How to Identify Bloodwood
Deep uniform blood-red heartwood, very fine pores, and heavy hard feel that separate bloodwood from padauk, redheart, and stained look-alikes.
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Start with the color, but look past a weathered surface. Freshly cut or sanded bloodwood is a deep, saturated, remarkably uniform blood-red to crimson, richer and more even than most other red woods. An aged or weathered board — like the sample, with its reddish-brown face and darker aging stains — can look dull brown until you scratch or sand a hidden spot to reveal the vivid red beneath, which is a strong confirmation.
Check the end grain and pores. Bloodwood is diffuse-porous with small pores that are barely visible to the naked eye, giving a fine, even texture very different from the coarse open pores of many other red tropicals. The grain is usually straight, as on the sample, sometimes interlocked or wavy, with a fine even texture and a good natural luster. The narrow, pale yellow-white sapwood contrasts sharply with the red heartwood.
Weight and hardness are decisive cues. Bloodwood is distinctly heavy and dense in the hand — noticeably heavier than it looks — and very hard to dent, consistent with its ~2,900 lbf Janka rating and roughly 1,050 kg/m³ density. A light, soft board that merely looks red is almost certainly a stained imitation or a different, lighter species. There is little characteristic odor; the fine dust and shavings are a strong red.
The main look-alikes are other red tropical woods. African padauk starts a brighter orange-red rather than deep blood-red, is coarser-textured with large open, ring-porous pores, and fades faster toward brown — its open pore structure is the clearest tell. Redheart (chakte kok) is a brighter pinkish-red and lighter in weight. True satine is a related Brosimum and genuinely close — often the same trade material — so distinguishing it is a matter of species rather than obvious visual features. Any suspiciously uniform red on a lightweight, bland-grained board points to dyed or stained wood: real bloodwood's color is deep, sits in dense heartwood against pale sapwood, and shows a fine diffuse-porous end grain, not a flat surface tint.
Frequently asked questions
How do I tell bloodwood from padauk?
Look at the pores and the shade of red. Bloodwood is a deep, even blood-red, very dense and fine-textured with tiny diffuse pores, and it holds its color relatively well. Padauk starts a brighter orange-red, is coarser with large open ring-porous pores, and fades to brown faster. Side by side, the pore size and the depth of the red give it away.
A board I have looks brown — could it still be bloodwood?
Yes. Bloodwood darkens toward reddish-brown with age and light, and a weathered surface can look plainly brown. Scratch or lightly sand a concealed area: if a vivid blood-red appears beneath the oxidized surface, that strongly supports a bloodwood identification.
How can I be sure a red board is bloodwood and not a stain?
Check weight, pores, and sapwood. Real bloodwood is heavy and hard with a fine diffuse-porous end grain and a sharp change to pale sapwood, and sanding throws distinctly red dust throughout the piece. A stained board is uniformly colored, usually lighter, and shows the base wood's pore pattern rather than deep red running all the way through.
Is bloodwood the same as satine?
Closely. "Satine" is a trade name shared by *Brosimum rubescens* and related *Brosimum* species, and much bloodwood and satine on the market is the same or nearly the same material. Telling them apart is more a question of exact species than of obvious appearance, so confirm the botanical name when it matters.
Bloodwood identified by the community
Recent Bloodwood samples identified with Wood Identifier.
