Hello Carl,

Iroko and Wenge are two totally different woods. Wenge is nearly black when finished, and sometimes substituted for Ebony because it can be that black. Your bench-tops, doors, and old furniture is not likely to be Wenge if they are not black. Iroko? Maybe.

I’m curious to know how much you pay for these woods in Congo Brazzaville.

John

I have a beam, over 2.5 metres x 20cm x 5cm, very heavy, rough sawn and something I was told was teak. From dialogue with a (relatively local boat builder I believe this not to be the case, but can’t seem to find anything that fits. I don’t really have much use for it now, it was going to be used in a property renovation but a different “route” has been decided. I’d like to sell it if its worth anything, but want to make sure its accurately described.
The photos show a flat surface that was lightly wetted to highlight the grain, and a single end-gran photo after the end was sanded progressively to the point where a 400 grit was used.

Any help would be much appreciated!

That musical instrument could well be Iroko,the photo of the plank looks the wrong shade, I’ve machined through 300 tons of Iroko but a piece caught me out just 2 days ago…

I’m an amateur woodturner and someone gave me a “scrap” piece of wood.

I forgot to take a picture of the rough turning square but it was unremarkable and didn’t thing much of it.

They told me:

• unidentified exotic wood
• wear a mask when you’ll turn it, I found it to be a respiratory irritant

I have an good olfactory sense and I don’t remember the wood having a smell.

The turning square was about 2″ wide, the toy top is a bit more larger than 1.5″.

Could it be iroko?

Thanks!

Andrew, this will heavily depend on log diameter and length but as a guide I would expect around 12-15m3 overall volume in log form personally.

Late to the party here – but if you are concerned at it darkening so much my advice, don’t have it produced in Iroko.

Iroko will only darken and darken in time; it will take a long time for this to silver away and only then if outside – certainly don’t oil it.

I would recommend good old reliable EOak for this if i was producing it.
POssibly with the lettering ‘filled’ with a high quality Ebony filler to make the text pop.

I hope you are pleased with whatever has been reproduced though of course !

Hello Eric
Need some advice on iroko how may cbm fit in 20ft container of round logs what’s best legth to cut

It would be very iffy to apply water based finish over an oil finish. Depends on the oil, and depends on the formulation of the water based finish, but in general, it’s a no-go.

Thank you Eric. One final question. Will water based varnish adhere ok to oiled wood?

I’d doubt there would be much visual difference between the two. The only time I could see issues coming up is with multiple coats. Not sure how many it would take, maybe three or more, but eventually you’d start to build up a visible surface film on the surface of the wood.

Hello Eric,
Well the story lengthens. The place we got the plaque from has agreed to replace the whole thing. This throws up a question for me. They send the iroco plaque treated with Devon oil because the crematorium where it on display will only accept ‘natural’ plaques being in an area with nature. I don’t want the plaque to end up the same way again so my question is:
Would they know without close inspection if I coated it with a clear Matt water based varnish like Ronseal? Which I would hope would then stop the ingress/absorption of water.

It won’t lighten anything if left as is. You’d have to sand down to raw wood, which is the tricky part if you end up sanding too aggressively and remove some of the design. The raw wood should be lighter in color. You could also try wood bleach on the raw wood, but you just need to be aware that you are losing some aspect of the color as you may not know how dramatically it will affect coloration. Whatever the course of action, it’s always best to test everything on a small area, preferably on the back of the piece.

Thank you Eric. So if I understand you right. If I try a water based varnish it might lighten it up. Am I correct? Wood bleach had been mentioned to me but I was reluctant before getting some good advice.
Regards

It’s very tricky since it’s such a sentimental piece. I am assuming it was either laser cut or CNC cut. Either way, there’s only a certain amount of depth to the cut before you start sanding away the actual design itself. I can see that perhaps that has already happened a little bit in the top areas with the butterfly wings.

Generally, oil finishes tend to accelerate and worsen the darkening / patina process of most woods. I would avoid oil based finished for this reason. Water based finishes would have the least impact on color. You’d just have to be careful with them to make sure the finish can cure properly on raw wood, as the wood can contain natural antioxidants that inhibit the curing process and leave the finish permanently gummy. So you’d definitely want to test on an inconspicuous area first like the back side perhaps.

RH of 30% seems pretty low, especially if the wood was not seasoned properly before being installed in your location. That could very well be the source of the checking, which shouldn’t necessarily affect longevity.

Ideally, you’d want to have the wood acclimatize to the humidity levels in your house for a few days/weeks before installing, and the best time to do this would be when the air is the driest, so in the United States that’s usually in the late fall.

I made some guitar necks using it, they are amazing necks and I couldn’t stop tone testing them because they rang like a bell! I would recommend