East Indian rosewood

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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

East Indian rosewood / Dalbergia latifolia
of the family Fabaceae (the legume 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 sized, randomly spaced pores with winged aliform parenchyma (occasionally lozenge shaped) with some confluence and considerable diffuse-in-aggregates parenchyma. Occasional pore multiples (radial), tightly spaced rays are thin but generally visible at 10X, growth ring boundaries range from vague to well defined.

THE ROSEWOODS
REAL and OTHERWISE

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 East Indian rosewood / Dalbergia latifolia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The man who gave this sample to Mark Peet had it listed as Indonesian rosewood / Dalbergia greveana. Now one of the common names for D. greveana is Indonesian rosewood but that common name is also used for D. latifolia and more to the point, the end grain on his piece looks exactly like that for D. latifolia and not the least bit like that for D. greveana. So I conclude that this piece is actually East Indian rosewood / Dalbergia latifolia. Note that the first face was sanded to 240 grit and the second face was not and this accounts for minor differences in color between the two (the second face still has a patina) and the better resolution of the detail characteristics as seen in the first one.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

sample plank and end grain

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of East Indian rosewood / Dalbergia latifolia --- 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 middle area of this piece gives the impression that the piece is semi diffuse porous but that's just a local anomaly; the rest of the piece is clear diffuse porous, as it should be for Dalbergia latifolia.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

plank and end grain. This piece was verified as being East Indian rosewood by research Scientist Mihaly Czako.

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

this piece is from the same plank as the sample above, but it is oiled.

after this piece had been in the sample box for at least a decade I took it out to do the high grit end grain closeup shown below. I noticed that it had darkened substantially, so I took these pics to show the difference.

the end grain, again after it had been sitting in a box for a decade or more, and then the HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP

both sides of a plank of East Indian rosewood / Dalbergia latifolia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This plank was sent to me for identification. In addition to having a density of 52 lbs/cuft which is spot on for E.I. rosewood, the face grain and end grain are conclusive. Sadly for me, I had to give it back :-)

closeup of the piece directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a plank of East Indian rosewood / Dalbergia latifolia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This plank was sent to me for identification. In addition to having a density of 47 lbs/cuft which is well in the range for E.I. rosewood, the face grain and end grain are an excellent match for E.I. rosewood. Sadly for me, I had to give it back :-)

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

a bunch of guitar backs from the stock of a luthier relative of mine, Jarad Lindsey, who built his first guitar at 14 (and it's beautiful) using similar planks for the side and back.

both sides of a plank contributed to the site by Daniel Duelen, whom I thank for this and other contributions.

NOTE: I just realized from the end grain that even though I don't have a fine sanded pic I can see that this clearly is not Dalbergia latifolia. The pores are much too sparse. I'll look into it further

closeup of one face of the plank above

side view of the plank above

various end grain views, and an end grain closeup, of the piece directly above. The last pic and the closeup were taken at a different time and the color correction added a slight orangish tinge that is not present in the wood.

veneer

this piece of veneer was in my "mystery woods" section for a long time but was finally identified by a correspondent as an East Indian Rosewood burl veneer

NOTE: the following bright-colored pieces, including the guitar set, were contributed to the site by a generous fellow named Liem in Indonesia. They are much brighter in color than I am accustomed to in East Indian rosewood and Liem tells me that they are significantly different in physical characteristics than what he is accustomed to in Dalbergia latifolia, a species that he is very familiar with, BUT ... they have been positively identified by the USDA Wood Lab as being that species. My thanks for the contribution.

a batch of small, thin, planks

closeup of two of the pieces above

small slab and end grain shot

two contiguous sides of a small plank that was cut from the top of the slightly larger one directly above and moderately-fine sanded --- it is the sanding that accounts for the the darker color all of the visible surfaces.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

a spectacular guitar-back set

the sides of the guitar set and a closeup

quartersawn East Indian rosewood thinwood pieces, bookmatched and being used for the back of a guitar that is in progress, being built by my friend John Cooper.

Rikus Veuger from Indonesia sent me a HUGE cache of pics of beautifully figured
E.I. rosewood that are just staggering in their beauty and variety. These represent a select few
from a large logging operation and Rikus did a very nice job of photography. Below are a few of the
pics, below that the full set. My thanks to Rikus for the marvelous pics.

web pics:

planks and turning stock

plank listed as Indonesian rosewood

scales

waxed turning stock

listed as east indian rosewood, but looks more like kingwood to me

both sides and a closeup of a thick plank

turning stock

finished pool cue butts

flat cut veneer

quartersawn veneer

veneer, all from the same vendor

veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement --- all from the same vendor as the batch directly above

pomelle veneer

slab table --- very nice; enlargement present

tatting shuttle (might have coloring agent added)

both sides and a closeup of a plank from the BogusColorVendor

guitar sides and backs

this species is widely used in guitar construction

guitar back --- very nicely photographed by the owner/maker, S.R.Murthy, whom I thank for the contribution to the site. Very large enlarments are present.

guitar sets

guitar bodies; pics provided by Rikus Veuger (see box up in the section on my own samples)

bowl

7.5" x 2.5" bowl by Steve Earis and the blank from which it was turned. There are BIG enlargements present for the bowl