Rare African Hardwood Timber

Each cut exposed the grain and colour of this rare African hardwood timber, a true spectacle of nature in its purist form, beauty that I can’t describe as words fail me. I was mesmerized as it took me ages to decide where to cut next; whether to turn the giant as we removed layer after beautiful layer one at a time; the saw moaning and grunting as she yielded her inner secrets, plank after plank, revealing her hidden beauty, which had taken millennia to form and develop.

Industry Applications

Artisanal

Conference tables

High end furniture

Musical Instruments

Luxury car trimmings

Architectual

Structual beams

Roof trusses

Load bearer

Roof beams

Joinery

Timber lintels

Maritime

Boat building

Waterway Locks –  Dry Dock Construction

Dunnage

Water Containment

Water management

High end boat trimmings

Types of wood

Zabrano

Microberlinia brazzavillensis

The wood is pale yellow to almost white with dark streaks, and it takes a nice polish. The wood is valued by some for its striped figure and is used in furniture. The wood is very tough and durable, and it can be used for objects such as tool handles and sporting equipment. It is resistant to termites and wood-rotting fungi.

Merbau

Intsia bijuga

The tree’s timber, called merbau or kwila, is a very durable and termite-resistant wood, making it a highly valued material for flooring and other uses. The wood can also be used to extract a dye. Merbau can contain a “gold” fleck that runs through the grain, considered to be attractive by some.

Purpleheart

Peltogyne

Purpleheart is an extremely dense and water-resistant wood. It is ranked one of the hardest and stiffest of the woods in the world. It is so durable that it can be used in applications that require toughness, such as truck decking. The trees are prized for their beautiful heartwood which, when cut, quickly turns from a light brown to a rich purple color.

Bubinga

Guibourtia

The wood is often used by luthiers for harps and other instruments, such as bass guitars, because of its mellow and well-rounded sound. Bubinga is also used in high-end furniture, especially by contemporary Arts and Crafts artists as well on high-end manual woodworking tools such as the front knobs and rear handles of smooth planes.

Milled sizes

Six to twelve meters in length.

Thickness: 30mm – 76 mm – 102 mm – 300mm – 500mm

Width: 300 up to 1000 mm

Furniture with Attitude

Furniture made with care from salvaged rare African hardwood timber.

Giants of the ocean

In July 2005 a Vessel sailing from West Africa with a cargo of 6000 Exotic African Hardwood logs sank of the East Coast of South Africa. The owners of the vessel did as much as they possibly could to recover the logs before the ship sank. In the region of 4000 logs were lifted off the vessel, placed on barges that were towed to the area by tugs then off-loaded in East London. The Helicopter used to do the lifting was at the time the largest unit available. Costs relating to the salvage have made this recovery one of the most expensive in the history of Maritime operations in South Africa.

Other than ecological concerns in this vulnerable marine environment where the vessel floundered, the cargo was of such a nature that every effort was made by Marine Authorities and Salvage Contractors to save the ship from sinking. Just on four thousand logs were removed from the holds of the vessel before she broke her back and sank taking the remaining logs to the bottom of the ocean. Contractors were brought in from America to implode the vessel using dynamite to encase the logs so as to prevent them from floating or drifting from the holds thus creating an extensive hazard to shipping and a danger to beach-goers along the coast. Tragically, a child was killed shortly after the sinking when one of the giant logs washed ashore, trapping the child playing in the surf. Captain Erasmus Head of the Explosive Branch of the SAPS managed the project on instructions from the owners of the vessel.

Hardwood logs Salvage from the Kiperousa