GG Joinery offers Sapele planks.

The boards 250mm, 280mm, and 300mm wide can be supplied as full stave panels. They are produced from 2 narrow planks glued along their edges to create a required width.

Sapele is a commonly exported and economically important African wood species. It is similar to mahogany, much harder than African or American mahogany, and cheaper than mahogany.

Sapele

Name:

Entandrophragma cylindricum

Origin:

Tropical Africa

Colour:

Heartwood is a golden to dark reddish-brown. Colour tends to darken with age. Besides the common ribbon pattern seen on quartersawn boards, Sapele is also known for a wide variety of other figured grain patterns, such as pommel, quilted, mottled, wavy, beeswing, and fiddleback.

Grain:

The grain is interlocked, and sometimes wavy. Fine uniform texture and good natural lustre.

Rot Resistance:

Heartwood ranges from moderately durable to very durable regarding decay resistance. Moderate insect/borer resistance.

Typical Applications:

Veneer, plywood, furniture, cabinetry, flooring, boatbuilding, musical instruments, turned objects, and other small wooden items.

Density:

640 kg/m³ average

Workability:
Sapele can be troublesome to work in some machining operations, (i.e., planing, routing, etc.), resulting in tearout due to its interlocked grain. It will also react when put into direct contact with iron, becoming discoloured and stained. Sapele has a slight blunting effect on cutters, but it turns, glues, and finishes well.