movingui

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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

movingui / Distemonanthus benthamianus
2.5" x 2.5" flat cut, 5" x 5" quartersawn, 1" wide end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup.

Diffuse porous with large, randomly distributed pores with thick lozenge shaped aliform parenchyma (occasionally winged) with occasional confluence and sometimes absent in the early part of the earlywood, occasional pore multiples of 2 or 3, almost always radial, growth ring boundaries vary from indistinct to distinct, medium rays fairly closely spaced and easily visible at 10X, occasional diffuse-in-aggregates parenchyma.

NOTE: this is often called Nigerian satinwood or African satinwood, but it is not a satinwood

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 movingui / Nigerian satinwood / Distemonanthus benthamianus --- HUGE enlargements are present.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of movingui / Nigerian satinwood / Distemonanthus benthamianus --- 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

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

both sides of a sample plank of fiddleback movingui / Distemonanthus benthamianus --- 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

small piece, rough sanded, and end grain

the other side of the same piece as above, but fine sanded to a high polish. It feels like glass when you rub your finger on it. No color correction was done but the color is quite accurate. Before I started the extra sanding on one side, both sides looked identical in color but as you can see, the fine sanding brought out a little more color.

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above

both sides of a sample plank of movingui / Distemonanthus benthamianus --- 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. The lozenge-shaped parenchyma and noticeable rays don't show up well because the pic is just slightly out of focus, but they are there.

another plank, from a different vendor, this one is rough finished and shows some sap wood. The color, very accurately shown here, is lighter yellow than the other pieces and this plank is definitely more coarse in texture and lighter (less dense) than the other as well. Unfortunately I tossed this piece back in my working pile instead of my wood-samples box without thinking to take an end grain shot.

a set of flats cut from the same plank and rough sanded.

figure movingui being quartersawn. Pics contributed to the site by Pat Dean, whom I thank for these and other contributions to the site.

quartersawn figured veneer sheet and closeup

quartersawn figured veneer

block mottle veneer sheet, and closeup, listed as African satinwood. The color is somewhere between the extreme gold color of the long view and the duller color of the closeup.

This sheet of veneer, listed as African satinwood, was loaned to me by John Koehn whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. HUGE enlargements are present.

web pics:

planks all listed as movingui / Distemonanthus benthamianus --- none were listed as figure, but clearly some are

figured planks all listed as movingui / Distemonanthus benthamianus --- I would call the figure on most of these mottled and some of them razor mottle

planks listed as Nigerian satinwood / Distemonanthus benthamianus --- some are figured, some not

scales

planks

plank listed as Nigerian satinwood

planks, all from the same vendor and all listed as movingui / Distomonanthus benthamianus --- these were not listed as figured, but obviously they are.

guitar back thinwood listed as Nigerian satinwood and not listed as figured although it clearly is

figured planks

plank listed as curly movingui

curly planks listed as African satinwood

veneer listed as Nigerian satinwood --- not listed as figured, although it obviously is

veneer listed as African satinwood --- not listed as figured, although it obviously is

veneer

veneer, all from the same vendor

veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement

veneer labeled as movingui but to me it looks more like mahogany or sapele

figured veneer

veneer listed as figured African satinwood --- I think the color in this pic is probably more brown than the wood actually is

quartersawn figured veneer --- the green color is from a vendor who makes most of his wood pics look green regardless of the actual color of the veneer, the pinkish color is very unlikely, and the purple color is just silly

platter / bowl (not sure which to call it)

movingui bowls by Bryan Nelson

guitar back listed as Nigerian satinwood

Razor mottle "African satinwood" (i.e. movingui) and maple table built by Jon Harris and photographed at a woodworker's show in Saratoga Springs, NY. When I looked at it, I thought the top was solid satinwood, but now I'm not sure since I see that the maple veneer separators do not go through to the edge. I'll ask Jon.

OK, Jon replied to me that the satinwood on this piece is all veneer and the maple is all solid

The colors are accurate --- this is a beautiful piece.