Amboyna Burl Information - Interesting Facts About Amboyna Burl Wood

Amboyna Burl Information

AMBOYNA BURL FACTS

Amboyna Burl (Pterocarpus indicus) is one of the most distinctive and sought after burl woods in the world. With heartwood ranging in color from golden yellow to deep red, and with beautifully contrasting, straw-colored sapwood — not to mention an inherent, often spectacular, wavy grain pattern — Amboyna Burl can add flair to almost any wood project.

Amboyna Burl wood is particularly popular with woodturners and wood carvers, as well as with pool-cue makers, fine furniture makers, producers of veneer, and seekers of dramatic inlay material.

Amboyna Burl Knife Handles
Created by Kurt D. of Indiana

A Pterocarpus indicus Tree

Most of Exotic Wood Group's Amboyna Burl has been imported from Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Laos. Commonly known as Narra (the name "Amboyna," incidentally, derives from Ambon, a port city in Indonesia where the wood was originally discovered), the wood is moderately hard and heavy, and very durable. Amboyna Burl has a specific gravity of about 0.66 and is considered an excellent wood for turning/carving and finishing. It polishes beautifully. It also emits a faint cedar-like aroma.

Pterocarpus indicus is a large, deciduous tree that can grow to about 100 feet tall, with a trunk diameter approaching 6 feet. Its dome-shaped crown, coupled with drooping branches and fine-looking flowers, helped spawn the use of Pterocarpus indicus as an ornamental tree on many major thoroughfares in Southeast Asia.

Pterocarpus indicus is still considered the official national tree of the Philippines — although, sadly, it is currently endangered in that country.

Of note: Amboyna Burl's color tends to darken over time with exposure to sunlight.

AMBOYNA BURL TIDBITS

Large Amboyna Burls are typically lugged out of the jungle via elephant.

Tea prepared from the leaves of Pterocarpus indicus trees has traditionally been used in parts of Southeast Asia as a remedy for boils and diarrhea, among other afflictions.