Wood Species ID

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AJS

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Messages
6
Location
Oxfordshire, UK
Hello,
New member here. I'm not a pen turner but I have a general interest in Woodworking for other hobbies, and you seem to have some very knowledgable individuals here.

I.m not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but I couldn't decide where it should go so I hope it's okay to post here.

Anyway, the particular species of wood I'm interested in is the one labelled as Red Ebony on this site http://www.daystarhandworks.com/wood_alpha.php

When I Google Red Ebony the most common results are New Guinea Ebony and Cooktown Ironwood, neither of which resembles the wood shown. I emailed the site owner and was told that the supplier didn't know the Latin name for the wood, but said it came from a farmer in the Volta region of West Africa.

So, with one picture and a possible place of origin, can anyone hazard a guess as to what this particular species of wood maybe.

Thanks in advance for any replies.
Kindest regards,
Alex
 
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I just wanted to say thankyou to everyone for the replies, sorry it's taken so long my PITA computer is on it's last legs so I can't always get online when I want to.

I'm still no closer to finding out what this wood might be, unfortunately. Outside of Cooktown Ironwood and New Guinea Ebony the only other suggestion I've had is Cocobolo, but I'm not aware of any of this South American species growing in West Africa.

Re: Grenadillo, would you happen to have a Latin name. I've found several references to Grenadillo before but it is a name that is used for several different species including a Rosewood from South America, but I've also seen it used in relation to a Blackwood relative from Africa so I might be on the right track with that one.

Kindest regards,
Alex
 
My best guess is Diospyros crassiflora Hiern [family EBENACEAE] It is ebony but the ebony we all crave is the pure black heartwood. The sapwood is actually yellow/pink. The following link is to a site that deals with all things Africa. The site is great for woods of Africa. I collect wood species (856) and use this site regularly.

http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.AP.UPWTA.2_7&pgs=

Maybe?

Ed
 
AJS said:
I just wanted to say thankyou to everyone for the replies, sorry it's taken so long my PITA computer is on it's last legs so I can't always get online when I want to.

I'm still no closer to finding out what this wood might be, unfortunately. Outside of Cooktown Ironwood and New Guinea Ebony the only other suggestion I've had is Cocobolo, but I'm not aware of any of this South American species growing in West Africa.

Re: Grenadillo, would you happen to have a Latin name. I've found several references to Grenadillo before but it is a name that is used for several different species including a Rosewood from South America, but I've also seen it used in relation to a Blackwood relative from Africa so I might be on the right track with that one.

Kindest regards,
Alex
Click to expand...
That's just it. Trying to track down a botanical name based on a common name is exceptionally difficult. To many trees of different species and even genera can go by the same common name. But I will tell you this. Grenadillo isn't a Rosewood in any context. There is a wood that is used as a substitute for Rosewood called Grenadillo, but none of the Dalbergia species use the name to my knowledge. There are quite a few woods that use rosewood in their common name, that are not in the Dalbergia family, and to be a rosewood it has to be in that Genus. No exceptions.
 
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