Rosewood is from tree species in the genus Dalbergia. Majority of the Dalbergia species are small trees. They are long lived, and add girth to their trunks very slowly. They are a slow as ebony in developing. A Dalbergia with 10 cm of heartwood suitable for woodworking may be over 100 years old. The Dalbergia harvested for furniture in places like Indonesia, Malaysia, and through out the tropics are often over 500 years old. I spent some time with a botanist doing a biodiversity study in Viet Nam, and one of his passions was protecting old growth Dalbergia. As these relatively small looking trees were incredibly old. Rosewood is not a renewable resource. Yes it is a tree, and it can be replanted. But to grow trunks of sufficient size to harvest for furniture requires 400 to 500 years. This time scale means that Dalbergia IS NOT a renewable resource.
So treasure your little chunk of rosewood, it is far more rare and valuable than the rock you stuck on it. And please, in honor of your chunk of rosewood make a donation to an organization preserving old growth rainforest in the region you think your particular species of rosewood came from. I suspect Amboyna is from Indonesia, but without taking time, I will leave it up to you.
I don't want to sound too harsh. But most don't realize how much time it takes for rare wood varieties to grow and develop. These species are become rare, endangered and are not renewable by any stretch of the imagination. Rosewood andEebony are two very similar problem groups of trees. It takes centuries, more than one or two centuries to develop enough heartwood, so all the oldest, most productive of seed trees are being destroyed.
