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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

yellowheart (aka Brazilian satinwood when curly) / Euxylophora paraensis (alternate spelling is Euxylophora paraense) of the family Rutaceae 5" x 5" flat cut, 5" x 5" quartersawn, 3/4" wide end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup. Diffuse porous with medium sized pores randomly distributed but often seemingly in radial strands and with obvious vasicentric parenchyma. Lots of radial pore multiples. Rays that are easy to see at 10X and ray flakes on quartersawn surfaces are sometimes long and skinny but usually small. Growth ring boundaries are often discernible but sometimes not. Keeps its color nicely with age.

my samples: NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting --- colors will vary under other lighting conditions

colors are accurate throughout but with several caveats noted due to the difficulty in getting yellow wood to come out right on a digital camera

both sides of a plank of yellowheart / Euxylophora paraensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This plank was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The color of the wood is a bit more yellow and a bit less orange than what these pics show. For more detail on this plank, see the sample directly below.


END GRAIN UPDATE from a sample cut from one of the planks directly above


two yellowheart planks and a closeup. These were both cut from the same longer plank


both sides of a sample plank of yellowheart / Euxylophora paraensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was cut from one of the larger planks directly above and the first face was sanded down to 220 grit


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


face grain closeup of the sanded face and the END GRAIN UPDATE of the plank directly above


both sides of a sample plank of yellowheart / Euxylophora paraensis --- 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 color of the wood is a bit more yellow and a bit less orange than what these pics show. This sample was cut from the plank 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 of Brazilian satinwood / Euxylophora paraensis --- 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 vendor used the specific epithet "paraense" but I use The Plant List as my authority and it uses "paraensis"


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank of quartersawn yellowheart (Brazilian satinwood) / Euxylophora paraensis --- 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


plank with sapwood


small piece and end grain. This is only rough sanded and if it were fine sanded it would be almost exactly as rich a yellow as the oiled sample directly below (not a huge difference, but some).


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


small piece cut from the same plank as the sample above and then oiled. As you can see, the oil only slightly enhances the color.


plank and end grain; this piece has been sitting around for many years but most of the darker coloring was present when I bought it, so it may have darkened a little with age, but not all that much. The small plank directly below, for example, was put away in my wood sample box at about the same time as this piece, and it is still much lighter. At any rate, asided from the knothole, this is a terrific piece of pau amerello and I wish it was all this nice deep golden color, but it's not. Many pieces are a very pale yellow, as you can see on the end-grain shots a few pics down from here.


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


plank and end grain sold to me as pau amarelo / Euxylophora paraensis


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above --- this update was done at least 8 years after the original and that is part of the reason for the darker color


end grain of a couple of other planks --- the pale color is accurate, although not all yellowheart is this pale.


plank and closeup --- I bought this particular piece because of the ray flakes, which I'm not accustomed to seeing in yellowheart --- the color is a little too orange.


one section, and a closeup, of a long plank. The wood is actually a bit more yellow than what shows here.


another section, with closeup, of the same plank as directly above. The wood is actually a bit more yellow than what shows in the distance pic; the closeup is more accurate.


a small turning stick, which I bought as "yellowheart" and which seemed at first to be different than pau amerello. This seemed at first to have a much less distinct grain pattern that pau amerello, but you can see that the end grain is identical. It's actually about the same color as the sticks directly below, although it is from a different lot. These sticks were all bought as "yellowheart"


The color on the set of "yellowheart" sticks is close but not quite accurate since it has a little too much gold in it. The true color is a cross between the too-pale of the stick directly above and the too-gold of this pic. One of these sticks in use can be seen in a turned bowl at the bottom of this page.


planks


plank


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


face grain closeup of the piece directly above showing the ribbon stripe and the ray flakes. The color is a little too orange and not yellow enough. The color in the plank pic is correct.


plank and closeup


planks and closeup


planks and closeup


plank


closeup of a little piece with blue stain


plank


bowl blank


veneer


veneer sold to me as Brazilian satinwood, and a closeup of the sheet --- as is frequently the case with woods containing a lot of yellow in the color, I had a hard time getting the color to show up correctly. The actual color slightly more yellow than what shows here. The pics of the sample directly below show the color better.


veneer sold to me as Brazilian satinwood, and a closeup of the sheet


This sheet of veneer was loaned to me by John Koehn whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The set in which John obtained this sheet had it labeled as Brazilian satinwood, but given the total lack of curl, most vendors would just list this as yellowheart.

web pics:

some of these were listed as pau amerello and some as yellowheart and I don't trust the colors on any of them

planks


planks listed as yellowheart / Euxylophora paraensis


long planks listed as yellowheart / Euxylophora paraensis


plank listed as pau amarello / Euxylophora paraensis --- color is very reasonable although somewhat more pale than what one normally sees in yellowheart


planks listed as Brazilian satinwood despite having no curl


planks, all from the same vendor, listed as Brazilian satinwood


planks, all from the same vendor


plank and closeup


misc pieces of yellowheart / Euxylophora paraensis, all from the same vendor


figured planks


planks, all from the same vendor --- this is the vendor I bought most of my own samples from and these shots are pics of some of the planks I bought; many of the planks are more yellow than he shows in his pics


plank from a vendor whom I know to badly mis-color his pics


plank and closeup


plank and closeup



both sides of a plank and a closeup


yellowheart turning stock


pen blanks


veneer listed as yellowheart


fiddleback yellowheart veneer sheets and a closeup --- most vendors would sell this as Brazilian satinwood


fiddleback yellowheart veneer --- most vendors would sell this as Brazilian satinwood


fiddleback yellowheart veneer bookmatched sheets --- most vendors would sell this as Brazilian satinwood


veneer listed as Brazilian satinwood


listed as "ribbon stripe", but I just don't see it.


ribbon stripe veneer listed as Brazilian satinwood


curly veneer listed as Brazilian satinwood


figured veneer listed as Brazilian satinwood


Brazilian satinwood veneer. The first pic is my color-corrected version showing what the wood actually looks like (I bought the lot from which these web-pics were taken) and then the next two are two differenct pics the vendor posted of the same lot. I present this just to show the kind of variation that you can find in web-pics even of the same piece of wood, and in this case the two web-pics are not only significantly different from each other, neither is even close to what the wood actually looks like.


crotch veneer --- this was listed as Brazilian satinwood but I would definitely call this yellowheart myself


listed as "Brazilian satinwood swirl crotch" veneer, but like the pieces above, I would call this yellowheart myself

---

yellowheart bowl


yellowheart used in a turned bowl (2 pics of same bowl) --- this piece of wood was taken from one of the "yellowheart" sticks shown in my own samples at the top of this page. The more golden color of the shot on the right is an effect of the particular angle of view. As is true of most woods, this wood, particlularly after a finishing agent has been applied, changes color somewhat with the viewing angle.