I've been negligent!

Well, here I am sitting here guilty of the heinous act of BLOG NEGLECT! Perhaps I wasn't ready to be a blogger. However, I will attempt to press on. I have a little something I typed up a couple of weeks ago, an idea I had quite while ago. I hope it is at least a little interesting.

Note: The picture inset below is of a bowl made of Cocobolo(dalbergia retusa), a beautiful member of the rosewood family from Central America.

A Rosewood By Any Other Name

"Wow, that's a beautiful piece! What kind of wood is it?" "Rosewood"... "What kind of rosewood?"... Then comes that blank "deer in the headlights" stare.
At times you may hear someone say, "that's rosewood" or "I want it made from rosewood" These statements invite the all important question, which rosewood?

The name rosewood can cover many different woods from all over the world. Some woods that are called rosewood aren't really rosewood at all, and some true rosewoods are commonly known as something other than rosewood.

True rosewoods are members of the dalbergia family. Some of the more common rosewoods are East Indian Rosewood (more recently referred to as simply Indian Rosewood) (Dalbergia latifolia), Brazilian Rosewood(Dalbergia nigra) and Honduras Rosewood(Dalbergia stevensonii), but there are many others.
There are also a number of true rosewoods that aren't commonly called rosewood. There's Cocobolo(Dalbergia retusa)(though it is sometimes referred to as cocobolo rosewood), African Kingwood(Dalbergia cearensis) and African Blackwood(Dalbergia melanoxylon) to name just a few.
Then there are those woods that are called rosewood but aren't true rosewoods at all. One of the most common of these is Bolivian Rosewood(Machaerium schleroxylon)which is also known as Pau Ferro or Morado. There is also Patagonian Rosewood, also known as Cebil (Anadenanthera collubrina), Caribbean Rosewood(Metopium brownie) and Guyana Rosewood(Swartzia Leiocalycina) to name a few.
I'm not disparaging any of these woods and I am by no means an expert on rosewood species or any wood, for that matter. I merely wanted to point out that there is a common misunderstanding of the term rosewood which can easily lead to confusion in some cases. Just remember that the term, rosewood, can cover a wide variety of very different woods, and do yourself a favor, if you're curious do some research, even a simple internet search and you'll be surprised what you can find. And remember that rosewood, by any other name, can still make a beautiful piece of work.

Larry Clinton
August 21, 2010
mlcwoodworks.com