toman, I find myself in the same boat. Been around woodworking forever and I had never heard of "brazilwood" until I started hanging around the bowed instrument world.
This from AllRefer.com:
Quote:
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brazilwood, common name for several trees of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) whose wood yields a red dye. The dye has largely been replaced by synthetic dyes for fabrics, but it is still used in high-quality red inks. The bright red wood, which takes a high polish, is used in cabinetwork and for making violin bows. The East Indian redwood, or sapanwood (Caesalpinia sappan), was called "bresel wood" when it was first imported to Europe in the Middle Ages; Portuguese explorers used this name for a similar South American tree (C. echinata), from which the name Brazil for its native country purportedly derives. Brazilwoods are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Leguminosae.
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The thing seems to be the genus Caesalpinia. Related woods from the same genus are bonduc, brazilian ironwood, peachwood, pernambuco. I think also the brazilnut (the filbert, also formerly known by a nasty old racist name I won't repeat here) comes from a tree of this genus.
The things you can learn on a slow morning using Google. The mind boogles.
