Geographic Distribution:
Some years ago, I bought a blank identified as “Ceylon Rosewood (Bilwara)” because I had never heard of it before. As it turns out, the wood is more commonly called Black Siris and proves to be known to botanists as Albizia odoratissima. The genus designation of Albizia means that while the common name includes the term “rosewood,” Black Siris is NOT a true rosewood of the Dalbergia genus. And, to my eyes, A. odoratissima looks nothing like a true rosewood anyway.
A. odoratissima is native to central and southern Asia (India and Sri Lanka primarily) but it has also been introduced into Eastern Africa.
For the sake of simplicity and common understanding I will refer to A. odoratissima from here forward using the common name Black Siris.
General Characteristics:
The heartwood of Black Siris tends to be of a medium to dark reddish brown, frequently with bands of lighter and/or darker colored wood. The sapwood of Black Siris is a contrasting pale yellow. As is common with tropical hardwoods, the heartwood color can be expected to darken with age and while nothing can stop this process completely, storage out of bright direct sunlight, or other sources of ultraviolet radiation will help slow the process as will the use of UV inhibiting finishes.
The grain of Black Siris is almost universally interlocked. Black Siris presents with a uniformly coarse texture but a good natural luster when finely polished and prepared.
Black Siris is rated a non-durable again rot but the dry wood is reported to be resistant to termites.
Working Characteristics:
Black Siris is reported to be moderately easy to work with. That said, the interlocked grain can cause significant tear out problems during planing operations.
Black Siris has a moderate blunting effect on cutters so frequent sharpening, or the use of replaceable carbide cutters, will be rewarded.
Black Siris is reported to turn, glue, and finish nicely.
Black Siris has no reported characteristic odor.
Pricing and Availability:
Black Siris is not commonly imported to the United States except as turning blanks and even those are not easy to find. When it is available, one should expect the prices to be in the moderate to high range for an imported hardwood.
In this blog, I almost always recommend several vendors with whom I have done considerable business and in whom I have great confidence. These vendors are: West Penn Hardwoods, Bell Forest Products, NC Wood, WoodTurningz, Amazon Exotic Hardwoods, Griffin Exotic Wood, Exotic Woods USA, Got Wood?, and Wood Turning Blanks 4U.
At this time, only NCWood is selling Black Siris, which they call Ceylon Rosewood or Bilwara, in both spindle and bowl blank sizes. Their price for an 8x8x3″ bowl is currently $48.
Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Black Siris this can be an invaluable resource provided you use multiple search terms to capture all the possible listings. I can’t speak to the quality of any of the listed dealers, but Woodfinder does have the advantage of allowing searches to be performed based on location which might allow an interested buyer to visit a listed wood dealer in person to hand pick pieces at a comfortable price.
A significant problem with using Woodfinder is that many vendors are listed for woods that, upon further investigation, they do not offer. I don’t know if perhaps once they did and they didn’t update their listings or if some vendors use a standardized list of woods that include most everything conceivable with the idea that once you land on their page you will find something you want to buy even if you didn’t know it beforehand. It happens to me all the time!
Common Uses:
The most common uses of Black Siris include: furniture, veneer, tool handles and other turned objects.
Sustainability:
Black Siris is NOT listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices nor is it listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List.