Sheesham: the alternative to the Big Three

Sheesham (Indian Rosewood) belongs to the rosewood family, and has gained popularity in recent years due to is abundance in the Indian subcontinent. It is a hardwood, but does not have the resilience to warping and insect attack that rosewood, teak and walnut wood have. Rajasthani furniture is often sold as Rosewood, as in reality it is only a member of the rosewood family, and very prone to borers that destroy wood.   
Sanskriti Lifestyle's objective is to enable our customers to make informed decisions about what furniture they buy. We aim to provide our customers with wooden furniture of the highest quality, hence our furniture is made with teak wood and rosewood. We guarantee all our teak wood and rosewood furniture. While we have a few accent pieces in sheesham, this accounts for less than 1% of our products, and we always inform customers about the risks of sheesham, and do not guarantee these pieces. 

​Disadvantage: 

Wood borers
Sheesham's biggest drawback that it is very prone to wood borers. Very often, sheesham furniture forms a fine white powder, when wood borers drill deep holes in the furniture. 

It  is extremely difficult to get rid of borers, since it is impossible to access the interior of the wood to kill the eggs. 

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​Disadvantage: 

Prone to knots
Knots weaken the wood. Avoid buying furniture that has knots in key structural areas like joints of tables and chairs.

Colour variation
Sheesham's natural colour is like a marble-cake blend of a golden, teakwood shade, and a purplish-red rosewood colour. To hide this variation, sheesham furniture is often stained a dark shade. This hides the grain of the wood, and dark furniture tends to make small living spaces smaller.

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​Advantage: 
Cheaper than teak, walnut and rosewood.

Do make sure you do not pay the price for teak wood furniture when buying sheesham furniture.

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