sapele

open main page for all woods open page 2 for articles

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

sapele / Entandrophragma cylindricum
5" x 5" flat cut, 5" x 5" quartersawn, 1" wide end grain, and a 1/4" x 1/4" end grain closeup.

Diffuse porous with moderate sized pores, randomly spaced and with vasicentric parenchyma and frequent pore multiples. Occasional banded parenchyma (sometimes a lot of it), sometimes seemingly marginal parenchyma, often a lot of diffuse-in-aggregates parenchyma. Rays are usually obvious at 10X, rarely with the naked eye. There is a lot of variation in end grain characteristics between pieces.

There may be other woods that have as wide a variety of figure as sapele, but I'm not aware of any. As you'll see below, there's flat cut and quartersawn, with a fairly normal distinction between them but that's just the start. Then there's quilted, pomelle, figured, fiddleback, striped, blistered, wavy, and on and on, including COMBINATIONS of quilted and pomelle and others. This is particularly true of the veneer of this wood and I have read that some of the variation in veneer figure does not exist or is very weak in lumber, as the veneer shows certain types of figure in a way that lumber does not (and this does not even count rotary cut veneer, which is of course not available at all in lumber), but this caveat does not ring true to me and I have seen many web-pics of stunningly figured sapele lumber.

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 sapele / Entandrophragma cylindricum --- 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 quartersawn sapele / Entandrophragma cylindricum --- 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 sapele / Entandrophragma cylindricum --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was contributed to the site 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 plank of sapele / Entandrophragma cylindricum --- 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 listed this as "pomelle" but there is absolutely no way that is a valid designation. There is a light curl in this wood but no hint of pomelle figure. The most charitable explanation possible is that this plank came from a longer one that DID have pomelle figure, but this vendor does have a tendency to exaggerate descriptions. For more detail on this plank, see the sample directly below.

both sides of a plank of sapele / Entandrophragma cylindricum --- 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 sample is from the plank directly above. The vendor had this listed as "mottled" sapele and which I can see that that designation could be considered technically correct, the mottle is SO weak that I would be embarrassed to sell it that way. For more details on this piece, see the small cutoff directly below.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a little cutoff of sapele --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was contributed to the site by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This was cut from the plank directly above and the same comment on the figure applies.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

several shots of the same 8-foot long plank that I bought because of the nice color and cathedral grain pattern

plank and closeup

plank and closeup --- really marvelous grain on this one. Color on closeup pic is lighter tan than the real wood; distance pic is accurate in color

sample plank and end grain sold to me as sapele / Entandophragma spp.

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

plank and end grain --- the face grain has been sanded to a moderately smooth surface but the end grain has been only very rough sanded (see directly below of a fine sanded example). This plank is lighter in color than any sapele veneer I've ever had. The following statement from my wood anatomy article applies to this piece and to a similar piece of sipo:

These two pieces were sold to me as sapele and sipo, respectively, BUT ... as you can see, they have end grain characteristics that are (1) identical to each other and (2) NOT the same as EITHER sapele OR sipo. These include (1) multitudinous parenchyma bands, (2) numerous fairly long radial pore multiples, (3) even the pores that are not in radial multiples are mostly in radial strands, and (4) rays are barely discernible even with a 10X loupe. SO ... I'm dubious that these are either sapele OR sipo, BUT ... it is possible that they are some related species that is lumped in with either sapele or sipo, whichever happens to be what the loggers are supposed to be cutting that day. I also noticed in the face grain of both of these planks that they are lighter and show less grain on flat cut surfaces than what is generally the case for both sapele and sipo.

4 smaller planks cut from the same larger plank as the one directly above. Note that the 2nd from the left appears to have a substantially different color on the end grain but that's because that particular piece was fine sanded in order to get the end grain closeup directly below and as is frequently the case, fine sanding enhances the color (or to say it more properly, rough sanding makes for a lighter color than fine sanding on most woods). The face grain was also fine sanded, but that makes less difference, compared to the other pieces, than what obtained in the end grain.

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the 2nd piece from the left directly above

plank and end grain

end grain closeup of the piece directly above and the END GRAIN UPDATE of a completely different piece that was put here for reasons having to do with my automated file handling. HUGE enlargements are present for the update.

some small planks, rough sanded, and the end grain from one of them

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

closeup of one of the small planks from the set above, and the same plank moistened with water. As you can see, a finishing agent will considerably deepen and enrich the color of sapele.

pomelle figure sapele plank --- the pomelle figure isn't strong but it IS a little stronger than what you see here.

side shot of the piece directly above, and the same with water added to bring out the pomelle figure

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

both sides of a sample plank of sapele --- HUGE enlargements are present.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

a couple of shots of a pile a sapele at a lumber yard, showing some nice color and grain variety for plain lumber

planks photographed at a lumber yard; the bottom plank has a nice shiny ribbon stripe figure that doesn't show up all that well in the pic

planks shot at a lumber yard --- HUGE enlargements are present.

two sections of the same long plank cut in half

small piece and end grain --- this was cut from the plank directly above

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

both side grains and a side grain closeup of the piece directly above

quartersawn plank with very nice ray flakes (see enlargement) photographed at a lumber yard --- color is a little too orange

face of a sapele piece --- this pic and the two below were contributed to the site by Pete Burnett, whom I thank. The piece is quartersawn, so this face is quartersawn and the edge (directly below) is flat cut

edge of the piece directly above

edge closeup of the piece directly above, showing the open pores

figured sapele plank shot at a craft show --- HUGE enlargements are present

quartersawn veneer --- very nice ribbon figure in a chocolate brown piece and a golden brown piece

flat cut veneer --- there is a little too much red in these pics except for the last two which are accurate

the ebay pics posted by the vendor who sold me the flat cut veneer directly above. My pics are more accurate.

quartersawn figured veneer --- there is a weak mottle figure in these sheets that is more pronounced than what shows up in these pics

mottled veneer

sapele veneer pics contributed by Danny Tjan, whom I thank for these and other contributions to the site. Danny did not have these listed specifically as ribbon stripe, but they clearly are.

the ebay pic posted by the vendor who sold me the quartersawn figured veneer directly above. My pics are more accurate.

vendor's ebay pic of some razor mottle veneer that I see I have cleverly forgotten to take any pics of --- I'll get to it someday.

