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MARBLEWOOD

botanical name uncertain


There are at least 19 species that have the common name "marblewood", of which the two that seem to be most often used are The Plant List, which is my usual authority on such matters, says that these are two distinct species, BUT ... there seems to be quite a bit of disagreement about this in the literature. I've seen statements that Zygia racemosa is the accepted name and Marmaroxylon racemosum is a synonym and I've seen it exactly the opposite, and then as I said The Plant List says they are separate species. This is just one example of what I am told are hundreds such, where authorities differ on what the botanical names should be and what is a synonym and what is accepted.

In any event, I find those two species (if they are indeed separate species) to be indistinguishable. This is a very distinctive, rare, and expensive wood. It looks somewhat like zebrawood but is almost always trivially easy to distinguish from it.

When I started this site, I was only aware of Zygia racemosa as marblewood and I did not list any botanical name with the pics, so now there are numerous pics here with no botanical name that are all PROBABLY Zygia racemosa. Others are as specified with the pics.

There is a closely related wood, tiger caspi (Zygia cataractae and others, of the family Fabaceae), also of South America, that is remarkably similar in appearance and there could easily be some confusion between the two although marblewood appears to be the much more readily available of the two.

I have never encountered this wood in veneer form

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 sample plank of marblewood / Marmaroxylon racemosum --- HUGE enlargements are present.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a plank of marblewood / Marmaroxylon racemosum --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. For more detail on this plank, see the sample directly below. The grain can be seen much better in the enlargements of the sample below.


both sides of a sample plank of marblewood / Marmaroxylon racemosum --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This sample is 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 listed as angelim rajado / Marmaroxylon racemosum


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of angelim rajado / Marmaroxylon racemosum --- 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 marblewood / Zygia racemosa --- 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


an example of color dishonesty from the BogusColorVendor. On top are my own pics of a couple of planks I bought from them and below are the pics they showed of the wood. As is very common with them, they have clearly oversaturated the color. I knew when I bought the wood what it would actually look like but some of their customers presumably are VERY disappointed when they get wood from them that looks nothing like what they advertise. My full sets of pics for both pieces are diretly below.


both sides of a sample plank of marblewood / Marmaroxylon racemosum --- HUGE enlargements are present.


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


both sides of a sample plank of marblewood / Marmaroxylon racemosum --- HUGE enlargements are present.


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


both sides of a sample plank of angelim rajado / Marmaroxylon racemosum --- 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


planks and closeup


plank and end grain --- this piece was cut from one of the larger pieces directly above and the color in these pics is more accurate than the ones above.


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


all 4 sides of a marblewood turning stick I bought --- HUGE enlargements are present. Note how two of the faces have terrific figure and the other two not so much.

web pics:

NOTE: many of these pics are shown with a color that is
more rich / vibrant than is likely for the actual wood



planks


plank listed as "yellow" marblewood, but I have found that designation used by only one vendor and have no evidence that it is a generally accepted wood name.


planks, all from the same vendor --- these pics appear to be slightly washed out; I suspect that the actual wood color is somewhat more rich than what these show


both sides of a plank


plank and closeup


both sides of a set of planks


planks listed as Diospyros marmorata


both sides of a plank and a closeup, listed as Diospyros marmorata


planks, bowl blanks, and turning stock, all listed as Marmaroxylon racemosum


misc pieces of marblewood / Marmaroxylon racemosum, all from the same vendor


planks listed as marblewood / Marmaroxylon racemosum and with both levels of enlargement present, which shows the face grain very clearly. I'm sure these were moistened for the pics, or possibly the pics were taken in bright sunlight, but in any case the wood itself is not at all likely to have such a rich color.


turning stock listed as "figured" marblewood / Marmaroxylon racemosum, but I see no hint at all of any figure; this is just plain marblewood and a used car salesman type vendor.


pen blanks listed as marblewood / Marmaroxylon racemosum


pen blanks


turning stock


scales --- unlike most scales, these are not bookmatched


bookmatched scales


bowl blanks


waxed bowl blanks showing end grain and side grain


marblewood bowl on lathe and then with a finish --- both levels of enlargement are present


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.


bowls


platter