kingwood

open main page for all woods open page 2 for articles

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

kingwood / Dalbergia cearensis
Dalbergia cearensis of the family Fabaceae (syn. Leguminosae) the legume, pea, or bean family, native to Brazil. There is a closely related wood, Dalbergia congestiflora which is on this site as camatillo rosewood, but it is also known as Mexican kingwood (it is native to Mexico).

3" x 3" flat cut, 3" x 3" quartersawn, 3/4" wide end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup.

Diffuse porous with small pores arranged randomly, some ailiform parenchyma, weak diffuse-in-aggregates parenchyma, and vague to nonexistent growth rings. A rich purple color is normal. There is a sharp demarcation between the purple heartwood and the yellow-tan sapwood.

The name "kingwood" derives from the fact that a couple of hundred years ago, this was the favored wood of French kings for their furniture. I'm not sure about this but I believe that back in those days no distinction was made between Dalbergia cearensis and Dalbergia congestiflora.

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 kingwood / Dalbergia cearensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This piece was contributed to the site by Mike Stafford 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. Note that the multitudinous tiny horizontal cracks in the wood were not present before I did the end grain sanding. My processing heats up the very end of the end grain quite a bit and often very dense woods will develop such cracks because of this.

NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR --- both faces of this sample have a light coat of clear paste wax but kingwood is a very rich looking wood anyway, so I don't think the wax made a huge difference in the color.
both sides of a sample plank of kingwood / Dalbergia 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 small plank of kingwood / Dalbergia 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. The first side is fine sanded and so shows a slightly richer color and better end grain details in the enlargements

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of kingwood / Dalbergia 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. The reason for the color difference between the two sides is that the labeled side is raw with a mild patina and the 2nd side is sanded to 240 grit. The sanded side is the "normal" color for kingwood. I note that the vendor has the specific epithet misspelled as "caerensis"

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of kingwood / Dalbergia cearensis --- 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 is from a fire-damaged log.

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

small slab and end grain of Brazilian kingwood --- color is very accurate; this is the classic purple of Brazilian kingwood

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

a nice big "turning stick", 3"x3"x12"

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

small plank and end grain of Brazilian kingwood

end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- even though a lot of the coarse sanding marks are still present, this butt end has been fine sanded and feels like glass. The pores may have filled somewhat with fine dust.

a sample from the same plank as the one above, but this one has been oiled

scanned image of a bowl blank. Pic contributed by John Fuher whom I thank for this and many other contributions to the site.

veneer from several different flitches --- colors are accurate throughout with the exception that in a couple of cases, the sapwood is shown as a brighter yellow than the wood really is.

Brazilian kingwood veneer

kingwood veneer --- HUGE enlargements are present. This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION D

quartersawn kingwood veneer from COLLECTION E --- HUGE enlargements are present. Some of the darkening may be dirt but I think it's mostly just an age patina.

web pics:

log sections of Brazilian kingwood --- both enlargements available on the first image; I believe the 2nd image is of a waxed end

planks, all from the same vendor and all listed as kingwood / Dalbergia cearensis and all with both levels of enlargement. Colors seem just a hair on the rich side.

kingwood planks, mixed flat cut and quartersawn, all from the same vendor and all with both levels of enlargement. Colors seem quite accurate.

planks

both sides of the same plank and a closeup of one portion of it

misc pieces of kingwood / Dalbergia cearensis, all from the same vendor and with what I consider accurate colors (perhaps just slightly duller than the wood likely is)

plank and closeup

turning stock

turning sticks --- the wood in the 2nd pic shows up much better in the enlargement

Brazilian kingwood planks

Brazilian kingwood scales

scales

small bookmatched pairs

planks --- I'm not sure about the violet color, but it could be OK.

two sets of pen blanks that have all been oiled and waxed

flat cut veneer --- based on what I've seen, it is my impression that kingwood is almost never cut into veneer in any form OTHER than flat cut, and that makes sense, because it it is the striking flat cut grain pattern that is particularly attractive in this wood, as you can see from the pictures. Here (directly below) is the only pic I've ever seen of quartersawn veneer.

flat cut veneer with unlikely color

quartersawn veneer

more flat cut veneer, all from the same sheet --- the first two pics are closeups of the last pic

2 shots of the same set of veneer sheets

pen blanks

peppermill blanks

bowl blanks (most are waxed)

turning stock, waxed

boths sides of a plank and a closeup --- this is from the BogusColorVendor, so the brightness of the colors is unlikely

another plank from the same vendor, with the same unlikely bright colors

another plank, this one with too much red but not as grossly exaggerated as the one above

plank from the BogusColorVendor with a color that is utterly absurd

bowls --- very nice and with excellent color representation

bowl

bowls by Bryan Nelson (NelsonWood). Bryan fine-polishes his bowls with 1200 or even higher grit sandpaper while they are spinning at high speed on the lathe and then finishes them there with a friction polish of his own devising, thus achieving a shine and color vibrancy that is beautiful to behold. The first two of these are just 4" across, the 3rd one is 5" across. The colors on these seem much too bright-red to me. The bowls above this are more the color I expect from kingwood.

a kingwood highlight on one of my laminated bowls (the enlargement really shows it off better)