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PINK IVORY
Berchemia zeyheri
Berchemia zeyheri (syn. Rhamnus zeyheri) of the family Rhamnaceae, the buckthorn family
A treasured wood from southern Africa, varying in color from pink to red. Also: red ivory. Closely related to brown ivory.
My thanks to Paul van Rijckevorsel for this summary
NOTE: I have seen conflicting reports on the scarcity of pink ivory. No one disputes that it is one of the more rare woods in the world, but some reports say that vendors grossly exaggerate the scarcity to drive up the price. If that's the case, then they have certainly been successful, as it is quite expensive.
A couple of correspondants have confirmed for me that the color here (other than those of the BogusColorVendor) are quite possible, as the wood sometimes takes on an almost neon, glow-in-the-dark looking brightness of color
Color change in pink ivory can be a problem, as discussed in an interesting article on eBay by Wood Scientist Scotty Drye. Click here -> pink ivory
web pics:
plank with wet and dry sections
planks
bookmatched slab pair with one of them moistened for the pic
end grain
turning stock
curly planks
figured plank
both sides and two closeups of a fiddleback plank
fiddleback planks and a closeup
All of the ones with the ruler are from the same vendor and while I think it likely that the red component of the color is exaggerated, I find it believable that this could be just an artifact of digital cameras and not a deliberate misrepresentation. The first picture seems to me to be most representative of the wood, but this is speculation since I've never actually seen a piece; just lots of pictures on the web. For all I know, the wood might always look like what is shown in the last 4 pics above, which is more purple than pink. I have been assured by one site visitor that the pink color in many of these pictures is quite accurate
bookmatched scales --- correspondant Warrick Edmonds reported this: "looking at the Pink Ivory collection and noticed your comment on colour. I'm currently holding four pieces of the real stuff in my hand and can tell you that they match best to your group of four bookmatched scales in the line of bookmatched scales. There is no purple tint at all, just a light candy pink trending to golden sandy colour in the sapwood. Some of the darker bands are mid-cherry colour."
bookmatched scales of curly pink ivory
turning sticks
pen turning blanks that have been waxed, thus the darker color
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. These bowls are all about 6" across.
more web-pics, but these are all from the BogusColorVendor. I don't for a minute believe that any of these pieces are nearly as red as shown in these pictures since heavy red color saturation is typical of their misrepresentation of wood.