Specification
African Sapele is a timber of the mahogany type. It has a well-marked stripe or roe figure which shows to advantage on accurately quarter-cut veneers.
Appearance
Colour – The sapwood is whitish/pale yellow. The heartwood is a medium to fairly dark reddish-brown wood. Occasional logs with wavy grain yield veneers with a highly decorative fiddle-back figure.
Grain – Interlocked and sometimes wavy.
Texture – Medium to fine.
Characteristics
- Strength – Comparable to European Beech.
- Weight – About 560 -690 kg/m³ average about 640 kg/m³ seasoned.
- Ease Of Drying – Dries fairly rapidly but with a marked tendency to distort.
- Movement In Service – Medium.
- Preservative Treatment – Resistant. Sapwood moderately resistant.
Working Properties
- Machining – Medium.
- Planing – Optimum cutting angle 15 degrees due to interlocked grain.
- Sawing – Satisfactory.
- Blunting effect on cutters – moderate.
- Bending – Buckles and ruptures severely when bent.
- Nailing – Good.
- Gluing – Good.
Finishing
- Care required when staining. Gives an excellent polished finish.
