Yellowheart

Overview

Yellowheart (Euxylophora paraensis), or pau amarello, is pale to golden yellow, fine in texture and consistently vibrant, darkening only slightly with age. It is easy to work. Brazilian satinwood is a trade name for it. People use it for accents, small furniture and turned items.

Pros

• Vibrant, consistent yellow that darkens only slightly.
• Normally easy to work with hand and machine tools; glues and finishes well.
• Janka 1,790 lbf, about 825 kg/m3.
• Not listed in CITES or on the Red List.
• Good availability in a range of widths.

Cons

• Moderate durability; mixed insect resistance, not for exterior use.
• Interlocked or figured grain makes machining harder; moderate cutter-blunting.
• Reported to cause skin irritation in some people.
• Unusually high radial shrinkage compared with tangential (5.6% radial, 6.7% tangential), giving a low T/R ratio.
• Sold at a premium over some other tropical species.

Variants and subspecies

• Euxylophora paraensis: the only commercial species.
• Brazilian satinwood: a trade name; Wood Database says it is not a true satinwood.
• Look-alikes: Canarywood is a yellower-brown, easy Latin American wood; Hard maple is a pale domestic alternative.

Working and finishing

Works readily; use sharp cutters on interlocked pieces. It glues and finishes well. Clear finishes preserve the yellow; avoid dark stains and ambering finishes that shift it to orange.

Staining and finishing colour

Not stained; ambering oil finishes warm the yellow. A water-clear finish keeps it brightest. Wood Database notes only a slight darkening with age.

Sustainability and handling

CITES and IUCN: not listed (Wood Database; APHIS CITES Timber Manual, checked 2026-09-30); unassessed, not necessarily secure. FSC availability is not verified here. The US Lacey Act makes it unlawful to trade wood taken or exported in breach of the source country's laws (fws.gov/law/lacey-act), so buy from dealers who can name the country and species. If a piece will be exported to or sold in the EU, Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 (the EUDR) requires due-diligence evidence that wood products are deforestation-free and legally produced; check its current application date with your buyer.

Ethical call: a reasonable choice, with the caveat of thin data. Health: skin irritation has been reported. The US National Cancer Institute reports strong, consistent associations between wood-dust exposure and cancers of the nasal cavity and sinuses, so use extraction and a respirator when sanding.

Popular projects

Inlay lines, accent drawer fronts, cutting boards, small furniture, flooring, boatbuilding and turned items.

Buying notes

Bell lists 4/4 at $19.00 and 8/4 at $20.00 per board foot (September 2026). Check that the wood is Euxylophora: other woods are sold as 'yellow'.