Padauk
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Padauk (or padouk) is an Indonesian collective name for a group of fragrant timbers and trees from the genus Pterocarpus, found in the tropics of Southeast Asia, South America and Africa, Padouks are valued for their decorative toughness and stability in use, most having a reddish wood or reddish brown to golden, with sometimes striped black grain. Burmese padouk is P. macrocarpus, Andaman padouk is P. dalbergioides and the historic Zitan wood of classic Chinese furniture is P. satalinus or Red Sandelwood aka Red Sanders wood, a timber equal to the finest of Rosewoods.
The wood known in Indonesia as Amboyna is P. indicus, used for decoration and in making of furniture and keys on a marimba. It also produces large pippy outgrowths on the tree which are known as burrs; they are finely sliced to produce an extremely decorative veneer called Amboyna named after Ambon, an island in Indonesia where much of this material was originally found. Muniga is P. angolensis is one of the premium African furniture timbers it is a golden brown with occasional red streaks and a distinctive sweet smell. African Padouk is P. soyauxii which when freshly cut is a bright red but soon fades over time to a warm brown. Most padouks have a sweet pleasant or aromatic fragrance when worked. Padouks can be confused with Dalbergia Rosewood species with whom they are closely allied but as a general rule padouks have coarser nature and somewhat less decorative grain. There are myriad other Pterocarpus species found in various locales often used in secondary roles as building timber. Some African Padouks were said to be used by local woman as antiperspirants when rubbed onto the skin. This particular timber was called "Barwood", most likely a species closely connected to P. soyauxii.
In China, pterocarpus wood is used in the special Beijing Opera-instrument: "jing erhu". This is a two-string bowed lute and it belong to a family of bowed lutes known as HUQIN. The jing erhu body is hexagonal and made of wood (pterocarpus).
Most padouks timbers also contain either water or alcohol soluble dyes.