Sonokeling wood for furniture

Sonokeling (Dalbergia latifolia) and sono kembang (Pterocarpus indicus) are often called as the makasar ebony or Indian rosewood. The tree is found lot in the Indian subcontinent, from the foothills of the Himalayas to the southern tip of the peninsula, especially in the dry areas of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This plant lives well in areas with rainfall between 750-5000 mm per year, on a variety of soil types, but he lives best at the deep soils and moist climate but with good drainage. In Indonesia, the sonokeling trees grow wildly at the slope of many mountains in Central Java and East Java at the area with altitude of 600 m or above from sea level. The tree is also planted in intercropping systems, with a variety of horticulture trees such as rice fields, maize, cassava, or beans. Some people also plant this tree as a constituent at the agro forestry, mixed with fruitwood such as: mango, jackfruit, soursop, guava , etc.

 sonokeling wood

The sonokeling wood is a hard wood, strong and durable; it has been used for various purposes. It has nice grain strong character grain but with smooth texture. It has dark brown base color with black purple strip which is very besutiful. This wood is also durable and has high resistant to the insect attack and decay fungi. The sap wood has lighter color to whites to yellowish and vogue grain strip. 

The wood have been known as the premium wood since long time ago. It has been used to make many products. Many kind of furniture such as: cabinet, table, bed etc can be built with this wood, as well of other wood product such as: door, floor, wall or house frame can be made with this wood.  Its beautiful appearance, dark brown base color with black stripes makes his wood has high value.

Model for sonokeling wood furniture. 

The sonokeling  wood which has “busy" appearances is more suitable for furniture or wood product with simple model. Some carvings and ornaments can be used, but should not to be too much. Too many carving or too complex model could be contrary to its “busy appearance” from the natural wood motif. The simple forms or minimalist model of furniture with flat panels will maximize the beauty appearances of the wood to give the elegance, luxury and expensive looked product. Now with the veneer technology, more variation apperarance can be produced.  The sonokeling wood veneer can be arranged alone or in combination with other wood with special patterns to make product with attractive appearance.

 high gloss finish for sonokeling

Finishing for sonokeling wood.

The sonokeling wood has a dark color with beautiful appearance. The natural finish with clear coating applications without stain will give the nice looked. The thin wood stain still can be used to make more life looked, but too dark stain should be avoided since it could cover and kill the wood beauty. This wood has soft pore and grain texture then a close pores finished can be made quite easy. The simple NC finishing system can be used to make nice wood look finish, but for high gloss finish the PU or AC finishing system is more recommended to make more strong finish layer.

We can make the antic finish with some physical distress and glaze application to make old looked finish. Too heavy antique effect or glaze application should be avoided to maximize its natural beauty wood looked. The wood has a dark base color that make the final finishing color choice is relatively limited. We cannot make the light finish with the wood.  If the light finish color is wanted then the process to whiten the wood (bleaching process) is needed.