Very hard ( I dont know the Janska hardness). (And I think the density of the two woods bears that out as well.). ". Very hard to say from the picture. The start cracking after day or two days from processing. You see it in everything from custom acoustic guitars to fretboards on production model electric guitars, as they search for a viable alternative to buck diminishing resources and rising prices of the much-lauded rosewoods. Grain/Texture: Grain is typically interlocked, with a medium to coarse texture. The wood had 9 – 13% humidity and plaining it, it start cracking against the direction to the rings. This means I am guessing when i place my order with them, as I allow my customer to change their mind about the model we'll build right up to "cut the wood" time. Allergies/Toxicity: Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, Jatoba has been reported to cause skin irritation. Jatoba is inexpensive for an imported timber. No dictionary allowed, at least for me. Hope it will become a nice connection to my home country. Endgrain: Diffuse-porous; large pores, very few; solitary and radial multiples of 2-3; mineral deposits (dark brown) occasionally present; parenchyma vasicentric, aliform (lozenge or winged), confluent, and marginal; narrow to medium rays, normal spacing. I just got a very large slab of Jatoba for a dining table. Pricing/Availability: Available in satisfactory sizes and widths as lumber, and also available as flooring planks. If I hand one of my multi-scale guitars to someone w/o their seeing it first, they invariably fail to notice just from playing it. I don’t think the weight of the wood itself needs to rule its usage out if attached properly. There would seem to be confusion on that point Hymenaea courbaril tree is commonly called “stinky toe” and is a Legume. Pretty grain but it had my 5 hp bandsaw smoking and just barely got it through my spiral planer. I am still considering this! It works well but hard, glues well, sands well, and finishes easily with tung oil or plane lacquer. Certainly I don't do any thing special when playing mine. Fabulous looking guitars with this one! Jatoba Hymenaea courbaril, Brazilian Cherry Between Maple and Rosewood in its hardness & density, as it is tonally. Also quartersawn. I work with a lot of different exotics including bloodwood and purple heart. Living near Chicago now I’ve just secured a nice Jatoba slab and will hold to it until I find the right project. I bought it for flooring in my house and love it. In your expert opinion, what wood other than walnut would be good for the shelves? It is apparently quite old, though I have no idea when ships used exotic hardwood for ballast. Under ideal conditions it might take ten years to grow the trunk thick enough to fruit. I only knew this as the fruit tree where it is called jabotacaba. Wow! I don’t believe that’s Jatoba. well, so far it was quite pricy and hard to get, it has a really amazing deep orange color with black mineral deposits, couldn’t ask for a more beautiful piece, others had a redish brown color in it more similar to the picture shown, to be more specific this was Bolivian Jatoba, also known as “Paquio”,… Read more », (This is a monthly update, and your email will be kept private.). Bruce Sexauer is a fan. A good wood thread should deal with both pros and cons IMO, so I've lifted this quote from the recent mahogany thread. Is sapwood softer or less durable than the heartwood? I have a mid century red hardwood cabinet with the only identification being a tag on the bottom labeled “Made in Brazil”. Thank goodness I can't see it in person. But this one seemed to have kind of a traditional look to it. When I mentioned the company, it occurred to him that one of his soccer mates worked there. So the most deep characteristics of this wood is its color and the hardness. FYI: I receive a commission on sales generated through links to Amazon, eBay, etc. When I was teenager, I lived in a house during 10 years, and the stairs was made with this kind of wood, and there are not wood wear. It immediately struck me as quite attractive (darkish compared to many other "floor woods", with reds and browns) and hard. I make a guitar in an elapsed time of 5 weeks, generally. Holy moly, is that a great looking instrument! With the pieces left over I built some small pieces with handmade dovetail drawers. (Though it has been reported to be susceptible to attack from marine borers.). Yes thank you Thank you for your time! I already was a woodfool and also I believed many, if not most hardwoods could be used for guitar backs and sides. It is similar to the difference between stiff and strong. She