Braz Rosewood

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  • #41
Follow-up...swapped some messages with @Big Ry , sending this chunk to him so he can do some looking at it, and maybe make a few things for his kids. Figured since it was already inside, and i've got more wood than i can use (might be more than some folks in Nashville have)--i made it a gift. Went out in today's mail, so i'll close this when Ryan gets it. With a little luck, he may even be able to pin down what it really is!!
 
I greatly appreciate you sending me this, Earl! I assure you it will go to something meaningful. And I will also do my best to try to ID it, even if that includes paying for an analysis to get concrete confirmation. Fred and I were discussing his testing out some new labs in another thread, so if he has a good experience with any of those labs then maybe I will use the same one.
 
I got the half log today, and i also got this extra surprise! Thank you so much, Earl! This is my first turned pen that I've owned. It's beautiful. Is this from the same piece?

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My initial impression of the wood is that it's not d. Nigra based on smell and general hand feel. I can't really get any sort of a scent from this piece, even freshly sanded. It smells like nothing at all to me. D. Nigra is notably chocolate or cherry-chocolate in all the pieces i own. It also doesn't smell like d. Latifolia which has a very distinct (and in my opinion repugnant) smell. I've never worked with d. congestiflora yet, so i don't know what that smells like. But i have some i could cut if need be. This log is also much drier than what I'm used to for d. Nigra. D. Nigra is very waxy feeling, whereas this piece is not very waxy at all. It's comparable in feel to the hondouras rosewood i got on eBay or the central American rosewood block i got from Albert.

I started doing some more detailed investigation tonight. I shaved off some pieces for an alcohol extract test. This resulted in a faint-moderate yellow-green fluorescence. It looks almost pea green in person, but i suspect the dark purple-brown shavings are contributing to the muddy earth tone appearance (maybe i should run it through a filter?). The alcohol extract results suggest this is not d. congestiflora as that is supposed to have a violet fluorescence. And as i understand it d. Nigra isn't supposed to fluoresce with alcohol extract.

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I sanded the end to 400g and wiped with alcohol. The oils that came out are purple to maroon in color. This is similar to what i see with d. Latifolia and what i assume id get with d. Congestiflora and several Madagascar rosewoods. The end grain is a dark purple and looks pretty similar to d. congestiflora in terms of color and ring structure. The pores are quite large and very easy to see with the naked eye. Paul said this appeared ring porous, but to me it's only semi-ring porous at most. What do you all think?

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  • #47
Wow, that crack really opened up in shipping!! And...you got a lot of work done fast!! Yes, very dry--that log would have been cut at least 60 years ago...no way to know how long prior to that.

The pen was turned from the same stock, but i don't recall if was from the same log section--very likely it was. (by the way, it uses a "Parker style" refill--and while the one in it still has the sealant on the ball, it may still be dry or dry soon. I like Schmidt 9000 fills, but Parkers are nice too.)

Thanks for your knowledge and efforts!!
 
Greenacres2 said:
Wow, that crack really opened up in shipping!! And...you got a lot of work done fast!! Yes, very dry--that log would have been cut at least 60 years ago...no way to know how long prior to that.

The pen was turned from the same stock, but i don't recall if was from the same log section--very likely it was. (by the way, it uses a "Parker style" refill--and while the one in it still has the sealant on the ball, it may still be dry or dry soon. I like Schmidt 9000 fills, but Parkers are nice too.)

Thanks for your knowledge and efforts!!
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Yes, I have an exceptionally dry shop. It seems everything I bring in starts cracking, no matter how long it had been drying beforehand. I actually sealed up the crack with CA glue and painted anchorseal on the end grain last night to prevent further damage. What inspired me to do that last night was some Blue Mahoe I recently obtained from Puerto Rico. I have 7 blocks of Blue Mahoe that I got last week. While I was in my shop working last night, I could hear the Blue Mahoe cracking. Every 30 seconds or so, I'd hear a new crack form. It was self-destructing at a rapid pace, so I went on a mission and sealed up all the Blue Mahoe, the log you gave me, another log of Honduran rosewood, east indian rosewood, and ligum vitae. Some of this wood is just too expensive to let go to waste ha ha.

Regarding the pen, are you saying that I may need to replace the ink insert? I have not used or attempted to use the pen yet, but I'll give it a go before buying a new refill.
 
I cross-posted this in Steve Earis' Wood ID group on facebook, and one of the regulars - James Perry - said the following in response to me posting a picture of the pen. I know @Friedrich9 has some knowledge on these Madagascar rosewoods. Do you have any thoughts, Fred?

Oh yeah theres no doubt in my mind from seeing that pen it looks like one of the madagascan rosewood species. Madagascan rosewoods are a mess in trying to identify them, but I'd say its either one of greveana, baronii or monticola. I just did a little research on the differences between the three, I'd actually change my original and say I think that might be D. greveana based on color and grain pattern.
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  • #50
@Big Ry Yep, that ink fill may not provide a full life given its age...might be drier than a fresh one. Kind of like the ones you get at a conference, then leave in your swag bag for 6 or 7 years. The ball point has a little sealant on it, peel that off with your thumbnail before using!!
 
Greenacres2 said:
@Big Ry Yep, that ink fill may not provide a full life given its age...might be drier than a fresh one. Kind of like the ones you get at a conference, then leave in your swag bag for 6 or 7 years. The ball point has a little sealant on it, peel that off with your thumbnail before using!!
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Gotcha. Well I'll give it a try and if it doesn't work I'll get a new refill. Normally I exclusively use zebra brand pens, but this definitely deserves an exception.
 
Hi @Big Ry i know end grain is important, but I’m not the best at that. What does the face of the log look like? Have you machined it or sanded it at all? End grain looks fairly purple. I kind of speed read through the whole thing. The pen looks more brownish with dark streaks?
 
Friedrich9 said:
Hi @Big Ry i know end grain is important, but I’m not the best at that. What does the face of the log look like? Have you machined it or sanded it at all? End grain looks fairly purple. I kind of speed read through the whole thing. The pen looks more brownish with dark streaks?
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I haven't surfaced the face, no. The closest thing i have is the pen. I assume it's purple-red until it oxidizes.
 
Dalbergia louvelii or Dalbergia purpurascens kind of come to mind, but I don’t think either are exact matches. The color and pattern on the pen kind of remind me of Dalbergia baronii but I’ve never seen the dark lines in that species that close together. I’ll have to dig around. I had an article that described the characteristics of 20-30 species of Madagascan rosewood. They were raw samples taken directly from the trees. I remember it had density, but not much of the other info if I recall
 
Friedrich9 said:
Dalbergia louvelii or Dalbergia purpurascens kind of come to mind, but I don’t think either are exact matches. The color and pattern on the pen kind of remind me of Dalbergia baronii but I’ve never seen the dark lines in that species that close together. I’ll have to dig around. I had an article that described the characteristics of 20-30 species of Madagascan rosewood. They were raw samples taken directly from the trees. I remember it had density, but not much of the other info if I recall
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I'll just throw it on the belt sander a little later today to get a clean fresh shot of the long grain. And to be clear, i was only speculating that it could be fun Madagascar. I don't have any reason to suspect that other than the color.
 
Big Ry said:
I'll just throw it on the belt sander a little later today to get a clean fresh shot of the long grain. And to be clear, i was only speculating that it could be fun Madagascar. I don't have any reason to suspect that other than the color.
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I understand. I turned a small D. Louvelii bowl and it had a really strong sweet smell to it. That's what made me wonder if that was a possibility. Im not certain what the end grain of that species looks like to tell for sure. I think its time I join the club and start spending ore time learning that skill set
 
Friedrich9 said:
I understand. I turned a small D. Louvelii bowl and it had a really strong sweet smell to it. That's what made me wonder if that was a possibility. Im not certain what the end grain of that species looks like to tell for sure. I think its time I join the club and start spending ore time learning that skill set
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That's the strange thing. Earl reported that this piece had a strong sweet smell to it. But i can't detect any scent whatsoever, even on a fresh cut/sanded face. I'll pay attention again when i throw it on the belt sander, but it really was oddly devoid of odor last time.
 
Big Ry said:
That's the strange thing. Earl reported that this piece had a strong sweet smell to it. But i can't detect any scent whatsoever, even on a fresh cut/sanded face. I'll pay attention again when i throw it on the belt sander, but it really was oddly devoid of odor last time.
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Also wonder if it could be Dalbergia miscolobium. I guess it gets mixed in with Brazilian kingwood sometimes. Or maybe it’s a hybrid.
 
Ok, so i got it sanded to 240g. It definitely turned reddish, not quite purple though. The long grain doesn't match any samples of bois de rose or Brazilian rosewood that i own. The rings and cathedrals remind me a lot of Brazilian Kingwood, so i grabbed a board of that for comparison. It's not quite a match, but maybe close enough? Or maybe it's d. Miscolobium that Fred mentioned? I wiped with mineral spirits in some photos.

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