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.