OK - let's illustrate a few things, as I know it can be difficult to visualize. For this example - I'm using some Timor material I've got on hand :
These are Timor material.
From Left to Right :
-Bead waste (separated into chunks and powder...all comes as one mix to me)
-Trunkwood (in this case, the base of the tree and initial root knot)
-Roots
Up close image of bead waste. As you can see - there's no way of determining exactly what age the pieces come from. All of this material comes from Red Meat logs. I get photos of each lot of logs that come in that the Carving will be coming from as final approval of quality.
Roots
These roots are cut from the initial root knots - making the root ball much larger than these individual roots. These root balls can be pretty large and have multiple arms like these.
On the one hand, one might see this and think that it isn't a huge trunk. Must keep in mind that all the sapwood is cut away - these are often twice the size of this aromatic centerwood before being cleaned (another reason one doesn't always get an accurate read on the age just by looking at the cleaned aromatic wood). And as a follow up photo will show - not all wood makes it to this red quality - further giving some misleading ages.
Root on top. Trunkwood on bottom.
Quite a bit of sapwood and non-aromatic wood can be cut away from these to reveal the aromatic red Meat - so it's tough to gauge age solely from the rings of the aromatic parts.
This trunk log is at least 40 years old going by the rings - but without the full Uncleaned cross section, can't know the exact age. Quite possibly double the visible age or older of what these rings reveal
Here's an example of what I'm referring to. Uncleaned roots.
Notice how not even all the center wood is red. This white wood would all be carved out, and these would not be suitable bead quality logs, although the aromatic Red Meat is still suitable to fill my nose
I keep these as visuals for the time being
Must keep in mind also - not all Sandal trees end up producing this Red Meat.
Some produce White and some produce Yellow Meats. I've been distilling this Red Meat, which is quite difficult to source, as it is only produced in older and select trees. Not all trees end up producing this Red Meat, even if they are ancient.