Geographic Distribution:
The wood commonly known by wood workers as Chechen is known to botanists and other scientists as Metopium brownei.
M. brownei is native to the Caribbean region and most imported logs are harvested from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Belize and southeastern Mexico. M. brownei may also be found in other locations throughout the Caribbean, including southern Florida, although commercial harvesting only occurs in areas with dense enough stands to make extraction economically viable. This geographic distribution accounts for the common name of “Caribbean Rosewood” although M. brownei is not a true rosewood of the Dalbergia genus. M. brownei may also be known as the “black poisonwood tree” due to the toxic sap (related to poison ivy) present in living or green wood but absent in well dried examples.
For the sake of simplicity and common understanding I will refer to M. brownei from here forward using the common name Chechen (occasionally spelled Chechem).
General Characteristics:
The color of Chechen heartwood is highly variable. Colors such as red, orange, and brown are often contrasted with darker stripes of blackish brown. As often happens with highly colored tropical woods, the color of Chechen tends to shift to a darker reddish brown with age. The sapwood is pale yellow and is well defined.
Chechen Bowl 1
Chechen usually demonstrates a straight grain but wild and interlocked grain is known. The texture is a uniform medium to fine character. Chechen display a good natural luster when well cut and polished.
Chechen is rated as being very durable against rot and is moderately resistant to most insect attacks.
Working Characteristics:
Chechen is considered fairly easy to work with. In those cases where interlocked or other wild grain patterns are present, tearout is a concern when machining these pieces. There are easy to learn techniques for dealing with these grain pattern issues however.
Chechen is reported to glue and finish well. However, due to the density of Chechen, nails and screws should be pre-drilled due to Chechen’s tendency to split.
Chechen Bowl 2
Some sources report that there is no characteristic odor associated with Chechen while others say that the odor is distinct enough to provide an identification of the wood based on the odor alone.
Pricing and Availability:
In the United States, Chechen is usually sold in lumber formats although turning blanks and thin stock for craft work is also sold. Vendors frequently promote Chechen as a low cost substitute for more expensive tropical hardwoods so prices should be in the moderate 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.
West Penn Hardwoods sells Chechen in thin dimensional format, lumber formats as well as turning blanks with a 6X6X3” selling for $22. Bell Forest Products sells Chechen in both spindle and bowl blank formats with the 6x6x3 selling for $23. NCWood sells spindle and bowl blanks, including up to 8x8x3 for $56 while their 6x6x3 sells for $33.
Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Chechen, 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.