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TAMBRAN, WILD

Cojoba arborea
Cojoba arborea (syn. s Mimosa arborea, Pithecellobium arboreum, and Acacia arborea) of the family Fabaceae (syn. Leguminosae) the legume, pea, or bean family

This Central American wood is widely sold in the flooring industry as "royal mahogany" but in fact has nothing to do with mahogany (that naming convention is just one example of the gross dishonesty of the flooring industry when it comes to wood names). It does LOOK somewhat like mahogany and in addition to being reasonably attractive, it is quite hard, durable, and stable in use and thus it is used extensively for flooring. It is reportedly hard to turn but otherwise quite reasonable to work with in craft applications although that seems a little odd to me since it is quite hard and frequently has interlocked grain, both of which can make for hard crafting.

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 barba jolote (wild tambran) / Cojoba arborea --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was contributed to the site 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


royal mahogany flooring sample and end grain


end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the flooring sample directly above


"royal" mahogany flooring sample donated by Dale Romain (thanks, Dale) --- I've rough sanded this piece and the scratches are still very visible, but the side grain and end grain both show up nicely in the enlargements.

NOT a raw wood color

NOT a raw wood color

NOT a raw wood color

NOT a raw wood color
four flooring samples listed as "royal mahogany" but these are NOT mahogany at all --- In keeping with their standard practice of totally ignoring factual information in favor of marketing names, the flooring institute calls this "royal mahogany", but states that in fact it is Wild tambran (aka Barba de Jolote) which is not at all related to mahogany, although I must admit that the grain pattern does LOOK like mahogany.


the same 4 flooring samples as above but with the finish sanded off. The sanding was not totally complete, so traces of the finish remain --- I left them this way because they are just a thin veneer on a nondescript wood backing and I was afraid that if I sanded them any further, all I'd have left would have been the backing.

web pics:

flat cut planks --- based on the color, I'd say these have been moistened in some way and are not raw wod


quartersawn plank --- based on the color, I'd say this has been moistened in some way and is not the raw wood


planks


planks listed as wild tamarind, a name that is used by at least 18 species, so in fact these woods may well NOT be Cojoba arborea


flooring