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CAROB

Ceratonia siliqua

Ceratonia siliqua of the family Fabaceae. This is primarily a craft wood with an attractive color and grain that ages very nicely. The wood is fine grained and finishes beautifully. It has a wide color range including tan, red, rust, orange, brown, dark brown and chocolate. The most popular pieces are various shades of salmon color, from light salmon to much darker reddish salmon, as you can see on this page.

Fairly large slabs are sometimes available but usually misshapen as the tree rarely has much of a straight bole. Because of the somewhat messiness of the fruit and the large seed pods, carob is not much favored by nurseries so isn't used as widely as it might be, given that it quite a pretty shade tree and is drought tolerant and long-living. Those characteristics also mean that the trees that are planted are not felled as often as other species. All of that makes it a rarer species to come than many other types of lumber.

my samples: NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K) colors will vary under other lighting conditions

NOTE: The next 3 planks were all donated to the site by Ira Matheny, whom I thank for this and other contributions.


plank


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


plank and a new pic of it after it sat on the shelf for a couple of years and gained a patina


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above but taken after the plank had sat on the shelf for a couple of years and gained a patina


plank and a new pic of it after it sat on the shelf for a couple of years and gained a patina


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above but taken after the plank had sat on the shelf for a couple of years and gained a patina


both sides of a small plank that has really terrific color. HUGE enlargements are present


face grain closeup and side grain closeup of the piece directly above (these were not particularly well sanded)


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


big slab of carob (about 3" thick) loaned to me by Mark Peet. This chunk was too large and irregular for me to process (without making cuts that Mark did not want) so I just took this pic and returned it to Mark who made a couple of formal samples, the pics of which are directly below.


both sides of a sample plank of carob / Ceratonia siliqua --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of carob / Ceratonia siliqua --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

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All the pics in this section are from a batch that I bought and are probably all from the same tree

NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR
the pieces as I received them, with a coat of finishing agent that shows how the wood will look finished.

NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR
I took this extra pic of the other side of the long piece to show how sunlight has improved the color where it was not covered up by another piece


both sides of the larger piece directly above with the finish sanded off


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a couple of pieces, one of which is all sapwood on one side


end grain of the pieces directly above


end grain closeups of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATES from directly above


both sides of a couple of pieces


end grain of the pieces directly above


end grain closeups of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATES from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of carob / Ceratonia siliqua --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This piece has a lot of knots and somewhat irregular grain due to that


end grain and HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of the piece directly above

web pics:

log ends


slabs


planks


plank and closeup, moistened for the pic


both sides of a moistened batch of small pieces


pieces moistened for the pics


plank, dry


sticks and their end grains --- pics contributed to the site by Barry Richardson, who also contributed a couple of the bowl pics at the bottom of the page.


pen blanks


both sides of a bowl blank and the end grain


crotch pieces

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pics from the BogusColorVendor ... assuming the wood is moistened for the pics, this color "correction" is not as bad as their usual dishonesty


planks, most likly moistened for the pics


both sides of a plank and a closeup

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pens


slab table with a finish that I think has enriched the color considerably


log cross section table --- not sure if the dark color is due to a finish or ageing.


spittoon


box and turned box


vases


hollow forms


beautiful turned and carved vase


crotch bowl


bowls


two views of the same bowl


turned and carved bowls


natural edge bowls


bowls by Barry Richardson, whom I thank for the pics.


two views of a bowl --- both enlargements are available and they show the grain very nicely


bowl / platter listed as carob burl


two views of a bowl by Ira Matheny, who also contributed my own samples of carob, pictured up at the top of this page. Ira used a wax finish on this so the colors are much more true to the raw wood than would be the case had he used a grain-poping polyurethane or shellac or other penetrating liquid type of finish.