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CANARY

Centrolobium spp.

Centrolobium spp. of the family Fabaceae (syn. Leguminosae) the legume, pea, or bean 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. Occasionally, you will see the wood listed as tarara, which is a more restrictive name in that only three of the Centrolobium spp. use that name, vs the 10 that use canary. The various Centrolobium spp., taken all together, use well over 100 different common name.

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. This is one of my favorite woods for my bowls and I have purchased MANY planks over the years so there are a lot of pics here.

my samples:
NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K)
colors will vary under other lighting conditions


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 canary 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 OTHER than the addition of a clear stain; this is how canary responds to liquid finishes. Below is the bowl after being out in indirect sunlight for a few years.


color change in canary: The pic on the left shows the same bowl as directly above but after it has been out in indirect sunlight for a few years. As you can see, the bowl has darkened somewhat and the red and yellow color highlights have mostly disappeared. The pic on the right is a section of one of my bowls with canary backed by ebony veneer then redheart. The top image is just after the bowl was finished and the lower one is the same bowl after sitting on a shelf in very indirect sunlight for many years. My experience has been that canary color change can be this drastic or it can be somewhat less. It seems to vary somewhat by the piece of wood, which is not particularly unusual.


two views of a candle holder I made out of the canary plank directly below labeled "P" --- HUGE enlargements are present. The finish is rattle-can spar poly.


two views of a candle holder I made out of the canary plank directly below labeled "Q" --- HUGE enlargements are present. The finish is rattle-can spar poly.


Two 2-inch thick planks, about 4 feet long and a closeup of the red area on one of them --- HUGE enlargements are present. Sample pieces cut from these are shown directly below with more detail.


both sides of a sample plank of canary / Centrolobium spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This was cut from one of the large planks directly above


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


both sides of a sample plank of canary / Centrolobium spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This was cut from one of the large planks directly above


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


both sides of a sample plank of canary / Centrolobium spp. --- 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 sample plank of canary / Centrolobium spp. --- 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 sample plank of canary / putumuju / Centrolobium robustum --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet 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 sample plank of canary / Centrolobium ochroxylon --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Note that the first face was sanded to 240 grit and the second face was not and this accounts for the difference 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. The person who gave this to Mark had it labled "tarara" which is another name for Centrolobium ochroxylon but canary is much more common in the USA


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of canary / Centrolobium spp. --- 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


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)


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 and END GRAIN UPDATE of the left hand side 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 (upside down) and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above


small plank and end grain, showing some sapwood


end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above --- NOTE: the update was taken from the OTHER end of the piece


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 sapwood, which is incorrectly depicted as pure white) but the end grain shot (which was taken under different lighting) is accurate.


both sides of a sample of canary / Centrolobium spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This is a resaw of the piece directly above and the colors in the face shot are are more accurate here.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


subsequent to the above pic, the piece was ripped in half and and cut shorter and one face fine sanded for this pic, which shows a very clear shot of face grain.


plank and closeup


both sides of a small canary plank


canary plank and closeup


both sides of a canary plank


closeup of the plank directly above and then two sticks cut from the upper area of the one on the left. These are going to make great additions to a couple of my bowls.


both sides of a sample plank of canary / Centrolobium spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This was cut from the larger plank directly above this and the first face was sanded to 220 grit.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


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


both sides of a canary plank


closeup of the plank directly above


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


very roughly finished plank and a few small pieces cut from it and rough sanded


pieces from a couple of different lots of small thins --- these are relatively boring for canary


planks shot at 2 different lumber yards --- HUGE enlargements are present.


plank and closeup


plank



both sides of a plank and a closeup of each side --- HUGE enlargements are present for the closeups



both sides of a plank and closeups of two areas on the first face (a flat cut area and a quartersawn area) --- HUGE enlargements are present.


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


freshly milled slab


planks


planks and turning stock, all from the same vendor


planks, all from the same vendor and all with both levels of enlargment. I don't know if these are moistened for the pics or whether they have been manipulated, but I'm pretty sure that while the raw wood is quite pretty, it is not THIS pretty.


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


turning stock of canary / Centrolobium paraense, all from the same vendor and all shown either slathered in wax or with a digitally enhanced color


scales


end grain scales


pen turning sticks


pen blanks that have been waxed and oiled


bowl blanks


canary bowl blanks, all from the same vendor, all slathered with wax, all with both levels of enlargement present


veneer


two pieces that were labeled "Panamanian" canary. I seriously doubt the red in the second pic.


a piece labeled "red streaked" canary






planks, these are all from the BogusColorVendor but I find the colors quite reasonable and good examples of how their pics are definitely not all poor representations of the wood.



canary wood from the BogusColorVendor so the colors are suspect, BUT ... keep in mind that canary can be an incredibly colorful wood when finished and many of these may be coated in wax.


both sides of a plank and a closeup


planks


plank closeups




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