The smell of rosewood

[Dave Gray]

I am making a small belaying pin for my boat. It is modeled on a maple one I bought from the WoodenBoat Store. I figured I would use the maple one for the jib halyard and this one for the main sail, then I would have contrasting colors. Actually handle will be rosewood and the pin will be a 1/2" mahogany dowel. I am using a scrap from a mill end bin for about $9 a pound.

Milling rosewood gives such a sweet odor, it makes me want to burn it as incense!

[TimmS]

Will the mahogany dowel be strong enough? I would guess it will have half the strength of the maple......?

[Dave Gray]

I've been wondering and may use walnut instead.

[TimmS]

Can you get locust out there?

[TimH]

lignum vitae

[Dave Gray]

I don't think I have seen locust at the two places I usually frequent, which are Crosscut Hardwoods and Woodcrafters (which is not part of the Woodcraft chain).

[TerryLL]

I use several rosewoods in the shop, Bolivian, Honduran, and East Indian. I've also used Tulip, Cocobolo, Kingwood, and Brazilian Rosewood. These are all true rosewoods in the Dalbergia genus. East Indian is by far the sweetest smelling, with sort of a spicy tobacco aroma.

[PeterSibley]

I wish you blokes were closer , I have an excess of rosewood in small sizes ! The Australian version Terry , extremely durable !

[TerryLL]

I wish you blokes were closer , I have an excess of rosewood in small sizes ! The Australian version Terry , extremely durable !

Pics please. If it's lovely I might just pay the freight.

[David G]

Mr. Gray,

If you want a suitable scrap of black locust, give me a call.

[David G]

We sometimes have trouble fining black locust. It's not a common tree around here. The last batch came from an Urban Forester, who salvaged a tree that was coming down to make room for a new building downtown. I got all he had. Just today, I decided to try to get a bit more. I called around to the usual suspects and came up empty. Even Edensaw, up in Port Townsend, was a dry well. The only hope is a small sawmill that reputedly occasionally saws a bit of it. We'll see if I get a callback.

[PeterSibley]

Pics please. If it's lovely I might just pay the freight.

Lovely it is and durable too .But the scent is the good part !:)

[Old Sailor]

Gee, my rosewood Eames chair had no smell. But that was plywood............
Old Sailor

[ron ll]

I have a guitar whose back and sides are Brazilian rosewood. It was made in 1974, but because the inside is unfinished, the aroma is still strong. Love it.

[ron ll]

Yeah, I bought the guitar in 1974 in Madrid from Manuel Contreres. At the time he was building guitars from wood that his father and grandfather had set aside. As classical guitars became more popular in the '70's, the luthiers started running out of new dry wood, so they started salvaging wood from old furniture. Sometimes you will see a very high end guitar with black spots in the wood where it was near some iron fastening.

(So I've been told. I need to remember that there are master luthiers frequenting this forum who probably know much more about this lore.)