On 8/27/2010 12:37 PM, Bob AZ wrote:

If it was "grown in the tropics" then odds are that it's Jatoba, aka
"Brazilian Cherry". It looks somewhat like cherry and darkens with age,
but it's more than twice as hard as hard maple.

J Clarke

You seem to be more knowledgeable than me about this. Do you have any
online references that I may look at?

Thanks for the additional information.

The a good starting point is the FPL/CSIRO searchable database at
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/search/commonname_request.php. If there
isn't a tech sheet listed for a particular item it's probably not traded
commercially in any significant quantity. The search engine on that
site sucks though--entering "cherry" will not find the common US
commercial species, but "black" or "black cherry" will.

By the way, FPL will identify several samples a year for a US citizen at
no charge--details at
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/centers/woodanatomy/wood_idfactsheet.php.

http://www.woodworkerssource.com has datasheets and photos for a wide
range of species, some of which they also have in stock for sale.