Brazilian rosewood ID fun

qbilder

slower than snails
Silver Member
With all the rosewood talk, and folks loving Brazilian so much, I thought maybe it would be fun to see if anybody can correctly identify the one piece of Brazilian in this lineup of suspects. Further yet, maybe try identifying all of them. There's Brazilian, Guatemalan, Mayan, Amazon, cochen, cocobolo, East Indian, and Madagascar rosewoods, as well as eastern black walnut, Asian ironwood, Brazilian ebony, Texas ebony, zircote, chechen, and nogal walnut. Some will likely be easy, others not so much. In any case, I'd be willing to bet folks will be scratching their heads. Aside from the Asian ironwood, Brazilian ebony, and Texas ebony, most all these pieces are very similar in density. And the Brazilian rosewood is NOT the best tone wood in here, not even close. Have some fun and take a jab at it.

Hint: there's no flash, only my overhead shop light, and every piece was wiped with sanding sealer immediately before pic

 

DaveK

Still crazy after all these years
Silver Member
6th from the right (just left of the bright patch on the bottom of the 5th from the right ... which might be a walnut ?).

Dave <-- guesser
 

Albatross Cues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Sent you a pm with some of the list as to not ruin this for over posters. Hope I get at least one right.lol
 

Albatross Cues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My bad you don't take PMs.
1- Cocobolo
2- Brazilian
3- black walnut
4- Madagascar
5- Guatemalan
6- Texas ebony
7- East Indian
8- Zircote
9- ?
10- looks a lot like East but not sure
11- ? NFI
12- cochen
13- Asian
14- Mayan
15- Nogal Walnut

Hope I get one right. Lol
 

qbilder

slower than snails
Silver Member
Brazilian rosewood is not always dark brown, nor does it always display bold grain lines. Often times, especially with the old stuff that came from tree trunks instead of stumps, Brazilian rosewood is long straight grained with rather bland, uniform characteristics, much like most typical lumber. The Brazilian rosewood people recognize nowadays is the swirly bold grain line stuff that comes from stumps and branches. Rosewood trees are normally large, tall, straight trees that grow along the river deltas, not unlike how our walnut grows here. I know of one board that's 10' long, 12" wide, 2" thick, and straight grain like a board of ash. It's not chocolate brown, either. Been trying for years to buy it, but the guy wants $6G's and I can't justify it to myself.
 

qbilder

slower than snails
Silver Member
My bad you don't take PMs.
1- Cocobolo
2- Brazilian
3- black walnut
4- Madagascar
5- Guatemalan
6- Texas ebony
7- East Indian
8- Zircote
9- ?
10- looks a lot like East but not sure
11- ? NFI
12- cochen
13- Asian
14- Mayan
15- Nogal Walnut

Hope I get one right. Lol

You got two of them, EIR and Asian Ironwood.
 

PRED

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Will you scratch the one on the far right and tell me of the smell?
 

qbilder

slower than snails
Silver Member
From left to right:

cochen rose, cocobolo, nogal walnut, amazon rose, Texas ebony, black walnut, Guatemalan rose, Madagascar rose, chechen, EI rose, zircote, Mayan rose, Asian ironwood, Brazilian rose, Brazilian ebony

The piece of Brazilian rose is very straight grain and more of a dirty red than chocolate. Structurally it's as good as rosewood gets. It's just not pretty. The color and straightness of grain are not uncommon in old stock rosewood. When big trees were cut & logs milled for lumber, that's the kind of wood that was produced. Completely different than the stump cut stuff being salvaged nowadays. IMO, the stump stuff is more attractive, but the old straight grain stuff is what made Brazilian rosewood a legendary cue wood. Personally, I could take it or leave it. Obviously there are plenty of substitutes, many of which equal or trump Brazilian in tonal characteristics and structure.
 

qbilder

slower than snails
Silver Member
None of them have that yelllow orange streaks on dark brown purply Braz .

Those colors only appear in fresh cut wood, and like paduak they eventually fade. The purple turns to chocolate and the yellow/orange fades to dull browns.
 

MVPCues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
With all the rosewood talk, and folks loving Brazilian so much, I thought maybe it would be fun to see if anybody can correctly identify the one piece of Brazilian in this lineup of suspects. Further yet, maybe try identifying all of them. There's Brazilian, Guatemalan, Mayan, Amazon, cochen, cocobolo, East Indian, and Madagascar rosewoods, as well as eastern black walnut, Asian ironwood, Brazilian ebony, Texas ebony, zircote, chechen, and nogal walnut. Some will likely be easy, others not so much. In any case, I'd be willing to bet folks will be scratching their heads. Aside from the Asian ironwood, Brazilian ebony, and Texas ebony, most all these pieces are very similar in density. And the Brazilian rosewood is NOT the best tone wood in here, not even close. Have some fun and take a jab at it.

Hint: there's no flash, only my overhead shop light, and every piece was wiped with sanding sealer immediately before pic


I am late to the party. I may look stupid if the answers are revealed, but here is my guess without looking at people's posts.

Asian Ironwood, Madagascar, nogal walnut, cochen, cocobolo, Eastern black walnut, brazilian, amazon rosewood, chechen, East Indian, ziricote, Mayan, texas ebony, Guatemalan, Brazilian Ebony

Edit: Immeditately after posting I saw I put Mayan twice. I changed the last one from Mayan to Brazilian Ebony.

2nd Edit: I got 7. And yeah...late to the party...
 
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