Brazilwood
Brazilwood (or
Pau-Brasil, sometimes known as
Pernambuco) is a dense, orange-red wood (which takes a high shine), and it is the premier wood used for making
bows for string instruments from the
violin family. The wood also yields a red
dye called
brazilin, which oxidizes to
brazilein.
When
Portuguese explorers found many of these red-hued trees on the coast of
South America, they used the name
pau-brasil to describe them:
pau is portuguese for "wood", and
brasil is said to have come from
brasa, portuguese for "ember". This name was used earlier to describe a different species of tree which was found in Asia and other places and which also produced red dye; but the south american trees soon became the better source of red dye. Brazilwood trees were such a large part of the exports and economy of the land that the country which sprang up in that part of the world took its name from them and is now called
Brazil.
Botanically, several tree species are involved in the family
Leguminosae, the (
pulse family). The term "Brasilwood" is most often used to refer to the species
Caesalpinia echinata, although it is also applied to other species. This
Caesalpinia echinata is also known as
Pau-de-Pernambuco (
Pernambuco is also the name of a small state in Northeast Brazil).
In the bow making business, the best quality Brazilwood bows are referred to as "Pernambuco", while those bows of lesser quality wood from this species are often called "Brazilwood".
In the 15th and 16th centuries, brazilwood was highly valued in
Europe and quite difficult to get. Coming from
Asia, it was traded in powder form and used as a red dye in the manufacture of luxury
textiles, such as
velvet, in high demand during the
Renaissance. When Portuguese navigators discovered present-day Brazil, on
April 22,
1500, they immediately saw that brazilwood was extremely abundant along the coast and in its hinterland, along the rivers. In a few years, a hectic and very profitable operation for
felling and transporting by shipping all the brazilwood logs they could get was established, as a crown-granted Portuguese
monopoly. The rich
commerce which soon followed stimulated other nations to try to harvest and smuggle brazilwood
contraband out of Brazil, or even
corsairs attacking loaded Portuguese ships in order to steal their cargo. For example, the unsuccessful attempt of a French expedition led by
Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, vice-admiral of
Brittany and corsair under the King, in 1555, to establish a colony in present-day
Rio de Janeiro (
France Antarctique) was motivated in part by the bounty generated by economic exploitation of brazilwood.
Excessive exploitation (it has been estimated that in the last two centuries, more than 50 million trees were destroyed) finally led to a steep decrease in the number of brazilwood trees in the 18th century, causing the collapse of this economic activity. Presently, the species is practically
extinct in most parts of the country: it is listed as an endangered species by the
IUCN. The trade of brazilwood is therefore likely to be banned in the immediate future, creating a major problem in the bow-making industry which highly values this wood. The
International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative, whose members are the bowmakers who rely on pernambuco for their livelihoods, is working hard to replant it. It is advocating the use of other woods for violin bows as it raises money to plant pernambuco seedlings. This shortage of pernambuco has also helped the
carbon fiber bow industry to thrive.
*
About Pernambuco Wood from a bowmaker's website.
