Thread: Wood Species ID.

I found a picture of a wood labelled as Red Ebony on this site Daystar Handworks by Katherine Kowalski - Woods by Alphabet for Crochet Hooks, Spinning Tools, Hair Jewelry I've tried Googling Red Ebony and all I've been able to find so far are references to Cooktown Ironwood and New Guinea Ebony, neither of which look much like the wood pictured.

I've emailed the owner of the site and she said that when she bought the wood the supplier didn't know the Latin name, and all he could tell her was that it came from the Volta region of West Africa. So, with one picture, and a possible location from where the wood might be found, does anyone care to hazard a guess as to what it might be?

Regards,
Alex

Hello Alex,

One of the woodworking forums has a member who bought some, and says that it turned out to be Dalbergia retusa, which is really cocobolo. To confuse matters more, it is sometimes described as granadillo, which is a differnet species to cocbolo and ebony. One of the other posters on the site is sure that it is really Cooktown Ironwood, from australia, and Red Ebony is the name they call it down that way. Some say the name was invented to make the wood sound more attractive, others ascribe it the name of the lumber mill - Red Ebony Pty Ltd in the Northern Territory.

Still seems a bit of a mystery, doesn't it?! I guess that the name is really some umbrella term for any had, dense wood that is red in colour.

Reagrds,
Neil

Hello Neil,
Thanks for the reply. I've found this wood to be a typically annoying example of applying a common name to various different species, why people can't stick to binomial Latin nomenclature is beyond me. Going by the one picture I've got I'm pretty certain that it isn't Cooktown Ironwood or New Guinea Ebony, the two most common "Red Ebonies," but I don't hav any idea what it actually is either. I was hoping that knowing the origins of the wood might help but I've posted the query on a number of woodworking forums and no one seems willing to hazard a guess as to what it might be.
Regards,
Alex

me no know

there are some neat things on that list: corn cob, mango. I like those.

The description reminded me of Pink Ivory wood from Griffin Exotic Wood.

wood geeks like me- Berchemia zeyheri

pink ivory is listed too. aswa cocobolo at daystar

There are 3 or 4 kinds of "cocobolo" sometimes they are damn red
http://www.pollaro.com/_i/lead/wood_1b.jpg

if the object labeled "pink ivory" is small enough to be from all red sections it could be regular old Brazilian Rosewood
(another common name-get it)
which suggest the pics are opposite pink ivory to red ebony. The rest all fit preconceived notions of what they look like

like ya say little pictures and poor descriptions

Who knows what an Australian might do