desert ironwood

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NOTE: there is rarely any "standard" or "typical" look for a wood so take what's in this table with a grain of salt
the REST of the pictures on this page will give you a better overall feel for this wood

desert ironwood / Olneya tesota
of the family Fabaceae (syn. Leguminosae) the legume, pea, or bean family
3" x 3" flat cut, 3" x 3" quartersawn, 1" x 1" end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup.

Diffuse porous with medium to large sized pores that are surrounded by heavy vasicentric parenchyma that mostly merges into bands of confulent parenchyma. Radial pore multiples, occasional banded parenchyma, rays are small to medium and easily visible at 10X, growth ring boundaries are indistinct. Commonly has variegated dark/light bands, heartwood/sapwood boundary is very sharp and sapwood is very light colored.

This wood is extremely hard, brittle and cracks easily and all that combined with the very small size of the tree mitigate strongly against any veneer production from the species. It will not float, is VERY hard to work with hand tools (pretty much impossible) but takes a fabulous finish when worked carefully and slowly with very sharp power tools. Highly favored for scales to use as pistol and knife handles.

Barry Richardson on The Wood Barter Forum says: "In drought years they don't bloom, and can even go kinda dormant. This is one reason it is so hard to judge the age of the trees; some years they don't make growth rings. As far as my research, no one really knows how long they live, I've seen claims from 400 years to over 1000. They can be over 2 feet [diameter] at the base, but trunks are usually short and split into multiple branches a few feet up. "

My thanks to correspondents Michael Dow and Bob Wickey, both of whom alerted me to the fact that there really is only the one species that SHOULD be called "desert ironwood".

That being said, I believe it is also true that "desert ironwood" is a generic term used in the Southwest of the United States to (incorrectly) denote a number of different species that have an extremely hard, dense wood and that are used by local craftspeople to make small items such as jewlery, knife handles, and so forth.

The name "ironwood" is used for so many different species around the world that I don't even want to bother trying to list them all or figure out which ones might be applied to the wood harvested in the Southwest of the USA.

It is very common to sell this wood in bookmatched pairs so as to be used for earrings or knife handles or gun handles.

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 desert ironwood / Olneya tesota --- 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 desert ironwood / Olneya tesota --- 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 desert ironwood / Olneya tesota --- HUGE enlargements are present.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank --- HUGE enlargements are present

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

face grain closeup of the piece directly above

both sides of a sample plank of desert ironwood / Olneya tesota --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Note that the second face was sanded to 240 grit and the first face was not and this accounts for minor differences in color between the two and the better resolution of the detail characteristics as seen in the second one.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of desert ironwood --- HUGE enlargements are present. The feathering on the first side of this piece is so pronounced that when I first saw it I was sure this was Hawaiian pheasantwood. The first side is sanded to 240 grit but the second side still has a dark patina

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of desert ironwood --- HUGE enlargements are present. The first side is sanded to 240 grit but the second side still has a dark patina

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

All of the pics between here and the web pics are from the big batch directly below.
All of the pieces have been sanded for the pics unless otherwise stated.
HUGE enlargements are present for most of the pics

This is the raw batch and all of the pieces have a dark patina. Upon rough sanding, they turn a fair amount lighter but after moderately fine sanding, they once again become fairly dark. This is because of the way that light reflects off of rough vs fine sanded pieces. This pic makes the pieces look a bit more dull than they actually are. I very carefully measured several of the regular-shaped chunks and got an average density of about 70lbs/cuft.

two views which together show all 6 surfaces of each of 4 little chunks. The letters are used below to identify which piece was used for the various end grain and face grain shots

face grain closeup, end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE, all from piece A above. Note the feathering on the face grain.

end grain and END GRAIN UPDATE from piece B above

face grain closeup and end grain closeup from piece C above. This face grain shot does a great job of showing some of the nice, small, tight ray flakes that this wood can show sometimes (they show up better in the first enlargement)

face grain closeup, end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of piece D above

a particularly colorful piece with a good illustration of the sharp demaraction between heartwood and sapwood, and the creamy color of the sapwood.

end grain, end grain closeup, and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

two face grain closeups and a side grain closeup of the first surface shown above

two face grain closeups of the second face shown above. When I saw these pics I was confused because they did not seem to be of the same area of wood yet I knew that they were. Upon looking at the wood from different angles, I realzed that the chatoyancy of the piece is what caused my confusion. These pics are from contiguous areas of the surface and if the two were merged they would be a good representation of that whole area of the wood. To show the effects of the chatoyance even more dramatically, I took the angled pics shown below

closeups of the same two ares of wood as the pics directly above but with the wood angled to emphasize the different looks caused by the chatoyancy.

this wedge shaped piece has one surface rough sanded (on the left) and the other fairly fine sanded (on the right) to show the difference.

