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| Home Painting Skills and Basics Paperhanging Home Decorating Interior Decorating Wood Identification |
SapeleSapele, though it has the name of a Nigerian river port, occurs widely in tropical Africa, from Sierra Leone to  Uganda and Zaire. It is a well-known and important commercial timber, shipped mainly from the West African countries between the Ivory Coast and Cameroon. It comes from a very large tree, yielding cylindrical logs 1 m or more in diameter.Sapele is a mahogany-like wood. Noted for its stripe figure when quarter-cut or sliced, occasionally it has a fiddle-back or mottle figure. It is darker in colour, with a finer texture, and heavier than African mahogany. The drying and machining properties of sapele are particularly influenced by the presence of interlocked grain, which causes flat-sawn boards to distort when they are dried, and makes it necessary to plane quartetsawn surfaces with care if tearing is to be avoided. Harder and heavier than African mahogany, it is also stronger, more difficult to work, and more durable, but not quite so stable in use. Commonly used as a mahogany, sapele combines an attractive appearance with strength and durability. It is used for high-class joinery both indoors and outdoors, for window frames, staircases, shop fittings and flooring. Quarter-cut to produce a decorative veneer, it is used on doors, on pianos, and on the surfaces of furniture when mahogany is in fashion. It is rotary-peeled for plywood, which, if suitably bonded, is acceptable for marine use. Extract from 'The International book of WOOD' curtesy Michael Beazley Publishers Limited 1979. |
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