"Kelobre"?

[Peter Wilcox]

I bought a B&S set 8 years ago named as kelobre on the receipt. I can't find any wood called this, or anything close by google. Vendor not responding to my inquiries. Anybody have any idea? I'm starting an instrument with this - looks very nice. Attached a pic if that's of any help.

[Peter Wilcox]

To bring this to a close, it's almost certainly kelobra, ID'd on another forum, AKA Parota, Guanacaste, Pacific Koa, and Rain Tree wood. So much for google's "do you mean X" with only one letter difference.

[Chuck Tweedy]

I used Parota for a furniture project recently, and it seemed like it would be a great lutherie wood - very low density, but stiff, with great color.
Let us know how this turns out

[Clay Schaeffer]

Monkeypod Raintree.jpg

I built a guitar with it that turned out well. I used it for the back and sides with a spruce top. There is a Jeffrey Yong guitar on you tube with a Monkeypod top:
The wood has a chatoyance under finish that doesn't show in the photo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMNCkhrA2Ig

[Peter Wilcox]

Thanks Clay, I'll check that out. Mine too will have a spruce top.

Unfortunately the build is being delayed because I've become enamored of rosette making, and I'm spending my time learning how and building them. Getting better with eack one - maybe after 10 or 15 I'll have it down. BTW, thanks for your contributions to threads in the old library on this!

[Clay Schaeffer]

Hi Peter,
After researching a little further I found that Kelobra may not be the same as Monkey pod. Although they share the same common name "raintree" and have similar characteristics they apparently are different species. So although it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and very well may quack like a duck, it's not exactly the same duck. Oh well, Sorry about that!

[Chuck Tweedy]

Indeed, they are not the same duck, but they are very similar.

[David King]

Guancaste and monkey pod are definitely different species. Guancaste is brown and has very tight interlocking grain with matching chatoyance on the quarter, not unlike sapele.

[Randy Roberts]

Peter,

Not to change directions, but check the library for a ton of ideas with the rosettes.

http://www.mimf.com/library/Methods_for ... -2004.html

http://www.mimf.com/library/Our_members ... -2008.html

[Peter Wilcox]

Thanks Randy - yes, I already have those links bookmarked. I'm assuming the cutting board idea was yours, and I was able to get an old slightly warped one from my wife, which was large enough to cut in half, and routed the rosette channel into. That's a great idea - I'm sure if I built a rosette into the top itself I would leave dings and scratches (they seem to appear out of nowhere in my builds). Here's a pic of the board and a very simple rosette.

[Barry Daniels]

Nice looking rosette. Looks really deep.

[Randy Roberts]

Peter,
Really pretty rosette. If it's pithy, which a lot of spalted wood can be, you might want to "toughen" it up with thin CA before putting it into the top. Just use a small amount at a time so that the glue doesn't Chernobyl on you and turn white.
And don't forget to paint the trough in the top with shellac first if you glue the rosette in with CA.

I did come up with the idea on my own, but was not the first to do it by any stretch. I think I had to turn over the "slicker than snot on a doorknob" award to Tom Harper