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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

jatoba / Hymenaea spp. Primarily Hymenaea Courbaril but other species that are sold as jatoba include Hymenaea palustris, Hymenaea parvifolia, Hymenaea reticulata, and Hymenaea stigonocarpa 5" x 5" flat cut, 5" x 5" quartersawn, 1" wide end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup. Diffuse porous with sparse, moderately sized, pores with vasicentric parenchyma, very strong marginal parenchyma, and some pore multiples. Rays are quite noticeable at 10X and generally with the naked eye. Jatoba is one of the few woods in which the marginal parenchyma lines can sometimes be very clearly seen in the face grain of flat or rift cut pieces. Also widly known in the US as "Brazilian Cherry" although it is not related to cherry, and much less commonly I have seen it referred to as South American locust among MANY other common names This is a good wood for flooring because it is VERY hard and dense, but it's a difficult wood to work for the same reason. It's pretty, often with a nice salmon-red color, but personally, I find that the hardness that makes it so widely used for flooring makes it difficult to work with.

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 small sample piece --- The 2nd side has a finish of some kind on it which greatly enhances the color but muddies the grain. This sample in particular shows how the marginal parenchama lines show up on the face. Usually they are more vague.




end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above, clearly showing very strong and regular marginal parenchyma lines both in the end grain and on the face grain.


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above (I see I got it upside down). In the enlargements in particular you can see how the marginal parenchmya lines vary just slightly in thickness.


both sides of a chunk of jatoba / Hymenaea spp. --- 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 first face is sanded to 150 grit and the second is untouched by me. This is two planks glued (and screwed) together and with a bunch of big holes drilled part way through the second side.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- the end grain shot has been lightened too much; the face grain pics have the right color


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of coubaril / Hymenaea courbaril --- 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 quartersawn jatoba / Hymenaea courbaril --- HUGE enlargements are present. The vendor has this sample as courbaril which is another common name for the species


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


plank and end grain


end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above --- the right side of the update is VERY bad but the left is clean.


plank and end grain


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a small piece of jatoba / Hymenaea spp. --- HUGE enlargements are present. This was sent to me for ID by Michael Lyle after some discussion on the Wood Barter forum where most people thought it was goncalo alves because of the very high similarity of the face grain to that wood. I knew from Michael's end grain pic that it was jatoba but just to be sure he sent it to me for processing.


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


another small piece with 3 views --- side view, side view with water sprayed on it, and view showing end grain. The end grain pic shows how the freshly cut wood is lighter than than which has been exposed for a while.


one end of a long plank and closeup. The other, much less figured, end is directly below. The orange color on these is correct.


the other end of the same plank as directly above, and closeup


rift cut plank, and end grain, cut from the highly figured end of the much larger plank shown above


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


flat cut plank, and end grain, cut from the highly figured end of the much larger plank shown above


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


flat cut plank photographed at a lumber yard --- the pale pink color is correct


planks, listed as Brazilian cherry, shot at a lumber yard --- HUGE enlargements are present.


END GRAIN UPDATE of a piece of jatoba. This was just processed for an end grain shot for the anatomy pages.

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The planks and end grain pics in the section below were all sent to me by a correspondent for ID. At first, I did not realize they were ALL jatoba because some of the faces (the quartersawn one in particuarly) did not quite look like jatoba, but after careful examination and particularly after looking at the end grain of each, I determined that thay ARE all jatoba. The photography is excellent and both enlargements are present for all of them.



















The planks and end grain pics in the section above were all sent to me by a correspondent for ID. At first, I did not realize they were ALL jatoba because some of the faces (the quartersawn one in particularly) did not quite look like jatoba, but after careful examination and particularly after looking at the end grain of each, I determined that thay ARE all jatoba. The photography is excellent and both enlargements are present for all of them.

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face grain, face grain oiled, side grain, and end grain pics that correspondent John Fuher sent to me for positive ID on the piece. John thought it was jatoba and indeed it is. The characteristic sharply defined grain lines are not at all obvious in the face grain shot or the side grain shot but in the enlargements they are in the oiled shot and in the end grain shot. HUGE enlargments are present.

NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR

NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR

NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR
three flooring samples, all listed as "Brazilian cherry" and all coated with a hard shiny finish that has deepened and enriched the color.


the last 2 of the 3 flooring samples above, but with the finish sanded off


flat cut veneer all from the same flitch


flat cut veneer from a different flitch, slightly less red in color

web pics:

planks with one of them moistened for the pic


plank with wet and dry sections


slabs


sections of large slabs listed as jatoba / Hymenaea Courbaril, all from the same vendor


two more slab sections from the same vendor as the batch directly above, but these have both dry and wet sections


web pic of the lot from which my own samples directly above were taken


flat cut planks


flat cut planks with colors that are definitely too rich


a flat cut plank listed as jatoba / Hymenaea Courbaril and with a color that is likely a bit too red


flat cut planks --- pics all from the same correspondent and I think these colors are likely very accurate


flat cut planks with a very unlikely color (way too green)


quartersawn planks


misc planks


misc planks specifically listed as jatoba / Hymenaea courbaril


planks, all from the same vendor, listed as jatoba / Hymenaea Courbaril --- the internet pics were a ridiculous orange, so I've done minor color correction to make them look more realistic but they are still a bit too orange.


crotch slabs --- I'm not confident of the color on most of these


scales with color that is outside of my experience with jatoba and seems unlikely to me


turning stock


crotch bowl blanks with a color that is not believable even though the are waxed.


pen blanks


scales


flat cut veneer


quartersawn veneer


veneer specifically listed as jatoba / Hymenaea courbaril with the first piece being flat cut and the second two quartersawn


veneer sheet closeup with both levels of enlargement


ribbon stripe veneer


quartersawn veneer


flat cut veneer


flat cut veneer that I won on ebay --- my first set of samples of flat cut veneer are from this lot.


veneer --- these were listed as jatoba but appear to me to be more likely to be ribbon stripe African mahogany or ribbon stripe sapele


figured veneer


mottled figure


unfinished jatoba flooring


flooring with a finish


flooring listed as jatoba / Hymenaea courbaril but with a color that I find unlikely

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planks


plank and closeup

these all are from the BogusColorVendor, so I doubt that the wood in these pieces is as bright as is depicted here. In fact, based on the kind of gross misrepresentation that is typical of this vendor, I'd guess the wood is almost pure brown with perhaps a hint of red and no orange at all)

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guitar by Gregory Pizzeck


I believe this is either jatoba sapwood or it was incorrectly identified by the turner. It clearly is not jatoba heartwood.


bowl --- the black streaking is relatively rare with jatoba and makes the bowl look much more like goncalo alves than jatoba but the grain IS like jatoba.


bowl; pic submitted by Al Amstutz (and based on my experience, I'd say Al provided a very color-correct pic, keeping in mind that the bowl has a finishing agent applied)


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 COLOR of the wood in these pics, however, does not seem likely --- there appears to be way too much yellow