Snakewood (Letterwood), air dry density: 1.2-1.4, the heaviest wood known in the world. It only grows in a few countries in South America, such as Suriname, Guiana and Brazil. The snakewood from Suriname has the best quality. Snakewood is stiff, strong and very dense. It generally gives loud sounding. For baroque and viola da gamba bows, snakewood is the most popular choice. We started to use it for modern bow making several years ago. The feedbacks from customers are very good, especially for cello and double bass bows. Since its density is so high, a modern style snakewood bow is very often over heavy.
Snakewood tends to have many cracks during the air dry processing. Therefore, snakewood used for bow making should be absolutely dry, otherwise, the bow will get some cracks sooner or later. We imported 5 tons of snakewood logs from Suriname six years ago. They are wax sealed for air drying. According to "The Art of Bow Making" by famous bow maker: Joseph Kun, the bow blanks are ready for bow making after aging three years. All the bow blanks we used now have been well air dried. See some pictures of our snakewood log and boards
