thick. I see lots (and lots!) of pen blanks, finials and small spindle turnings. I also wonder about the potential to mill it into strips for segmented turnings. I know some of the oily tropical woods are difficult to glue. I wonder what folks experiences are with rosewood? Decades ago I made an end table with cocobolo and most (!) of the joints have remained tight. Any other thoughts about uses for this precious stock? Thanks!

 

[Russ Braun]

Lou, glue your wood up right after milling; it should stay stuck. If you wait, give it a wipe with Acetone and it should glue fine. Segmenting is the way to go, don’t ask me how I know!

 

[Tom Albrecht]

Donate some to my High School pen turners?

 

[robo hippy]

Fret boards for guitars if they are long enough, banjo, mandolin, ukulele......

I don't know that I would ever trust a glue up. I would expect that over time, the oil from the wood would loosen the bond. Maybe not, but I have never tried....

robo hippy

 

[Richard Coers]

It will be curious what color of wood you really have. Is that a bit of raw wood up in the corner of the first board in picture 1? A hint of light color around the mortises on a couple of them. Too uniform in color across all the boards to not be a sprayed dye. Some creative marketing may have been used to call it rosewood. I hope I'm wrong for your sake.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Richard, what you see in the corner of that board is this label. I have not milled any yet - hope to today or tomorrow, but it is definitely in the rosewood family. Significantly heavier than oak or hard maple. Tom, some will certainly wind up donated, through Turning for Troops which my club participates in.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Lou, glue your wood up right after milling; it should stay stuck. If you wait, give it a wipe with Acetone and it should glue fine.

I don't know that I would ever trust a glue up. I would expect that over time, the oil from the wood would loosen the bond.

I’ll make a few test joints with CA and Titebond and see how they stand up before doing anything too dependent on glue joints… though I realize it won’t be a long-term test.

 

[hockenbery]

If you have close to an inch thickness Could make a few seed jars.
I make these from two pieces glued together. They scale well.
Can always face glue some pieces to get thickness

This one is red gum eucalyptus 6Dx2.5H

This one camphor 4D x 1.5H footless .

Thread in tips & techniques

Turning a seed jar - split hollow form

I turned one of these for after dinner entertainment at SWAT-2017 along with Trent Bosch. Trent turned a traditional hollow form in an informal race and finished first. A fun time. Since then I have done several of these in club demos and also did a club workshop where students turned them...

www.aawforum.org

 

[hockenbery]

Slots can be used for string puzzles.

This is one I have done in older kids classes
.
Top is a glued up slot bottoms slot turned inside out
You could cut a few blanks using the slots in your boards.


Another one turned from one piece

Google string puzzles and you will get hundreds of different puzzles
One like this you can make as a turning

 

[John Jordan]

If it is in fact Brazilian rosewood and not one of the dozens of others, it is quite valuable, even in the odd pieces. It simply is not available, and is banned in this country. luthiers would love to have it.

John

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Thanks for these suggestions Al. Very neat little seed jars!
John, I imagine it is Brazilian. I’ll try to key it out when I can find a key that includes exotics. I have now had a chance to cut off a few pen blank sized pieces. This from one of the plainer pieces, but some of them have more black or darker streaks running through them.

 

[Tom McClellan]

I would have to say not rosewood. Too light to be Brazilian, not fine grained like a dalbegia should be and way too uniform in color, no annular stripes. My guess is jatoba and the raw blank / finished pic is are both similar to what I’ve turned. Check out bell forest pic as comparison.

Jatoba Short Exotic Wood Blanks | Birdseye Maple, Curly Maple, Tiger Maple, Exotic Wood

Jatoba Short Exotic Wood Blanks | Birdseye Maple, Curly Maple, Tiger Maple, Exotic Wood

www.bellforestproducts.com

Makes sense they would dye something less expensive to resemble Rosewood.

 

[John Jordan]

Thanks for these suggestions Al. Very neat little seed jars!
John, I imagine it is Brazilian. I’ll try to key it out when I can find a key that includes exotics. I have now had a chance to cut off a few pen blank sized pieces. This from one of the plainer pieces, but some of them have more black or darker streaks running through them.

That's not rosewood, at least not Brazilian. You would know because it smells very sweet and floral-like roses. LOL

John

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Richard, John and Tom, alas, I’m sure you’re right. It is in fact a stained or dyed surface color and even striping. I’m planning on sending a sample to the Forest Products Lab in Wisconsin to see what it is. At this point, I’m just curious. Here’s a closeup of the end grain.

