As most of our 1989 CS5s were being ordered in Rosewood, and our Rosewood was true Brazilian Rosewood, and since the term 'Rosewood' had been applied for decades to another wood often called Santos Rosewood; and considering that Brazilian Rosewood was planned to be embargoed in 1991, and that my extensive stash was not unlimited . . .
I wanted a different upscale offering to ease the Rosewood pain. And I wanted that new wood to be affordable enough to offer without significant upcharge, and I required a sustainable-yield, responsible source. You may guess that such requests are generally promised in the international wood market, but never honored. The wood business is dirty.
I embarked on a trip to Brazil with our long-term wood importer Jim Martin to sort the liars from the thieves. Turns out behind the curtain one can readily discern the lay of the land. Visiting 13 Brazilian mills in 11 days demonstrated that there were no honest brokers in Brazil. Surprise - no. We set off for Bolivia and found our solution in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on the upland plateau east of the Andes. Suto Wood Products was operated by a 4th generation Japanese 'cowboy' who exported most of their output to Japan as small millwork and blanks for various manufacturing operations 'back home'. We got the grand tour of the extensive mill, some feeder lots, the University Forestry Department and the Department of Forestry. These guys were looking for a customer like Thiel, plus Jim held the power of president of the US Forestry Fund, which sponsors conservation and planting projects for suppliers to US wood products manufacturers. Good fit.
We struck up a wonderful long term relationship and were pleased to help fund a unique planting project with the Chiquitano People - the curare blowers. The project succeeded because their land was isolated by swamps and poison darts from timber poaching. That's another story.
The wood is called Pao Ferro, one of many called 'Iron Wood'. When the Germans steal it through Brazil, the export portion goes through the southeastern Brazilian Port of Santos over 3,000 miles away from its growth habitat in upland Bolivia. I wanted to separate our wood from this compromised history by coining our own name for it.
In the native habitat we learned that their are two grouped species in this timber offering. Machaerium scleroxylon is the harder, slower growing upland Bolivian species with fewer extractives, irregular dark lines and lighter colors. It can look like prime Brazilian Rosewood. Machaerium acutifolium is the lowland species from Venezuella to NE Argentina with a more regular purple color. Suto was willing to separate varieties and grade for my particular preferences.
We called the upland species 'Amberwood' and the lowland species 'Morado' (purple in Bolivian Spanish.) Bypassing the normal multi-step veneer supply chain, and pre-selecting our grades at the mill before export allowed us to offer this exotic wood at our standard finish pricing. That relationship persisted all the way till the sale to New Thiel. I'm glad you like it - I do to.
