Wenge
This valuable veneer wood is sourced from the tropical rainforests of West Africa. There, wenge grows as a deciduous tree up to 20 m tall. The sapwood is light, almost white, whereas the heartwood appears almost black. Processing it into veneer requires intensive steaming and hot cutting, whereby it is usually cut flat or “stay-log.” Wenge is used for table tops, furniture, paneling, or parquet flooring.
Visually, wenge is very dark, with alternating brown tones between coffee brown and black-violet. It darkens with a straight-grained structure. Wenge is characterized by its high resistance to weathering, as well as fungal and insect infestation. However, wenge also frequently suffers from wormholes in the wood. Its density is only slightly lower than that of water.Despite its hardness, wenge can be worked well with all tools, although greater force may be required. The increased resin content can contaminate tools. If drying is controlled slowly, the risk of cracking and warping is not very high. The wood is difficult to varnish.
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Translated from German to English via AI (DeepL).
Sources:
Fritz Kohl, 2012, „Furniere“, Seite 253Begemann, Helmut F., 1962, Lexikon der Nutzhölzer, Seite 854
Bilder: "Templin Furnier e.K."