 

[Chris Lawrence]

Looks like Jatoba to me. https://www.wood-database.com/jatoba/ The board i have looks more like your pic.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

This sample and the grip are from left over scraps from a project to make a reception desk for an airline at MSP about 60 years ago. The information at the time as near as can be determined is that it is Brazilian Rosewood. The picture of the unfinished and finished on wood data base appears to verify that it is Brazilian rosewood. The piece I used for the grip planed out to 1 7/16" and I needed 1 5/8" so I laminated on both sides by wiping with acetone and gluing with Titbond III.
The furniture pieces could be run thru a jointer to get a better comparison to the available information. The style looks like it could be from the era around the 1950's to 1960's so there is a strong possibility that it is genuine.

 

[Marvin Jones]

Richard, John and Tom, alas, I’m sure you’re right. It is in fact a stained or dyed surface color and even striping. I’m planning on sending a sample to the Forest Products Lab in Wisconsin to see what it is. At this point, I’m just curious. Here’s a closeup of the end grain.

https://images.app.goo.gl/khM6w4DL4m5gWCiz5 I found this picture of interest, at least I think it is. I have better luck distinguishing wood by end grain, absolutely no expert on any domestics, let alone imported.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Marvin, thanks for this. I actually posted my sample yesterday on the same site you found. The resident expert there confirms what several here have said, that it is Jatoba. I have sent it to the Forest Products Lab, so when I get their response, I’ll post it here. Until then, I’m afraid I believe that’s what I’m dealing with. It feels sort of like I briefly had a winning lottery ticket, then realized I has in a different state (or something like that.).

 

[Glenn Lefley]

Going back to 1960-1970 it seems like most of Lafer furniture was made from jatoba.

 

[Tom McClellan]

don't be too disappointed and hung up on the name / expense. I love turning jatoba, like you said very heavy and hard like you expect from a tropical exotic. Looks like you have quite a few pen/handle blanks out of those parts.

 

[Marvin Jones]

You know, as pretty as that end grain is, chance to make some interesting pieces is there without thinking you are just turning away gold.....maybe silver though

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Tom and Marvin, thanks for the healthy, positive perspective. The added advantage is that, if it is in fact Jatoba, it sounds like the glue-holding quality is much better than rosewood. I’m feeling better already!

 

[John Snow]

Scraps of wood like this are good for making your own tools, too. Knife handles, gouge handles, marking gauges, etc. I have a cocobolo kitchen knife handle that I made 35+ years ago that is still going strong.

 

[Stan Pressner]

Fret boards for guitars if they are long enough, banjo, mandolin, ukulele......

I don't know that I would ever trust a glue up. I would expect that over time, the oil from the wood would loosen the bond. Maybe not, but I have never tried....

robo hippy

My first bowl made at age 13 was a cherry and rosewood glue up. My folks used it for 45 years and its ownership reverted to me 2 years ago. We still use it, and getting it back got me back into turning after a 50 year hiatus. It shows no sign of weakening.

 

[Richard Shelby]

The larger pieces could go for guiter/mandolin fretboards.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

The larger pieces could go for guiter/mandolin fretboards.

Richard, I assume you’re basing this on the idea that it is in fact rosewood. I’m waiting to hear from the Forest Products Lab, but am pretty much resigned to the idea that I’ve got Jatoba or something similar. While this is very hard wood, I don’t know if it is generally used in that manner.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

I got cuz started making guiters...he buys kits.....but if u want wood to live on I sure he accepts pretty wood

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Huh?

 

[Lou Jacobs]

I just received my response from the US Forest Service Wood Products Lab. They report that the specimen I sent is Anadenanthera sp.
Here’s the wood database write up of it: https://www.wood-database.com/curupay/
Apparently one of the common names of this is curupay, also known as Patagonian rosewood. Too bad I didn’t get any of the foliage or bark with it, as it is an hallucinogenic, used by shamans! So, yes, a rosewood, but only by common name - not Brazilian rosewood. In any case, it is attractive and very heavy. I’m looking forward to finding uses for it.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

I just received my response from the US Forest Service Wood Products Lab. They report that the specimen I sent is Anadenanthera sp.
Here’s the wood database write up of it: https://www.wood-database.com/curupay/
Apparently one of the common names of this is curupay, also known as Patagonian rosewood. Too bad I didn’t get any of the foliage or bark with it, as it is an hallucinogenic, used by shamans! So, yes, a rosewood, but only by common name - not Brazilian rosewood. In any case, it is attractive and very heavy. I’m looking forward to finding uses for it.

I just finished grips for a revolver using wood from turning blanks supplied by the buyer, the cut blank is Patagonian rosewood and the block on the right is brazilian rosewood.