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CEREJEIRA

Amburana cearensis
Amburana cearensis (syn. Torresea cearensis) of the family Fabaceae (syn. Leguminosae) the legume, pea, or bean family

a South American wood also known as amburana, cerejeirafla, cumaru (not to be confused with Dipteryx odorata, which is the wood normally designated by the name cumaru in the USA), and honeywood. It is also sometimes listed as "roble" but that name appears as part or all of one or more of the common names for over 150 species, so it is useless as a designation.

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

both sides of a sample plank of cerejeira / Amburana cearensis --- HUGE enlargements are present.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of roble / Amburana caerensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. "roble" appears as part or all of one or more of the common names for over 150 species, so it is useless as a designation. The labeled side is raw and still has a slight patina but the 2nd side has been sanded to 240 grit. You can also see that the patina has been removed from the end grain update below.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of ishpingo / Amburana cearensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark 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 tigrillo / Amburana cearensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark 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


a correspondent sent me these pics with the request that I help determine whether or not they are in fact cerejeira, since the colors of the red and white ones are outside his experience of cerejeira. They are outside my experience as well, and I was not much help, but he later determined (not absolutely, but pretty definitely based on weight, smell, grain, and vendor reliability) that they are in fact cerejeira. In the first pic, the right-most piece is pretty clearly "normal" cerejeira (wheat-colored). The end grain on the red piece looks a lot like certain cuts of bubinga, but the side grain makes it clear that this is not bubinga, and the weight is also completely wrong for bubinga.

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one end of a huge cerejeira sheet sent to me by Wade Whitbeck. Thanks, Wade. The color on these pics is just a tad richer than the actualy wood, but it is still more accurate than any of my other veneer samples below, where the yellow color defeated my earlier efforts at color correction.


a long veneer piece and a closeup of same --- the yellow color in the distance pic is exaggerated, but the closeup pic is too dull. The actual wood is somewhere in between the two. This was sold to me a "golden" cerejeira.


rift cut veneer --- although not sold as "golden", it has a more golden color than the sheets above which WERE sold as "golden", SO ... I get the feeling that "golden" is just a designation that some vendor stuck on as a marketing ploy. These pics do not have as much yellow as the wood.


flat cut veneer with cathedral grain. The first 3 pics are too red --- the actual wood has more yellow, like the last two pics.


flat cut veneer sheet and closeup --- the closeup pic is too dark


flat cut veneer and closeup. These pics are too pink and do not have as much yellow as the wood.


the web pics posted by the vendor who sold me the lot that many of my veneer pics came from --- note the significant color difference between the 2 pics, and that NEITHER of them is very close to the actual wood color


crotch veneer matched pairs

web pics:

plank with wet and dry sections


flat cut planks


quartersawn planks


planks


planks listed as amburana


plank listed as roble / Amburana cearensis ["roble" appears as part or all of one or more of the common names for over 150 species, so it is useless as a designation]


planks all from the same vendor and listed as roble / Amburana cearensis ["roble" appears as part or all of one or more of the common names for over 150 species, so it is useless as a designation]


planks listed as ishpingo / Amburana cearensis


pen blanks listed as ishpingo / Amburana cearensis


both sides of a plank and a close up. This is from the BogusColorVendor so the red color is almost certainly bogus


veneer


misc veneer, all from the same vendor and all listed as cumaru / Amburana cearensis. The first two are listed as "tiger figured", the next two are listed as crotch, the 5th is flat cut and the 6th is quartersawn


veneer listed as "Brazilian", which I believe is redundant


listed as figured veneer


veneer sheet and closeup. This was not listed as anything special, but it certainly doesn't seem to me to be "normal" cerejeira


veneer, all from the same vendor


veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement --- good grain representation, but poor color capture


bookmatched crotch veneer


crotch veneer


crotch veneer listed as cerejeira / Amburana cearensis, all from the same vendor --- it seems likely to me that the color in these pics is a bit washed out and the veneer sheets are actually more attractive than these pics make them seem.