a small piece that is not sanded and has the patina

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

This small plank is still raw except for the end grain update below

end grain, end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

a small wedge shaped piece and its end grain. You can see in the upper left of the end grain pic how on an outer surface the patina can go quite deep.

end grain closeup and a face grain closeup of the piece directly above. As you can see in the end grain the grain lines curved down to the vertical right at the bottom which produces the perfectly quartersawn face that the right-hand pic is from, showing the small but very nice ray flakes that can sometimes be found in desert ironwood.

small stick with a very rough upper surface and its end grain, You can see from the upper part of the end grain pic how the patina on an outside surface can go quite deep.

both sides of a little irregular shaped piece

both sides of a very small plank

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

a small section and one end grain

the other end grain of the piece directly above and a closeup of it

two contiguous sides of some small pen-blank sized sticks

both side of a small section with one sanded (on the left) and one untouched (on the right)

face-on shots of the two surfaces directly above

an end grain closeup and an edge grain closeup of the piece directly above

face grain and both edges of a section taken from the outer area of a tree

two contiguous surfaces of a couple of pen blank sized sticks. I took this intending to show the difference between a rough-sanded piece (the upper piece) and a fine-sanded piece (the lower piece) which is subtle but unmistakable when you are holding the wood in your hand. The difference is barely discernable here and manifests itsef mainly as a slight lightening of the color and a slight decrease in the amount of orange. Before sanding, the lower piece looked identical in color to the upper. In the enlargement of the end grain shot below, you can clearly see the rough sanding marks on the upper piece.

end grains of the two pieces directly above

both sides of a small swirly piece

end grain, end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

a pair of sample-sized desert ironwood pieces that are a book matched pair. Detailed pics of both pieces are directly below

both sides of a sample plank of desert ironwood / Olneya tesota --- 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 desert ironwood / Olneya tesota --- HUGE enlargements are present.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

various views of a candle holder that is wenge on the inside and desert ironwood on each side. The finish is 5 coats of flat spray enamel. Both levels of enlargement are present. It's about 5" high and 6" long

web pics:

one foot long log and end grains

end grain

unusual piece with indented grain

slabs and closeup

slabs

slab pair, listed as desert ironwood / Olneya tesota, one dry, one wet, and a closeup of the wet one

slabs listed as desert ironwood / Olneya tesota and moistened for the pic

planks, all from the same vendor and all with color that is a just a little bit richer than the wood is likely to be, but this could be because they are all slathered in wax rather than a photographic misrepresentation --- both levels of enlargement are present for all pics

plank closeups with overdone color

plank closeups with colors that suggest that either the pics were taken with a black light or the photographer is staggeringly bad at color correction.

planks

cutoffs and planks, all from the same vendor --- I think all of these are waxed all over

planks listed as Arizona ironwood

misc sized pieces, likely with varying degrees of color accuracy

all 4 sides of a hefty chunk

desert ironwood turning stock, all from the same vendor, all slathered in wax, and all with both levels of enlargment present

identified as Texas ironwood

planks and turning stock identified as Arizona desert ironwood --- I think the color in these pics is over saturated even if the wood has been moistened for the pics

bowl blanks

scales

pen blanks

sets of pen blanks shown both dry and wet, all listed as desert ironwood / Olneya tesota

burl pen blanks

a plank pair, showing the irregular shape in which this wood is frequently sold

cross section with bark

turning stock

a pair of turning sticks mositened for the pics

5 bookmatched pairs, all from the same vendor

burls

several pieces, all from the same vendor

these "pairs" are all from the same vendor

desert ironwood chunks ("chunk" is a technical term meaning "I just can't figure out what else to call this")

bookmatched pairs, all from the same vendor. It appears to me that these pairs have been fine sanded and had a coat of finishing agent applied.

three pairs and a closeup of the bookmatched pair in the middle. I don't know which color is correct, but I suspect it somewhere between the two. The closeup color is definitely not correct.

bookmatched slap pair listed as burly desert ironwood / Olney tesota

both sides of a burl slab from the BogusColorVendor, so the red color is undoubtedly exaggerated

knife scales --- I have no idea whether or not the color is accurate.

burl scales

pens

desert ironwood seems to be a particularly popular wood for pistol grips because of a combination of the striking figure and the hardness/durability

more pairs of matched desert ironwood pistol grips

roughed out gun grips

knife handles

both sides of a particularly attractive knife handle --- both levels of enlargement are present

lidded box

vase

hollow form

bowls

two views of a desert ironwood hollow form turned and photographed by Barry Richardson, and with turquoise in the voids. Being the wood purist that I am I almost never include pics on this site of wood artifacts that contain non-wood embellishments, but I've made an exception in this case because I think Barry did such a great job.