Wallpaper from Wood Samples

[WP08]Satinwood (Bee's-wing Mottle Figure(Chloroxylon swietenia)

This wood grows in Central and Southern India and Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon. A bright, golden yellow in color, maturing somewhat to a golden brown tone, this wood has a very distinctive sweet fragrance when cut. It exhibits some remarkable figuring, the grain is narrowly interlocked and variegated, producing mottle, roe and ribbon striped figure, broken stripe, and the so-called "bee's-wing" cross mottled figure. This is a very oily wood, with the dust tending to clump up. It is an excellent inlay material and beautiful in contrast to African blackwood in polychromatic ornamental turning designs, though it has a tendency to surface check. Its density is about 61 pounds per cubic foot (980 kilograms per cubic meter). An interesting anecdote is recounted by Constantine, in his book Know Your Woods as follows; "A pecularity of the wood is that while it burns in an open fireplace very well and with a fragrant restful odor, inducing slumber in many who sit before it, the smoke of this satinwood will kill canaries."

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