Wood names in Babylonia

[charangohabsburg]

What do Brazilian Rosewood, Mahogany, Gidgee, Cedar, Rock Oak, Ebony and Spruce have in common?
Right: each of those names can stand for different woods. A babylonian confusion of languages here.

After having started to compile a list of wood names, in early 2009 I put a first list of about 80 woods with it's English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and scientific (Latin) names online. The list also contained the approximate densities of some woods. I further included a list of my most important sources.

Later, for those woods which are listed in the IUCN Red List database I added a link to the the respective entry.

Most of the woods included in my list have been used with success in lutherie (at least somewhere and/or at some time) but I don't mention the exact uses and I also don't mention workability, hardness, Young's Modulus or other technical data. But some links to sources where such data can be found are now marked as such.

Some woods in the list do have even more names that I am mentioning there. I tried to only list the most known ones. However, some of the sources go much further. The probably most reliable large name listings for a specific wood can be found on IUCN redlist entries and on the "Cabicompendium" website (do a google research for a specific Latin name on the latter website ). You'll find these links (and many more) in my list you can download at the end of this posting.

During the last days I have added more than 30 mainly Australian woods and their numerous names. By their nature of mostly being not (or not yet) commercialised worldwide, many of them lack a name in another language than English (and Latin). However, I was surprised how many different Gidgees there are around, and also how different the wood of some Acacias are each one from another species of this same genus. The same goes for the great diversity of Eucalyptus species.

I know, there are bigger an more complete lists out there, in Internet and in printed media. I can not compete with them, which is not my goal either. But I included links and references to some of them. By now, the list has grown to approximately 220 woods, I-don't-have-a-clue-how-many names, and about 40 links and textual references to my most important sources the list is based on.

If you like, download the spreadsheet in Excel or OpenOffice format you will finde here:
www.straordinaria.ch/babilonadas

I have to admit that in this version 2.15, June 2011, French, German and Italian are a bit neglected and might need an update. Meanwhile you'll have to look for some name translations using the scientific name and the search engine of your choice. But you'll have to use search engines and search functions of websites anyway if you want to get the juice out of that list which is just a little helper to open a door.

Cheers

[Tod Gilding]

A very handy list you have there Markus, and I agree that the different names can be confusing,but often you find,especially here in Australia we tend to be a little carefree with our names and a lot of the timbers are different species, Australian Blackwood is a good example , I see that you have Sally Wattle listed as Acacia melanoxylon when in fact it is Acacia salicina pronounced Sally seena hence the name Sally wattle Mr Spittle markets this Australian blackwood as Cooba, So yes it can be confusing

[charangohabsburg]

Thanks for the hint, Tod. I'll merge it into version 2.16.

[...] So yes it can be confusing

Yes, it is confusing. Actually I'm glad the confusion is not limited to South American wood names.

[kiwigeo]

Thanks Markus....very useful info.

[Steve]

...Australian Blackwood is a good example , I see that you have Sally Wattle listed as Acacia melanoxylon when in fact it is Acacia salicina pronounced Sally seena hence the name Sally wattle Mr Spittle markets this Australian blackwood as Cooba, So yes it can be confusing

You're right Tod, common names are a bugger, and Blackwood is a doozy. According to 'Forest Trees of Australia', Sally Wattle is indeed one of the common names (as well as Cooba & a heap of other local variants) for Acacia salicina. Sally Wattle is also one of the common names for Acacia melanoxylon and Acacia mangium.
I'd go for Blackwood for melanoxylon - I would think that it's the most commonly used name when I'm having money extracted from my wallet.
The suite of blue and red gums are another mine-field for common names.
Nice work Markus. I'm sure that you're already aware of the survey of timber use that Andrew Morrow conducted a few years ago in Australia? Actually, last time that I spoke with him, he was working on a ronroco, which he described as a scaled-up charango, so I reckon that you two would probably hit it off!
Steve

[charangohabsburg]

Yes, I have read (read) Andrew Morrow's Aussie Timber Report (got it from here ) but i haven't used it yet for this list.

BTW, version 2.16 is now online (same URL as before). I have waded through the entries I had not checked yet for IUCN Red List entries, and I have translated the rest of the comments that I had made only in Spanish (not really important comments). The file name remains in Spanish, I hope this will not be too disturbing . Sometimes I update the list two or three times in a single week, and sometimes I won't update for two or three months.

I'd like to make some remarks on the IUCN Red List:

• It is still possible that there are some woods in my list which I did not link to the IUCN Red List in spite of that they are IUCN listed species. There are two or three reasons for this:
  - The scientific name in my list comes with a typo,
  - I only believed to having it searched in the Red List without having done so, or
  - the scientific name the species is listed in the Red List is another one I indicated in my list. Yes, there are synonymous scientific (Latin) names for
  quite a few woods.
• The IUCN Red List features many woods as "vulnerable" which is the level before "endangered". It is really worth to read the Red List entries because there is normally mentioned why a species has reached a certain level in the charts. For example, the King Billy Pine is listed as vulnerable not because of overexploitation but because of fire (30% loss in the last 100 years).
• There are protected species that are listed as Lower risk - least concern like for example yew (Taxus baccata) in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and there are endangered species which are not protected. Brazilian Rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) for example is "only" listed as vulnerable, not endangered, which may be because it is now protected.
• There are other, not protected woods of any Red List level which are banned from export of the country of origin.

Steve, I'm glad to read that such a prominent capacity like Andrew Morrows is building a charango!
Yes, the ronroco is basically a tenor charango. Today, nearly every tenor charango gets called ronroco (or ronrroco) which was a design developed or "invented" (in the late sixties or early seventies) by a member of the most successful group of andean-pop fusion music, the Kjarkas (Bolivia). They were, by the way also the composers of the "Lambada song" and had to fight to get their authorship recognised and paid (The song had been plagiarised by the french-brazilian group Kaoma).
I have known of quite a few people building a ronroco, probably because for a long time, the only description of charango building available on Internet was the one of a ronroco (not the Kjarkas-model though), made by a Spanish friend of mine (Norberto de León Cabrera of the "Agrupación Cultural Kuntur Huasi" ).

Oh well, I see I am hijacking my own thread...

Cheers

[Nick]

What a wonderful resource! Thanks for taking the time & effort to compile this Markus, but all this must be taking you away from the shed & building time!

[charangohabsburg]

I'm really glad to see that my list does not only cover part of my own needs!

[...] but all this must be taking you away from the shed & building time!

Of course, yes!
Just like this and another forum do as well.
Not to speak about all the time my books about instrument building, acoustics and wood crafting are eating up!

But seriously, trying to understand better what I am working with and how I can accomplish certain things is part of the building process. And sharing my findings pushes me to do a better job on researching - which again is my own benefit.

Talking of lost shed & building time: allow me to mention that it's a shame how much free time is getting lost because of work!

Cheers

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Thanks for this list!
And by the way, I think your post should get some sort of award for having the most interesting title ever.

Steve