hello Les, there are a few things that lead me to say it's cocobolo rather than kingwood.
the fact that pete said it was basically black before he turned it and then saw the rich colour of the wood once turned is typical of cocobolo but kingwood tends to hold a purple tinge even when darkened by UV light.
kingwood tends to be more of a purple/brown colour with black stripes and cocobolo is more on the red/brown side of things often with the orange tints somewhere in the grain.
it's also the look of the grain and the way the tree has grown as i've seen enough of cocobolo to recognise it over other rosewoods.
the way the grain has been turned and how it's torn in the image is indicative of cocobolo too as kingwood tends not to tear up like that usually cutting cleaner.
the clincher though is the pore arrangement, kingwood is rather densely packed with very small pores which would be difficult to see in any picture whereas cocobolo has very sparsely arranged pores that are bigger and due to their size are usually quite visible on any turned item and i can see them in pete's photo.
without it being in my hands i can't be 100% sure on the weight but cocobolo is around 68-69lbft3 and kingwood is much heavier at 75-76lbft3.
pete, you can look it up on these web pages and check it out for yourself.
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/kingwood.htmhttp://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/cocobolo.htmwhat i want to know is, do they have any more that they want to give away???
