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Hi Folks!

For your viewing pleasure, I have just published a profile on the acacia also known as Vanuatu Blackwood as part of my ongoing tonewood database. As always, improvements, corrections and additional information/ your own experiences are much appreciated- I'll update the profile citing you and linking back to you! If you have an experiences or data to share, I would be very grateful.

I can't link pics directly to here so do pop by to
http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/1 ... d-profile/

for the full Visual presentation. As always, I present the text portion of the article for your consideration- although I do highly recommend popping by to see the pics!

Warmest regards,
Terence
http://www.guitarbench.com

Acacia Heterophylla | Tonewood Profile | ”Vanuatu Blackwood”

Tonewoods Database

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Quick Facts
Scientific name: Acacia Heterophylla
Trade names: Vanuatu Blackwood, Highland Tamarid
Janka: 1200 approx
Uses: Tops, Veneer, Back and sides
RIYL: Walnut, Mahogany
Bling factor: Curl and colour variation is not uncommon
Availability: Uncommon
CITES status: Not listed. No restrictions
Note: (RIYL) Recommended If You Like


Natural History

Vanuatu Blackwood is endemic to Reunion Island thriving in humid forests between 1000 to 2000 metres altitude. It has relatively quick growth of about 1 meter per annum and is often planted as an ornamental along roads, the flowers also provide nectar for honey bees.

Status

The wood is valued for construction, joinery and handicrafts. In particular it was a key component in building small boats until recently. Important stands still remain in Reunion, covering around 7500 ha of natural and secondary growth forest.

Physical properties

The wood is fine-grained with heartwood of pink-yellow to orange-brown tones and often display fiddleback figure. The janka of Vanuatu Blackwood is around 1200 and it has a specific gravity of 0.55.

As a tonewood…

Unlike the more plentiful Koa, Vanutau Blackwood guitars are rare, although I recall playing a few in the UK. Richard Cross of Shapelywood guitars had this to say:”As far as my memory of working with the blackwood, well it is a long time ago, and it is the only time I have worked it. Having said that, I have just found a blank for a soprano ukulele that I jointed (at 15 degrees) for use some time, on the principle of never throwing any wood away if it could be useful.

It is a very hard wood, but machines well, and can be made very thin. Routing makes a very clean edge with no tearing. Finishing takes a lot of fine sanding and virtually no filling is needed if the sanding is taken down to about 1000 grit or better. The whole panel will shine and have wonderful tactile features long before any finish is applied. The grain and the rays at right angles glisten as for good koa or curly maple.”.

Subjective tone…

I would broadly characterise the tone of Vanuatu Blackwood as being similar to Australian Blackwood & Koa, with a woody, open tone somewhere between mahogany and rosewood

Availability

As a rare semi-managed species, Vanuatu Blackwood stocks are still available although in very limited quantities. Alternatives exist, namely close cousins Australian and Koa. Read more about Australian Blackwood here and Koa here.

©2008 Terence Tan.

References: Wikipedia

Pictures copyright individual holders. F
Shapelywood guitar courtesy of Richard Cross.

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Why not?

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

My current domain host allows linking to pics but limits the traffic - so what will happen is the image will be viewable but as more and more folks load the pic, I'll exceed the limits and then the site will go down. For some reason this limit does not apply if the load comes from the root domain hosted.

The "tamarin des hauts" (his french name) is a very closed cousin of koa and black acacia. In fact both koa (Acacia koa) and tamarin des hauts (Acacia heterophylla) are sub-species of black acacia (Acacia melanoxylon). It is a very interresting wood but only found in Réunion island and is only sell by the ONF (national forest company) as a friend told me. So it could be difficult to find elsewhere.

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http://www.cherubin-luthier.fr
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