likes the look of Jatoba as well as white oak. -- tends to be geeky and pointless. The reactions in general were like "if it were so suitable, it would have been used before" or "you couldn't sell a jatoba guitar", etc. I have several pieces I was hoping someone here could help me to identify. By the fact, the correct name is JANSKA , not Janka ( in reference to the… Read more », Seems like you are talking about this wood species https://panatrees.com/zapatero/, https://www.tropicaltimber.info/specie/mascarey-hieronyma-alchorneoides/, As a side note, neither of the two sources cited spell Gabriel Janka’s last name Janska. Hi there, This site is wonderful! I love the color it becomes once exposed to light. It is amazing how a little distancing creates a whole new perspective. I suspect from what I know of Jaboticaba the very slow growth and wet and dry cycles, combined with the habit of fruiting on the trunk should make it a very interesting wood. I have had to 00 case for most of a year, and don't even remember who it would have been for. Comments: Although it’s widely named “Brazilian Cherry,” (mostly among flooring sellers), it bears little relation to the domestic Cherry (Prunus serotina) that is found in the US, except perhaps that its natural color closely matches the common stained color of domestic Cherry that has been aged/stained reddish-brown as seen on some interior furniture. Copyright © 2008-2020 Eric Meier | All Rights Reserved, Fluorescence: A Secret Weapon in Wood Identification. I was hoping someone could help me identify the wood? When I held it up to a piece of jatoba at Rockler, the reddish portion looked almost identical. The Model F, Freja named after the Goddess of Love and War, is noted for her unsurpassed ability to excel both as rhythmic instrument, … Color tends darken upon exposure to light. Jatoba would only be about 25% heavier than something like oak. I’m not sure what is. Workability: Jatoba is considered difficult to work with on account of its density and hardness, and has a moderate blunting effect on tool cutters. After I mentioned I would start a thread on Jatoba, majorminor wrote this: I believe mine's air dried, something that I always opt for if available. The pieces I have have some lighter sapwood that is also full… Read more ». I can't even build a bookshelf so my interest in wood -- and thank you Henk for successfully lobbying for this section! Responds well to steam-bending. Jatoba is very similar to Ovangkol in its appearance, but generally has a more pronounced figure. OK, not that similar. Just got my first load of Jatoba yesterday. I first got it because a local cabinet and furniture maker with a hankering to build a guitar asked me to resaw some in exchange for a set of it, and i am a sucker for this kind of approach. Yes, air drying would seem ideal (for any, but certainly for this wood). I’m a furniture maker. Based on your descriptions of Jatoba properties, I’m thinking that this wood would be too heavy for those dimensions. Color/Appearance: Heartwood varies from a light orangish brown to a darker reddish brown, sometimes with contrasting darker grayish brown streaks. A few years ago one of my friends posed the question to me; "What is the difference between precision and accuracy?". Distribution: Central America, southern Mexico, northern South America, and the West Indies, Tree Size: 100-130 ft (30-40 m) tall, 2-4 ft (.6-1.2 m) trunk diameter, Average Dried Weight: 57 lbs/ft3 (910 kg/m3), Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): .77, .91, Modulus of Rupture: 22,510 lbf/in2 (155.2 MPa), Elastic Modulus: 2,745,000 lbf/in2 (18.93 GPa), Crushing Strength: 11,780 lbf/in2 (81.2 MPa), Shrinkage: Radial: 4.2%, Tangential: 8.0%, Volumetric: 12.1%, T/R Ratio: 1.9. I have been told this lumber could be at least 70-80 years old. However, Jatoba glues, stains, turns, and finishes well. That would take him years anyway, he said. It has been stained a beautiful deep cherry, but I’ve sanded an area to show the true color, still reddish hue, and here is a closeup. I would say that, at least in my experience, while jatoba can be somewhat tough to work, bloodwood has got to rank at close to the top of the list, at least for me. Sapwood is a light grayish yellow, clearly demarcated from the heartwood. Henk- as it happens, I found a very well quartersawn Jatoba board at my hardwood supplier several months ago, and decided to give it a shot, having also heard mention of it on Bruce Sexauer's site. It’s beautiful. It is really dense wood and I’d love to know what it is.. For example: I was thrilled to learn Jatoba is sometimes pollinated by bats!