etimoe

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NOTE: there is rarely any "standard" or "typical" look for a wood so take what's in this table with a grain of salt
the REST of the pictures on this page will give you a better overall feel for this wood

etimoe / Copaifera salikounda (syn Detarium chevalieri) and Copaifera mildbraedii of the family Fabaceae (syn. Leguminosae) the legume, pea, or bean family
5" x 5" flat cut, 5" x 5" quartersawn, 1" wide end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup.

I do not know if the woods from the two species are distinguishable or not.

Diffuse porous, occasional pore multiples (radial), large pores with vasicentric parenchyma, strong diffuese-in-aggregates parenchyma that sometimes appears to be banded parenchyma, growth rings slightly vague, rays quite obvious at 10X and with medium spacing.

This is a West African wood, reportedly used primarily for rubber, but untapped trees are used to produce veneer and lumber. Also, in the USA at least, it is commonly called "African rosewood" although it is not a rosewood or even related to rosewoods. It can have a striking grain pattern and wonderful curly figure. There is also a form called "special etimoe" (yes, that actually is the name) that pretty much deserves the name simply because it doesn't look like any other wood at all (samples shown below).

I've had a lot of different eimoe veneers but have never seen it in plank form (other than the 6" long samples shown)

janka hardness 1660 (compare to hard maple 1450, white oak 1350)

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 quartersawn etimoe / Copaifera salikounda --- HUGE enlargements are present. The relatively bright, rich color on this piece is correctly shown.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of quartersawn etimoe / Copaifera salikounda --- 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

both sides of a sample plank of perfectly quartersawn etimoe / Copaifera salikounda with clearly defined ray flakes on both faces --- 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 note that the fine grain detail of the end grain update on this piece is substantially different than the other two samples above and this sample vendor is not the most reliable so it is possible that this is NOT etimoe (the face grain certainly does look like etimoe though).

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

etimoe seems to come with a large variety of figure, including rather bland as exemplified by this veneer sheet. There is a set of web pics below that is mentioned as having (probably) too much orange color and they show a fairly similar grain pattern to this piece. The actual wood on this piece has just a hint of red that doesn't really show up in this veneer pic

quartersawn veneer sold as "African rosewood" --- the color is very accurate

quartersawn veneer with accurate color

12" long sections of veneer. Huge enlargements are present

these veneer pieces, on the other hand, show a nice pronounced figure and are almost as attractive as some rosewoods in variety of color and grain pattern. These pieces are from a couple of different lots, but all from the same dealer. The brown color is correct.

similar veneer sheets (to those directly above) but from two different flitches

quartersawn curly veneer

the vendor's pics of the lot from which the sheets directly above were taken. The vendor's pics show the color more accurately than mine, but the shine in her pics isn't as pronounced on the actual wood as she makes it look. She does this with ALL of her pics even if the wood is quite dull.

more quartersawn curly veneer --- a different lot from the same dealer as the lot above

more quartersawn curly from a different vendor

flat cut curly veneer (sold to me as "fiddleback", but I see it as more of a normal "curly" pattern, not fiddleback)

the vendor's ebay pics of the lot that the sheets directly above came from. My pics are more accurate.

veneer --- the first of these pics was in my "mystery wood" pile for quite a while until one of my correspondents identified it as etimoe, after which some research confirmed his identification and I found that it is called "special figure" etimoe [this is not a name I made up, it's really what it's called], because it doesn't really fit into any normal category, although it is somewhat akin to "mottled" figure. In the 2nd pic you can see clearly where to "special" figure merges into a normal flat cut etimoe figure.

special etimoe [this is not a name I made up, it's really what it's called] veneer and a closeup, both of which have both levels of enlargement so you can really see the grain up close.

web pics:

planks

plank listed as Copaifera salikounda

planks listed as Copaifera mildraedii

quartersawn curly veneer --- the first of these is the lot from which my own quartersawn curly veneer, shown above, was taken. These pictures show the curl better than my closeups, but miss some of the red color and overemphasize the deepness of the brown color. As nearly as I can tell, the difference is probably due to lighting and camera distance.

flat cut curly veneer

curly veneer

planks listed as "African rosewood", which normally means etimoe, but I'm not sure but what the intent might have been to designate some other wood for these, since they don't really look like etimoe.

veneer

veneer sheet closeups with enlargements

a veneer sheet with just the plain uniform grain pattern

veneer sheets with more figure

veneer sheets with significant figure --- all of these pics are from the same dealer, and that is the dealer from whom I bought the figured veneer sheet shown in my own sample so I find both the color and the grain pattern to be completely representative of the figured form of the species.

flat cut veneer

flat cut veneer specifically listed as Copaifera salikounda

quartersawn veneer

quartersawn veneer listed specically as Copaifera salikounda

quartersawn veneer (sold as "African rosewood")

veneer sheets all from the same vendor and with a very suspect orange color --- it could be accurate but I've never seen anything like it in this species; I HAVE seen the grain pattern but the color was a rusty reddish brown, not orange --- see my first sample at the top of this page.

veneer --- the red color in the first picture probably slightly exaggerated. Although the 2nd shot at first glance appears quartersawn, these are both flat cut. You can see the flat cut grain MUCH better in the 2nd enlargement of the 2nd pic.

figured veneer

quartersawn figured veneer

fiddleback veneer

fiddleback veneer (these sheets are all from the same vendor)

flat cut curly veneer --- these are all from the same vendor and she adds a shine to her images that is not present in the wood (although for this species, there actually IS a slight shine --- see my own samples of curly veneer, which came from her).

crotch veneer

crotch veneer bookmatched pair and a closeup of the righthand sheet

special figure etimoe plank

"special" figure etimoe veneer --- as near as I can tell, it's called "special" just because it doesn't fit into any normal grain categories. The combination of color and grain is much more accurately shown in my own samples at the top of the page.

special figure etimoe veneer (the name is literally "special etimoe") that was listed by an eBay vendor as "tigerwood". I had this in the goncalo alves page for a long time because tigerwood is most commonly associated with that wood, even though neither the vendor nor I believed that this veneer was goncalo alves. Once I became aware of the identity of "special etimoe", the next time I happened to notice these pics, I realized that that's what this was so I moved it from the goncalo alves page to here.

special etimoe that was listed specifically as Copaifera salikounda

serving tray of curly etimoe --- sides and inlay are maple and the feet are walnut. The black swoosh is epoxy colored with ebony dust. This tray, made by Keith Rust of Dallas, Texas, uses etimoe from the same lot as the first of my quartersawn curly etimoe samples.