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i wonder if you guys can tell me your opinion on this wood.. it was sold to me as "pau violeta", which is the brazilian designation for kingwood (indeed it still had the export permit which stated it). i bought a small log, which i resawed many moons ago.
yesterday i stumbled upon it, scraped it and it smells nothing like the other pieces of kingwood i have. it has a fresh and citric odor, like a milder version of citronella. other kingwood has a more earthy, spicier aroma - for lack of better words.
as far as kingwood goes, i have both darker and lighter samples. it´s heavy wood, above 1 g/cm3 and doesn´t look particularly oily as far as rosewoods go.

any ideas?

thanks, miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

need better pics at it looks more like EIR to me

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thnx. Pics are the crappy phone type, sorry for that. Definitely not eirw. Color, smell, finesse - rather different altogether.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

I have these two more pics on my phone. Any better?

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

I have some palo escrito that looks just like the top picture if that helps. The wood on the bottom pictures looks different.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Looks like Kingwood to me, or like the pieces of Kingwood that I have.



Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

That's Dalbergia Cearensis…if you ask me. Brazillian kingwood.

Not EIR. lol

The first picture look just like the Kingwood FB's that I've seen. Very nice looking bit of wood!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

It might be dalbergia violeta, which looks very similar to kingwood.

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Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

thnx for the replies! it does looks like kingwood to me too.
Aaron, do you mean D. violaceae? i googled around an it appears its density is around .75 so my wood is too heavy for that. may i ask how you folks would describe kingwood´s smell?

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Hi Miguel,

That definitely appears to be Kingwood. I've worked with it quite a bit - mostly for headstock veneers and bridges. A lot of Kingwood is too heavy for bridges on classicals or flamencos, although I recently had a piece that seemed lighter than usual and got a 17g bridge out of it. Working with it I've never noticed much of a smell and it is not nearly as oily as Cocobolo. Dalbergia Cearensis is the correct designation, although, like most other rosewoods, it has several commonly used names, including Pau Violeta. I love the stuff! Madinter regularly carries Kingwood bridge blanks and sometimes they have back and side sets for classical.

Best wishes,
Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

Cook Woods has some Kingwood Back/Side sets. I bought a few of them and it is definitely excellent guitar material.

Looks like kingwood to me too. Here are some pictures of a board I have. Even freshly scraped the scent is mild. Notice the very small pores in the detail shot, almost like Pau Ferro: