Pterocarpus erinaceus
This wood species was recently (Jan. 2, 2017) added to CITES appendix II. With no CITES annotation on the listing, in addition to the raw wood, this restriction also extends to finished products made of Kosso wood.
Appearance-wise, it bears a strong resemblance to Muninga, another Pterocarpus species.
It is considered one of the “hongmu” (rosewood) species by the Chinese.
I have a sample of Kosso in the current queue, but it has yet to be processed. In the meantime, please see PROTA’s page for more information on this species.
Kosso is a tree species form the Congo Area of Africa and is rated at 1360 on the Janka Hardness Scale.
I got a haul of this right before it was listed on CITES. I’ve documented some of the features of the wood here:
https://festoolownersgroup.com/building-materials/kosso-wood!/
I have some kosso. Its about 1500 I would guess
I build drums and just came across a huge supply of this. No idea what is was, this is the first post on my search. A couple pieces looked like waterfall bubinga, but the rest looked a little uneventful.
I found kosso about a year ago at my local lumber yard. I loved working with it. I went back and it was almost gone. Then I heard about the CITES ban and went back to buy as much as I could. I have at least 5 boards of it and have been waiting to use it as I know little more than what it looks like(it’s grain patterns and colors are beautiful). BUt I can’t find and information it. I build guitars and want to use it for fret boards but I can not kind and information on its… Read more »