Indian Rosewood / North Indian Rosewood

Family: Fabaceae - Order: Fabales - Class: Magnoliopsida

Scientific name: Dalbergia sissoo

Trade name:  Sheesham / North Indian rosewood / Indian Rosewood / Sissoo.

Also known as North Indian rosewood, Shisham Rosewood, Sheesham.

Origin: Western Asia and Indian Subcontinent.

Instrumental uses:
Guitar back and sides, fingerboards, bridges, head plates, bindings, peg heads, turnery and woodwind parts.

Tonal properties:

As tonewood, is very versatile. Provides projective basses, very flat midrange and very well defined high frequencies with a very good note separation. Combines very well with Engelmann spruce or red cedar tops in classical guitars.

When used in fingerboards it has sweet punch on high frequencies and good sound transmission.

The grain is straight to interlocked with a medium texture, helping very much with the resonance overall.

Easy to work but glues and finishes very well.

It is stiff and very resistant with an average dried weight nearly of 48  lbs/ft3 or 770 kg/m3. 

Is native from the Indian Subcontinent to Southern Iran but is widely distributed by Asia, Central America, Central and South Africa, even Australia, can also grow in all Brazilian regions.

Sissoo is a deciduous medium-sized fast growing tree. Can grow up to 30 meters tall. The bole is often crooked and branchless for up to 8 metres, occasionally for as much as 20 meters.

The bark of young trees is smoother and lighter coloured, getting darker by the  fast growing nature of this specie. The heartwood is golden to dark brown; the sapwood is white to pale brownish white.

CITES status is protected under the Appendix II. Is not reported on the IUCN Red List but is under protection and supervision on many countries.