Australian Blackwood

Family: Fabaceae - Order: Fabales - Class: Magnoliopsida
Scientific name: (Acacia melanoxylon)

Trade name: Australian blackwood

Also known as Black Acacia, acacia blackwood, Hickory, Mudgerabah or Tasmanian Blackwood

Origin: South eastern Australia

Instrumental uses:
Guitar back and sides, Soundboards, fingerboards, bridges, head plates and bindings.

Tonal properties:

Has more density and has a better tap tone than Koa. Really good alternative to Rosewood with a punchy bottom end, but the mid and high ends of a mahogany. The taptone falls between koa and rosewood, however this fantastic tonewood has a tone of its own. This is one of the favourite woods for Australian luthiers that use it for many years not only in back and sides but in soundboards as well. One can expect a bright tone as Koa with good balance between trebles and basses with great sustain and volume as most rosewoods. Is an all around excellent tonewood well suited for various playing styles.
Also it will produce a great classical guitar, it is very easy to work, turns and glues well, able to take a very high natural polish. It darkens with age and after finishing makes a visually beautiful instrument reddish-brown with light black streaks and sometimes purple.
Australian blackwood is a moderate dense wood with an average dried weight of 40 lbs/ft3 (640 kg/m3). 

Evergreen tree, with leaves slightly shaped like a scythe and pale yellow spherical flower heads. Tree up to 15 m, with a dark brown rhytidome (bark) deeply fissured. It reproduces by seed; it produces many seeds that remain viable in the ground for more than 50 years. The seeds are dispersed by birds, wind, water or rodents. The seeds germinate after a space opening and/or fire occurrences. The species also propagates vegetatively, forming vigorous sprouts from the stump and roots. This specie was brought to Portugal a few centuries ago and this one has grown in Portugal and it was taken from a big and old tree. Due to the nice properties some professionals in Portugal calls it “Portuguese rosewood”.

CITES status is unrestricted. Is not reported on the IUCN Red List.