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AFZELIA

Afzelia spp.
Afzelia spp. of the family Fabaceae (syn. Leguminosae) the legume, pea, or bean family

The genus Afzelia, which occurs both in Africa and in SE Asia, yields a particularly stable wood. The name afzelia will usually refer to African wood. A particular grade of African wood is traded as doussié.

My thanks to Paul van Rijckevorsel for this summary and for his comments that helped to clarify my previous confusion as to whether or not this wood existed as anything other than a burl, and his nudge to get the doussie page integrated with this one since those common names are strongly intertwined, particularly as regards what vendors call various Afzelia spp.

my samples: NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K) colors will vary under other lighting conditions

both sides of a sample plank of doussie / Afzelia bipindensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank of yellow afzelia (pachy) / Afzelia bipindensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. You can see, next to the label, where I had a yellow sticky note on the piece for a few days while it was exposed to light and the wood around the sticky darkened just a bit which probably means that this wood will darken noticeably over time.


end grain and HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank of quartersawn lingue (=afzelia) / Afzelia africana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank of doussie / Afzelia africana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR --- both faces of this sample have a light coat of clear paste wax
both sides of a sample plank of African afzelia (aka doussie) / Afzelia africana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of flat cut white afzelia / Afzelia pachyloba --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank of quartersawn white afzelia / Afzelia pachyloba --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank of quilted afzelia / Afzelia xylocarpa --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. I'm doubtful about the "quilted" designation, as this looks to me to be more like pomelle figure.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of pomelle afzelia / Afzelia xylocarpa --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The vendor lists this as "quilted", but I see it as clearly being pomelle, not quilted. This vendor is very careless with his figure designations.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of afzelia / Afzelia xylocarpa --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This species is also known as beng.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR --- both faces of this sample have a light coat of clear paste wax
both sides of a sample plank of afzelia / Afzelia xylocarpa --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This species is also known as beng


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of afzelia burl / Afzelia xylocarpa --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


NOT A RAW WOOD COLOR --- both faces of this sample have a light coat of clear paste wax
both sides of a sample plank of afzelia burl / Afzelia asiatiches --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain of the piece directly above

NOT a raw wood color
flooring sample, listed as doussie, that has been finished with a hard, shiny finishing agent that clearly has deepened and enriched the color.


the same piece as directly above, after I sanded off the finish

NOT a raw wood color
NOT a raw wood color
flooring samples, listed as doussie, that have been finished with a hard, shiny finishing agent that clearly has deepened and enriched the color. Although from the same source as the flooring sample above, these two are noticibly lighter in color.


the same two pieces as directly above but with the finish sanded off

web pics:

The following set of 8 pics of large, freshly milled, slabs of doussie were contributed to the site by exotic wood importer Patrick Dean, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The slabs were moistened for the pics and HUGE enlargements are present for all of them.

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planks listed as either afzelia or doussie (or both)


plank listed as dousie / Afzelia bipindensis


a plank for which I am VERY dubious about the bright red color but cannot say categorically that it is incorrect.


plank owned by a correspondent (whose name I have momentarily misplaced ... sorry) who has a whole stack of afzelia logs. This piece shows particularly well the interlocked grain that frequently occurs in this wood.


both sides of a plank and a closeup


a flat cut plank with cathedral grain and a quartersawn plank from the same vendor


both sides of a plank and a closeup


veneer


flooring


burls, some of which have been moistened for the pics


veneer --- I'm not confident at all about the color on these


pen blanks that have been oiled and waxed --- listed as "snakeskin pattern" afzelia


planks listed as doussie


plank listed as lingue


veneer listed as doussie


veneer listed as doussie / Afzelia bipindensis


hollow form


bowl listed as afzelia / Afzelia xylocarpa


pen turned from afzelia / Afzelia spp. Photograph contributed to the site by the pen turner, Bruce Selyem, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The pen is finished with shellwax.


a pair of earrings made by Dean Robertson (I got these for my daughter from Dean in a wood trade). They are just over 2" high.


bowls by Bryan Nelson (NelsonWood). Bryan fine-polishes his bowls with 1200 or even higher grit sandpaper while they are spinning at high speed on the lathe and then finishes them there with a friction polish of his own devising, thus achieving a shine and color vibrancy that is beautiful to behold.

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afzelia from the BogusColorVendor so I'm not confident of the color on any of them


both sides of a plank and a closeup, listed as doussie


three views of the same burl turning stick


burls