Exotic woods used in kitchen cabinet manufacturing

Ebony Wood

Massacar Ebony is found in Indonesia. This is an exceptionally heavy, dense hard wood. The heartwood is dark brown to black, streaked throughout with bands of grayish brown, yellow-brown or pale-brown. The grain is mostly straight, but sometimes it can be irregular or wavy. The texture is fine and even. The black heart tends to be brittle, and this species is used mostly for decorative purposes, where strength properties are of little importance. Ebony is hard to work with hand or machine tools, as the wood is of a brittle nature. There is severe blunting of cutting edges. Pre-boring is necessary for nailing and it is difficult to glue. The wood takes an excellent finish. Selected pieces are used for cabinet work, brush backs, walking sticks, and sapwood used for tool handles, etc. Also used for snuff boxes, musical instruments, inlay work, billiard cues and excellent for turnery.

Known for its jet-black color, ebony varies from deep black to dark red, with a variety of rich dark shades. Heartwood may display dramatic and irregular striping of bright brown, gray or greenish black on a deep black background. It is genetics that determines the shade, along with moisture, mineral content of the soil, and age/growth rate of the tree. Generally, the darker ebony is found at higher altitudes and from older trees. Ebony with more red tones has its origin at lower altitudes and from soil with greater iron content. Ebony is a scarce and costly wood. 

Zebra Wood

With its very distinctive grain, Zebrawood comes from West Africa and is mainly found in Cameroon and Gabon. Commonly know as a veneer, it now is sold as a lumber stock. Zebrawood has a wavy and interlocked grain with medium texture. Used in projects for turning, inlay, cabinetwork and decorative paneling (veneers), it finishes satisfactory because of the grain. Zebrawood is also very unstable, so keep this wood in a controlled environment when using it to add a distinct feature.

Zebrawood is used in a limited way for veneer, wall paneling, custom furniture, furniture trim, inlay bandings, specialty items and turnery. Because of its hardness, it can also be used for skis and tool handles. It is a decorative exotic wood, and as such has only a small following that even knows it exists, but those that do venture to use it, are awed by its dramatic color banding.

Wenge

Origin:

Found in Central Africa, especially throughout the Congo and southern regions of Tanzania and Mozambique.

Appearance:

When freshly cut, the heartwood of wenge (millettia laurentii) is a yellow-brown color, but then in a few months it darkens to a deep, uniform brown, almost black, with alternate layers of light and dark tissue, forming a decorative figure. So it is important to buy well-aged wood before laying the floor. Clearly demarcated from the heartwood is the yellowish-white sapwood. This coarse-textured wood has a straight grain. A related species from East Africa, panga-panga (millettia stuhlmannii) has similar graining but does not darken as much as wenge. One of the best known of the exotic dark woods, wenge is used primarily where a bold dark color or contrasting light and dark accent strips are desired.

Properties:

Wenge is very hard, heavy, and durable, with an excellent dimensional stability. Actual installations may show significant movement in use, however.

Janka Hardness: 1630

Wenge makes for a hard and durable wood door. It is nearly twenty-six percent harder than red oak, is just under twenty percent harder than white oak, about twelve percent harder than hard maple, and is roughly eighty-nine percent the hardness of either hickory or pecan.

Workability:

Because of its hardness, wenge is difficult to cut and machine. Carbide tooling is recommended due to rapid dulling of tools and cutting edges. This wood sands well and has good holding ability; because of its hardness, however, pre-boring nail holes is recommended. Some solvent-based stains do not dry well when applied to this wood.