Color/Appearance: Heartwood is medium to dark reddish brown, sometimes with an olive-green hue, with darker brown streaks. Overall color tends to darken with age. Sharply demarcated sapwood is pale yellow.
Grain/Texture: Grain is usually straight or slightly wavy. Fine, even texture with good natural luster.
Rot Resistance: Rated as durable to very durable.
Workability: Despite its high density, cocuswood is easy to work. However, several antioxidant compounds have been found in the wood which suggests that reactive finishes may have difficulty curing. The wood has a tendency to check during initial drying, but is stable once dried.
Odor: No characteristic odor.
Allergies/Toxicity: Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, cocuswood has been reported to cause skin irritation. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information.
Pricing/Availability: Exports are nearly non-existent. Because of past exploitation, samples and turning blanks are exceptionally rare, and are likely to be very expensive. Due to the very small size of the tree (closer to a shrub in many instances), pieces are of modest size and usually include sapwood.
Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, due to intense exploitation in previous centuries, for all intents and purposes, cocuswood has been commercially exhausted.
Common Uses: Turned objects, woodwinds (clarinets, flutes, oboes, bagpipes, etc.), carvings, inlays, and other small specialty items.
Comments: Because of this wood’s great density and hardness, coupled with its coloration, cocuswood has sometimes been referred to as Jamaican or green ebony. In tree form it is more commonly known as the Jamaican rain tree. (Additionally, the wood has also been called by the vague common name granadillo—along with about a dozen or so other wood species.)
Traditionally, cocuswood has been considered one of the very finest of tonewoods, used extensively for woodwind instruments in the 1800s. Today, the preferred tonewood for woodwinds has largely been superseded by African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon).
My only piece of cocuswood.
Because of it’s hardness, weight, and reported ease of workability, Cocuswood is a perfect candidate for making turkey call strikers and has been used to make turkey call trumpets.
Can this wood be used for making cutting boards?
Also, what about carving spoons?
The data lists Janka Hardness as 3,720 lbf (16,550 N). In my experience, wood for cutting board use is best chosen from species with a Janka hardness of less than 2,000 lbf., harder woods may be destructive to edges of good kitchen knives.
Also, this is a smaller tree, yielding smaller blocks or boards and has low availability, it would make for a VERY expensive cutting board!