Greenheart

Geographic Distribution:

The wood commonly known as Greenheart is known to botanists and other scientists as Chlorocardium rodieiC. rodiei is native to northern South America, being harvested primarily in Guyana and Suriname.

For the sake of simplicity and common understanding, I will refer to C. rodiei as Greenheart from here forward.

General Characteristics:

The heartwood of Greenheart, as the name implies, tends to be a pale olive green color with darker streaks.  The yellowish green sapwood of Greenheart is poorly distinguished from the heartwood.

Greenheart grain tends to be straight to interlocked, with a fine to medium grain, and good natural luster.

Greenheart is rated as very durable against rot, and it is also resistant to most insect attacks. Greenheart is considered to be one of the best-suited woods for use in marine environments, and it has good weathering characteristics.

Working Characteristics:

Greenheart is considered to be generally somewhat difficult to work on account of its density.  Greenheart is known to have a moderate to high blunting effect on cutters.

Sections of Greenheart with interlocked grain should be machined with care to avoid grain tearout.

Gluing Greenheart can be difficult in some pieces, and precautions for gluing tropical species should be followed.

Greenheart turns and finishes well.

Greenheart responds moderately well to steam-bending.

Greenheart does not have a distinctive scent when being freshly worked or cut.

Pricing and Availability:

Seldom available in the United States in lumber form, Greenheart is usually sold for decking or other outdoor materials. Prices should be moderate for an imported exotic species, but finding a source may be a problem.

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.

None of my favored wood vendors are currently offering Greenheart in any format.

Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers.  In your search for Greenheart 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:

Greenheart is commonly used in boatbuilding, docks, decking, posts, fishing rods, pool cues, and other turned wood items.

Sustainability:

Greenheart is not listed in the CITES Appendices, but is reported by the IUCN as being data deficient. Greenheart was formerly listed on the Red List as vulnerable (due to a population reduction of over 20% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range and exploitation), but this listing has been disputed by the Guyana Forestry Commission.

To the best of my knowledge, the United States government does not place any restrictions on Greenheart.

I realize that inherent in working with wood is the killing of a part of the natural world that may be slow to return and if I become deeply concerned about this fact, I will have to find a new hobby.  I hope that such a time does not come to pass or at least not any time soon.  In part because I am concerned about legally and responsibly obtained wood, I am reluctant to buy from sellers outside of well-established and known vendors.  I am highly unlikely, for example, to purchase any wood from auction sites, such as Ebay, because of uncertain sourcing and documentation, as well as the potential, even likelihood, of material being misidentified in order to achieve a higher selling price.