It's hard to give a definite answer. First, most of the common names of wood are language and region dependent. Second, even within a species or subspecies, there are regional variations from tree to tree, or at least from forest to forest. Third, without a microscope and expertise it 's hard to be sure about the identity of a particular piece of wood after it has gone through multiple steps: cut from a tree, milled into boards or smaller pieces, shipped to distributors, sold to retailers, and eventually made into a knife handle.
That said, the most likely scientific name for a piece of red satisal wood is
Dalbergia latifolia, often abbreviated as D. latifolia. Cocobolo, on the other hand, is Dalbergia retusa, a category that includes Brazilian rosewood and North Indian rosewood. The varieties of Dalbergia differ in some properties, such as hardness, flexibility and even toxicity. Cocobolo is well known for producing allergic rashes in many woodworkers. I knew one guy in particular who worked in a place that sold exotic hardwoods. He told me that he was sawing boards of cocobolo, got the sawdust on his forearms, and it gave him a rash that lasted for months.
The last excerpt below mentions Dalbergia sissoo. Yangdu sometimes lists a blade with the wood named Sisau, which is probably a variant of Sissoo. Someone like Yangdu who deals with these kinds of wood all the time, and for many years, can probably distinguish the varieties on sight. She might even know the origin of particular handle woods, since she is in close touch with the makers (kamis) and their manager.
Here is one description of rosewoods in general:
Actually there are a lot of different woods called “rosewood”, however all of the true rosewoods are from the genus “Dalbergia”.
The original rosewood was probably Dalbergia Nigra, which has quite distinctive black grain or “spider webbing”. This dark grain will be where it gets the “Nigra” part of it’s name, Nigra means black in latin. The Dalbergia part is because the tree is part of the Dalbergia genus. Its named after the brothers Nils and Carl Dahlberg who lived in Suriname and who collected plant specimens and sent them to the botanist Carl Linnaeus in Sweden. As well as being a botanist, Carl Linnaeus was also a taxonomist who pretty much invented the modern “binomial nomenclature system” or scientific naming system. He was free to name the genus after his friends.
Wikipedia on
Dalbergia latifolia:
The tree produces a hard, durable, heavy wood that, when properly cured, is durable and resistant to rot and insects.
[4] It is grown as a plantation wood in both India and Java, often in dense, single species groves, to produce its highly desirable long straight bore.
[4] Wood from the tree is used in premium furniture making and cabinetry, guitar bodies and fretboards, exotic veneers, carvings, boats, skis, and for reforestation.
[2][4]
Under the
Indian Forest Act, 1927 the exportation of lumber products from wild harvested
D. latifolia is illegal.
[3] There exists an international high demand and price for the wood due to its excellent qualities of having a long straight bore, its strength, and its high density.
[4] However, the tree is slow-growing; Javanese plantations were started in the late nineteenth century, but, due to its slow growth, plantations have not expanded beyond Java and India.
[4] Many once popular uses for
D. latifolia wood have now been replaced with
Dalbergia sissoo wood and
engineered rosewood's, for economic purposes in cottage industries.