Centrolobium spp. of the family Leguminosae (subfamily Papilionoideae), the legume or pea family
NOTE: there are some 50+ woods that have the word "canary" as all or part of one or more of their common names, but as used in the USA, the name generally refers to any of about 10 species in the genus Centrolobium
My own experience has ranged from the fairly bland to planks that have marvelous red streaking, as you will see from my sample pics. Also, see the bowl at the bottom of this page for a good example of a colorful section.
my samples
I normally put bowls at the bottom of the wood pages, but in this case, the bowl has a flat bottom that very nicely shows a flat cut canary surface and the next pic is with the addition of a coat of natural stain, showing nicely how carnary responds very favorably to finishing agents. Shellac or polyurethane will make it look even richer. I want to emphasize, the pic on the right has not been color enhance in any way; this is how canary responds to liquid finishes.
8"x8" turning block
plank and closeup --- I picked this one out of a lumber yard pile because of the extreme gold color
plank and closeup --- I picked this one out of a lumber yard pile because of the red streaking, which as you can see appears to accompany some bug holes (or as my friend Jim Glynn would tell, you, the streaking is due to bug poop)
the other end and a closeup, of the same plank as directly above
Some freshly cut small pieces off of the plank that is shown directly below. As you can see, the color of the freshly exposed wood is just slightly more dull than the wood that had its surface exposed for some time. Partly that's because the plank had been surfaced pretty nicely and these small pieces have been very rough sanded. The color on these pics is a little more dull than the actual wood, but the pics below show the wood as a little too rich. It's frustratingly difficult to get it just right !
both sides and end grain of a plank --- the first pic is of a side that has just been freshly exposed by heavy sanding and the second pic is of the opposite side which has been exposed for some time and has a bit of a patina, thus the difference in colors between the two pics.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
Both sides of a plank and a closeup of each side. The closeups and the distance pics are upsidedown relative to each other. The color is actually somewhere between the slightly too light distance pics and the slightly too dark closeups, although both manage to make the wood appear just a hair richer than it really is. On the other hand, these pics are MUCH more accurate than what the vendor showed it as on eBay (see directly below).
This is how the vendor displayed the board shown in my own samples directly above. This was not the BogusColorVendor, and it is remotely conceivable that the yellow saturation in this pic was due to lighting, but I doubt it. I had to REALLY mess with the color settings to get my pic of the board to come out this yellow. Another excellent example of how vendors misrepresent their merchandise on eBay. I have now monitored this vendor for quite some time and can say with complete confidence that he is consistently dishonest in his representation of wood on ebay.
plank and end grain
plank and end closeup
plank, closeup, and end grain
plank closeup and two end grain shots
plank and end grain
two different sides of a stick and the end grain
stick
the next 3 planks were all cut from the same long plank and the reddish color is accurate
plank and closeup
plank and closeup
plank, closeup, and end grain
another plank and closeup
plank and end grain --- I bought this one because of the strong grain. The slightly orangish color is accurate, but the piece has not been sanded yet.
another plank, this one with some very nice red streaking
two planks --- colors are VERY accurate on this pic and the more yellow/green color in the lower plank is correct
small plank and end grain
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
small plank and end grain, showing some sapwood
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
plank and closeup showing nice "bug-poop" streak and some sapwood
yet another little plank
plank with sapwood and an end grain shot --- the color in the face shot is too bright (especially the pure white sapwood) but the end grain shot (which was taken under different lighting) is accurate.
plank and closeup
two sets of pics of the same set of blocks --- in the first pic, most of the upper surfaces are freshly sanded (but not the three on the right) and in the second pics all of the upper surfaces are the unsanded surfaces with patina.
plank and close up. Uniform reddish-brown color is correct.
plank
set of planks
pieces from a couple of different lots of small thins --- these are relatively boring for canary
planks
plank and closeup
plank
some small pieces
some small pieces
misc end grains
set of thins all resawed from the same plank
both sides of a particularly nicely colored plank --- pics submitted by Neal Kuwabara (thanks, Neal).
quartersawn veneer with accurate color, which is much more consistently red than any of the planks I've ever seen.
web pics
plank with wet and dry sections
planks
planks and turning stock, all from the same vendor
plank and closeup
planks sold as putumuju
canary planks sold as "el dorado"; pics provided by Patrick Murris, whom I thank.
plank listed as canary / Centrolobium paraense
more planks from the vendor that had the overly yellow pic of my own sample board at the top of this page.
turning stock
scales
end grain scales
pen turning sticks
pen blanks that have been waxed and oiled
bowl blanks
veneer
two pieces that were labled "Panamanian" canary. I seriously doubt the red in the second pic.
a gun stock made from canary wood (probably a crotch area) --- wish I had a closeup of this one
bowl turned by Al Amstutz
bowls
vase
blow listed as putumuju
shakers
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 of these is 4" across, the second 10", and the third 5". These are all exceptionally nice pieces of canary but the middle one is particularly striking.
canary highlight on a turned bowl --- left pic is raw, right one has natural (clear) stain
enlargeable pic of the whole bowl with the natural stain --- the oval to the left of the canary is also canary and the oval to the right (with the ebony veneer backing) is yew
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