# Which is more desirable? Ceylon or West Indian satinwood?



## Damienw (Aug 5, 2014)

Hey all, 

Having acquired a bit of 'true' satinwood over the weekend (pieces of both ceylon and west indian) i was wondering, which is the more desirable in general? 
Most of what i've read seems to say that these days ceylon is the more easily available whilst west indian is much harder to find...I was just wondering whether folks on here had any ideas as to which is the nicer of the two and why one is more common than the other?

Damien


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## JR Parks (Aug 6, 2014)

Damien,
In my opinion the Ceylon is the more desirable of the two. Depends of course on your individual pieces. We have several species of Zanthoxylum ( the west indian variety ) here in Texas `Hercules' Club and Lime prickly ash - both small trees on the medium firm side. I think both are desirable. No idea on why one is more common.


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## NYWoodturner (Aug 9, 2014)

Glad you weighed in there Jim.... I had nuthin....

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Damienw (Aug 9, 2014)

Thanks so much! :) 
I've no picks of the ceylon yet (forgot to take some yesterday and its too dark to get a good shot today) but here's the west indian

Reactions: Informative 1


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