Coco Bolo is unique in that the wood is trying to kill the people working on it, causing notorious allergic reactions. Also the wood is rare and the trees are endangered. Let’s go over the problems working this wood can cause; eye irritation, respiratory irritation, Nausea, Pink-Eye (!), and long term Asthma-like Symptoms. All of this to get a wood species that is almost guaranteed to be illegally harvested, frequently by gangs in Central America.
At Pezui we made 1 single box out of coco bolo, we didn’t know the challenges at the time and it was pre-formal announcement of the Jan 2017 convention. Looking back we feel bad having done it, and it is considered a company mistake. We didn’t sell the box and we won’t ever sell the box or take it to tournaments. This is something we find great shame in but it was time to talk about it and recognize that actions have reactions. Knowledge of what is happening can make it so that we make different decisions, hopefully reading about this will make you think twice when looking at items made out of this beautiful wood.
Here is a link for some reading material on the challenges of Rosewoods, Ebony, and Bubinga http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/rosewoods-bubinga-really-banned-cites/ Thank you to the wood-database project for showing us the challenge.
Coco Bolo IS listed in the CITES Appendices II and also IS listed on the IUCN Red list as vulnerable.
Pezui 