Africa is home to some of the world’s most beautiful and interesting hardwoods. Combining eye-catching beauty with exceptional performance, there’s an African hardwood for almost any application - interior or exterior. Whilst timbers that are native to temperate climates of Europe and North America (like European Oak, Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar) are excellent, sometimes a project demands something rather different. For something particularly striking, eye-catching and unique, look no further than the forests of Africa.
Among all hardwoods across all parts of the world, African hardwoods are considered the best in terms of properties and usability. African hardwoods also have great usability. As we mentioned above, African hardwoods are beautiful, strong and durable and they can fit a variety of purposes.
Let’s take a look at some popular African hardwoods. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but is intended to be a helpful overview of species with a variety of different origins, applications and appearances. What are some fine examples, why are they so special and what are they used for?
Key Characteristics of African Hardwoods
African hardwoods are known for their exceptional strength. Some African hardwood trees such as Iroko live many centuries and their wood needs little care and maintenance. If you’re looking for woods that are different from your usual single-colour, quite common types, African wood species can make a good option. Attractive & beautiful
Popular African Hardwood Species
1. African Mahogany (Khaya ivorensis)
African Mahogany, or Khaya, (Khaya ivorensis) is a beautiful hardwood species from equatorial West Africa. It is similar in appearance and working properties to Honduras Mahogany without the expense. The wood is easy to cut, glue, and finish and is nearly an equal to Honduras Mahogany. Trees are large with average logs in the 2-4' diameter range and tree heights of 75-125' tall. The wood is used for anything from musical instruments to boats to everything imaginable in between! The average dried weight of Khaya is 545 kg/m3 and the Janka rating is 850 lbf. It has a pale pink to dark reddish brown heartwood, sometimes with darker streaks. The grain is straight or interlocked and the texture is medium to coarse. It is a moderately durable wood with poor resistance to insects.
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Interlocked grain in select logs produces a beautiful ribbon figure when quarter sawn.
2. Zebrano (Zebrawood) - Microberlinia brazzavillensis
There’s a reason why Zebrano (or Zebrawood) is one of the most popular, instantly-recognisable African hardwoods. So-called due to its dramatic, bold stripy appearance, Zebrano is one way to make a real statement. Whilst too much can be overbearing, its mixture of creams, browns and blacks make a fantastic decorative statement for furniture trims, veneers, wall panelling and guitars. It’s incredibly hard wearing.
The light brown heartwood has black-brown streaks over its surface giving it a zebra-like appearance. The grain is wavy or interlocked and the texture is coarse. It is a durable wood that is resistant to insects. Interlocking grain can make it difficult to plane and result in tear outs. It finishes and glues well. It is an expensive wood that is prized for its unique appearance.
Many other types of wood try to use the name Zebrawood, so unless you choose carefully and discerningly, you’ll only be getting a pale imitation. The real deal comes from the Microberlinia brazzavillensis tree, which grows tall and straight up to 50 metres; it’s distributed throughout west Africa, notably Congo, Cameroon and Gabon.
The wood was very popular for use as car dashboards around 30 years ago!
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Origins: West Africa
Common uses: Furniture, veneers, specialty items
Appearance: Light brown and cream with dark brown to black streaks
Scientific name: Microberlinia brazzavillensis
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3. Wenge - Millettia laurentii
From the Cameroonian highland forests of central Africa, Wenge has a striking medium-to-dark brown hue, with black streaks and a straight grain. It’s a go-to choice for luxury furniture making and specialist joinery. It is generally difficult to work with. The price is high due to limited supply.
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As darker woods gain traction amongst architecturally-minded, this species steps up by combining classy good looks with exceptional physical durability. It’s a heavy, hard timber that can work well for flooring. It’s also naturally resistant to termite attack.
Authentic Wenge comes from the millettia laurentii, a legume tree native to central and western Africa, specifically Zaire, Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Such is the popularity and uniqueness of this species, ‘wenge’ is even used as a colour in its own right.
One of the exotic hardwoods, wenge is known for its unique appearance having nearly black streaks on a medium brown or reddish surface (heartwood). The streaks are sometimes so prominent that the wood might look completely black, especially after an oil finish. It is found in Central Africa and has a 1,930 lbf Janka hardness rating and an average dried weight of 870 kg/m3. The grain is straight and the texture is coarse. It is a durable wood with good resistance to termites.
