Is this rose wood?

[Scotty Allen]

I bought about 20 BF of this wood that was advertised as brazilian rose wood. It is pretty heavy and hard, but not sure if it is rose wood or something else. Some pieces have a lot of sap wood, like in the pictures, and some have mostly or all heart wood. Basing this on the differnce in color of the wood. Paid about $4 per BF.

Thanks for the help.
Scotty
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[Montgomery Scott]

Could be. Sometime the winter growth rings are spaced far apart in BRW. I have quite a bit of BRW, but all the sap wood was removed so I don't know for sure if this stuff is.

[Edward Dyas]

It looks more like teak than rosewood to me. Can you get a picture of the face of it?

[John Coloccia]

I see nothing reminiscent of any BRW I've ever seen. If you just randomly showed me a picture of that and said it was hard and dense, I would immediately guess Bocote.

Cut it. Does it smell like roses? BRW smells very strongly like roses when cut. Bocote is more like pickles. If you saw blade is dull as a butter knife after the cut, it's Teak....LOL.

[Keith Christopher]

I think it could be Zebrawood or Tigre caspi. Got pics of the heart wood ?

[Scotty Allen]

It is not teak, wish it was. Here are a few other pictures of the heart wood. Took a while to get it unburied from the other wood on top. Have not had a chance to cut it yet to see what is smells like. I need to get a new blade for my TS, or get the one I have sharpened. Would like to ultimately make a table top or desk top out of this wood. Not sure that 3/4 would be very good for a table top though?
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[Edward Dyas]

With the new pictures it looks like brazilian rose wood now.

[John Coloccia]

If that is really BRW, and I don't think it is, it would be very very foolish to make a desk out of it. There are luthiers that will pay good money for the straight grained pieces. I happen not to be one of them as I don't use BRW, but some of those pieces look like they'd make nice fingerboards.

[Keith Christopher]

I am almost certain it is Tigre Capsi.

[John Coloccia]

I am almost certain it is Tigre Capsi.

I have to admit that I've never heard of Tigre Capsi, and I know my woods pretty well. Is it a species that's just become available in the US? I would not be able to distinguish between that and Marblewood. Makes me wonder if I've used it in the past and just not known it.

[Myk Rian]

Here's a piece of rose wood I have. It's pretty dense stuff, which is why it's so good for plane handles.

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[Scotty Allen]

Yes, it does look like Zygia cataractae (Tigre Capsi). I cannot find very much about it though. I am wondering if I should do something else with this wood. Most of the pieces that I have are 3.5 X 1 X 120. Seems that online it is mostly in much smaller lengths. Would like to know more about this wood.

[Damon Stathatos]

+1 on the Tigre Capsi (http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/tigre-caspi/).

I've never (knowingly) seen it in person but had a bunch of pictures of it when I was at one time considering bringing some in from Peru (from a long time missing fellow creeker, Jim King). By the way, anyone here know what ever happened to Jim?

Unlike our pallets, when wood is shipped here from overseas, they often use a couple of pieces of hardwood, run crosswise as bottom runners which act as both stabilizers for the metal strapping as well as forklift fork clearance. The hardwood they use for these runners seems inconsequential to them but being the hoarder that I am, I never could bring myself to tossing them. Much of it ends up being mahogany which is pretty easy to identify but a lot of it I have no idea what it is, just that it's really nice stuff.

Now, to the point...come to think of it, a lot of it looks like what I now remember as Tigre Capsi. It's in the medium range of hard and dense. I've worked with some of it and one distinguishable aspect to it is that it seems to splinter much easier than you would think, tear-out on a crosscut or issues when turning, things like that. I've made a few nice things from some of this wood and when asked, have used the classic, 'dunno' wood, but now I can say...think it's Tigre Capsi.

[Keith Christopher]

You don't see it that often, it i kind of a utility wood. Turners use it alot, it makes some amazing bowls and hollow vessels. You can sometimes find long lengths but often it is cut smaller and because of irregular growth and it is usually not left to get very large. They do exist however so if you have some long lengths it is a good thing.