Dalbergia stevensonii of the family Leguminosae (subfamily Papilionoideae), the legume or pea family
Also called Honduras rosewood, this hard, heavy, true rosewood grows in Belize (British Honduras). Although somewhat less variagated in color and grain than some rosewoods, it IS a rosewood and is attractive and works and polishes quite well. Its color, generally some shade of purple, remains stable over time.
s set of small sticks showing some of the color variation from unusually dark (the back two pieces) to very "standard" (the middle pieces) to unusually light (the front pieces). The piece on the front right is out of order and should be towards the rear --- the first enlargement shows this pic MUCH better.
The following 3 pics show different grain patterns for a variety of pieces
flat cut
quartersawn --- grain is much more clear in the enlargement
rift cut --- grain is much more clear in the enlargement
plank and end grain --- shows very clearly the sharp demarcation between heartwood and sapwood that is characteristic of this wood. The color on the end grain pic is too dark --- the color on the side-on pic is just right. Take a look at the bottom of this page to see how the vendor that I bought this plank from (the BogusColorVendor) showed in on eBay.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above (opposite end from the one shown above)
sample plank and end grain
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
turning sticks. It's a little hard to tell from the first pic, but what is shown is two sides of the stick. The end-grain pic is NOT from the same piece as the first pic but rather shows a little piece left over from a long turning stick that was much darker wood than the first stick. The color on both is very accurate.
turning stick and end grain
several views of a set of sticks
several views of a long plank, rough sanded
a rough sanded shot of the same plank and the the same piece cut down and fine sanded
the same piece moistened with water
several pieces cut from the same planks as directly above and in various stages of sanding
several pieces from a grab-bag lot of mixed exotics --- color is just a tad less vibrant than the actual wood
two sides of a set of turning sticks; the 2nd pic has a little too much red
two sides of a set of very bland colored turning sticks with little to none of the purple tint one normally associates with this species
two faces of a small turning stick showing a flat cut surface and a quartersawn surface --- this is from one of the set of turning sticks directly above
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
a very light-colored and light-grained plank
small rift cut plank and end grain --- this piece was cut from the larger plank directly above and fine sanded.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a plank with a lot of sapwood
and end shot of the piece directly above
small block and end grain
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
two small planks. The upper is quartersawn and the lower is flat cut. For the flat cut piece, the grain is so irregular and almost exactly parallel to the cut that the surface grain is marvelously variagated instead of what might have been a simple cathedral grain flat cut.
end grain shots of the two pieces above
end grain closeups of the pieces directly above
both sides and the end grain of a very interesting piece of Honduran rosewood with an unusual grain pattern. As you can see, the lower right corner of the side in the 2nd pic has the normal grain pattern for the species but the rest of it is pretty wild. Wish I had more of it but this was a small piece that came in an odd-lot box.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
a set of planks with quite a wide range of color and grain patterns --- my color correction made this pic a little more faded than it should be, but the colors are correct.
top surface of a bowl blank contributed to the site by Daniel Duelen, whom I thank for this and other contributions. This piece does not look like what I think of as "normal" Honduran rosewood and I had it on my mystery page until Daniel identified if for me. Upon close examination, I do see how it can be Honduran rosewood, but it must be from an oddball tree. It has a closer grain than normal and it totally lacks the purple which is very common to the "normal".
end grain of the bowl blank
flat cut and quartersawn small planks, both cut from the bowl blank above.
end grain of the small planks directly above
end grain closeups of the small planks directly above
small slab
two sections and a closeup of a long veneer sheet contributed to the site by Daniel Duelen, whom I thank for this and other contributions. Like the bowl blank above, also contributed by Daniel, this is different than what I think of as "normal" Honduras rosewood in that it has a more uniform and tigher grain pattern and does not have any of the purple that is common to the "normal" variety.
web pics
nicely figured planks
bookmatched pairs
planks
plank with very dull color, but I bought this one, so can confirm that the color is accurate.
turning stock, all from the same vendor and color is very likely much too red
turning stock with believable color
two sides of the same plank
highly figured
pen turning blanks. The two on the left are spalted and the rest are compression wood
unseasoned planks
burls --- I find the color of the first one likely to be quite accurate and the second one to be just silly
thin wood set up as guitar kits
guitar kit and closeup --- notice the significant difference in color between the two pictures of the same pieces of wood
guitar side
veneer that to me hardly looks like this spieces
veneer with a color that I am absolutely confident is not correct. I don't know if this is some other wood entirely or just a pic that has horrendous color values. The grain pattern IS consistent with this species.
veneer listed as "figured"
veneer listed as quartersawn bee's wing figure
these three are all from the BogusColorVendor. To get an idea how seriously they have misrepresented the wood, consider this: my first sample at the top of this page was cut from the plank in the first picture shown here. As you can see, the wood has none of the red or yellow shown in their picture. this is typical of the unbelievable misrepresentation that is common to their pictures.
more planks from the BogusColorVendor, showing more realistic color, although the red in the last two is almost certainly much too bright --- this wood tends to be purple, not red.
vase --- not sure if this is a burl or just a swirly-grain (maybe crotch) area and also don't know what finish was used, although clearly something was.
three views of a bowl by Steve Earis who tells me it was sanded to 4000 grit then given two coats of danish oil getting a high buff after each coat, and it won first place in his monthly woodturners competition. I have given it some prominance here both because it is a very nice piece and also because it nicely exemplifies the grain of this wood. Both levels of enlargement are available.