Origins: Central and western Africa
Common uses: Flooring, furniture, panelling, as a veneer
Appearance: Dark brown with black streaks
Pronunciation: when-gay
Scientific name: Millettia laurentii
4. Sapele - Entandrophragma cylindricum
Another beautiful exotic choice, Sapele is cherished for its visual likeness to mahogany, and is often used as a substitute. In fact, it’s often referred to as ‘sapele mahogany’. This timber darkens with age, usually starting off as a pale yellow but eventually becoming an alluring reddish-brown.
The interlocking grain pattern delivers a pleasing, unique appearance. With exceptional durability, strength and rot resistance, Sapele makes a fantastic choice for a number of projects - furniture, veneers, musical instruments, panelling and even boatbuilding.
Entandrophragma cylindricum is distributed widely across the African continent. It originated in the west African rainforests of the Ivory Coast, but can now be found as east as Tanzania. Sapele timber actually gets its name from the Nigerian city of Sapele, where there is an abundance of the tree.
Native to tropical Africa, this hardwood is moderately heavy and hard (670 kg/m3 dried weight and 1,410 lbf Janka rating). It has a golden to dark reddish brown heartwood which gets darker with age and often has figured grain patterns including ribbon, pommele, wavy, etc. It has interlocked grain and fine texture. The durable wood is resistant to decay and insects. It is difficult to work with, but it turns, glues, and finishes well.
Origins: West African tropical rainforests.
Common uses: Flooring, furniture, panelling, veneer
Appearance: Reddish-brown
Pronunciation: suh-pee-lee
Scientific name: Entandrophragma cylindricum
5. Iroko - Milicia excelsa
Also known as ‘African teak’, Iroko is an extraordinarily durable, dense hardwood that’s resistant to insect attack. Iroko wood is a famous African hardwood found in tropical regions. It is hard (1,260 lbf Janka rating) and heavy (660 kg/m3 avg. dried weight). The heartwood is yellow to medium brown and the sapwood is pale yellow. The grain is interlocked and the texture is medium-coarse. It is a very durable wood in terms of decay and insect resistance and is often used in place of teak.
With exotic golden yellow-to-brown hues and excellent outdoor performance, it’s clear why this wood has another well-earned moniker: the ‘Rolls-Royce of decking’. Externally, it can also be used for fencing and is similarly at home indoors for flooring and furniture making.
Iroko comes from the milicia excelsa, distributed widely across central tropical Africa, from Mozambique in the east through to Guinea in the west. It is a very slow-growing tree that can live for centuries - up to 500 years, in fact. It produces extremely strong, dense and scratch resistant timber - ideal for applications where hard-wearing wood is required.
Origins: Tropical central Africa
Common uses: Exterior decking, flooring, furniture
Appearance: Golden yellowish-brown
Pronunciation: i-row-kow
Scientific name: Milicia excelsa
6. Utile - Entandrophragma utile
Another of the African redwoods, like Sapele, Utile is revered for its likeness to mahogany. Indeed, the species shares a number of aesthetic and technical similarities - reddish-brown with purple hues, an alluring interlocking grain pattern and exceptional strength. Utile wood is easy to work with and stains, glues, and finishes well.
Entandrophragma utile is found across tropical Africa, from Uganda in the east to Sierra Leone in the west and as far south as Angola. It is able to reach up to 60 metres in height.
Origins: West and central Africa
Common uses: Flooring, furniture, veneers
Appearance: Reddish-brown with purple hues
Pronunciation: you-teel (sometimes ‘you-teel-eh’)
Scientific name: Entandrophragma utile
7. Padauk - Pterocarpus soyauxii
Hailing from the tall, dense rainforests of Cameroon, Congo and Nigeria, African Padauk is a strong, dense and heavy hardwood that’s popular for a range of interior applications. African Paduak is a very strong, stable hardwood.
A gorgeous timber, this species typically starts life with a vibrant reddish-orange colour which tends to deepen significantly over time to a reddish-purple brown - perfect for luxury joinery and furniture making.
It is known for its typically robust reddish-brown coloration (which darkens with age), although colors can range from a bright orange to a slightly muted burgundy often with highlights, grain lines and/or secondary colors ranging from brick red to a more purplish muted hue. The wood can sometimes be found figured (ribbon; striped; etc.), and it is well known for its deep chatoyance and wonderful natural luster. Grains are typically straight, though sometimes interlocked.
The wood is considered very durable and also resistant to bug / insect / termite attack, which accordingly has seen it used in outdoor applications for centuries in its native Africa. There continues to be a steady demand for Padauk in the US. Fortunately, to this point, its supply has continued to steadily grow, in response to this demand. Thus, Padauk remains a reasonably priced exotic import with aesthetics that can be, at times, quite stunning and vibrant. Its texture is similar to African Mahogany, being slightly open grained with large pores.