"pomelle, marbled, quilted" veneer, near as I can tell. There are so many combinations/varities in sapele that it's kind of hard to decide what to call some of them, but "pomelle, marbled, quilted" is the label a dealer put on the web picture that is by far the closest I can find to these sheets. The dealer I bought them from did not identify them at all.

more quilted sapele veneer that might be called "pomelle, marbled, quilted", or might be called some other combination of one or more of those words, but in any case show some more of the variety of figure that you get with sapele

more quilted veneer

pomelle veneer --- the middle one of these was listed as "quilted" but I see it as more of a pomelle figure. The colors are all shown correctly.

more pomelle veneer --- very light pomelle figure that might also be called a mottle; another example of how it's just about impossible to accurately "name" these fancy figures that are all over the map in this particular species.

pomelle veneer sheet and closeup

curly sapele veneer

figured veneer

yet another form of "figured" veneer --- the variety of grain patterns in this wood far outstrips normal naming conventions

fiddleback veneer

rotary cut veneer from two different lots

more rotary cut veneer, most presented as book matched and all from the same flitch

rotary cut sapele veneer --- HUGE enlargements are present. This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION D. The description in the collection had this as "pomelle" which is a mistake. It's clearly just rotary cut.

sapele candle holder, 4 1/2" high, 6" long, very chatoyant (which you can get a hint of from the ray flakes in the top view), finish is 5 coats of rattle-can flat enamel, both levels of enlargement are present.

web pics:

planks with wet and dry sections; the first two are rift cut and the last one, listed as Entandrophragma cylindricum, is quartersawn. The color on the first one is likely too pink.

flat cut planks

quartersawn planks, mostly ribbon stripe

misc planks

planks with colors that are just silly

planks that have been mositened on the surface for the pics --- unlike some of the web-pics on this page, I believe the colors on these planks.

plank with finishing agent applied, so looks richer than raw wood

plank listed as quartersawn figured

figured

the following 6 pics of a HUGE sapele log and closeups of some of the planks cut from it, both wet and dry, were contributed to the site by exotic wood importer Patrick Dean. As I mentioned at the top of this page, there may be other woods that have as wide a variety of figure as sapele, but I'm not aware of any. Patirck identified this figure as "drape" with the obvious derivation from how a window curtain drapes. Some vendors might call it quilted or curly or just "figured" but "drape" sounds right to me. I thank Patrick for this and other contributions to the site.

Patrick pointed out that this log is abnormally large for sapele, which normally tops out at about 6 feet DBA, while this log looks to be about 7 to 8 feet in the horizontal diameter (as seen in the first two pics) and 8 to 9 in the vertical diameter. I'm not sure about the length but it appears to be about 16 feet. HUGE enlargements are present for all the pics.

quilted

both sides of a quilted plank and closeups of both sides

both sides and a closeup of a plank listed as "quilted" but which seems to me to be much more "pomelle" than quilted --- just another example of how loosely these terms are used.

pomelle figured plank

rift cut veneer that was listed as quartersawn

quartersawn veneer

ribbon stripe veneer

flat cut veneer

listed as "flat cut veneer" but looks quartersawn to me

quartersawn figured veneer from a vendor whose pics always add a shine that is not present in the wood

quartersawn fiddleback veneer

veneer

veneer all from the same vendor

veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement available. These are all from the same vendor as the set directly above

figured veneer, all from the same vendor

figured veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement available. These are all from the same vendor as the set directly above

curly veneer

pomelle veneer, all from the same vendor

pomelle veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement available. These are all from the same vendor as the set directly above

fiddleback veneer

veneer listed as "figured" --- looks like fiddleback to me

figured veneer

mottled veneer --- frankly, without seeing it up close, I would think this was makore --- you can usually tell the difference up close because sapele tends to be more grainy and/or have more of an interlocked grain, than makore.

quartersawn mottled veneer

razor mottled veneer that could just as easily have been labeled curly ribbon stripe veneer --- these lables are SO loose.

striped veneer

seagrass veneer and pomelle swirl veneer

pomelle planks

pomelle planks, all from the same vendor and all with both levels of enlargement. The color on these is over saturated in the red.

pomelle plank and closeup

listed as pomelle planks, these look more like quilted to me, but the figure variations in sapele are so wide that naming conventions are not uniform

pomelle plank with wet and dry sections

pomelle veneer

gray-dyed pomelle veneer

pomelle quilted plank

pomelle quilted veneer

pomelle marble quilted veneer

pomelle pebble veneer

blistered plank

a veneer with the interesting designation "reverse blister", which seems accurate but I believe might have been made up by the selling dealer since I have not seen the designation elsewhere and I know this dealer to be quite careless about designations.

blistered veneer --- the second pic is of a type that the vendor usually calls "waterfall blister" (see directly below)

veneer listed as "waterfall blistered" (the first two) and "waterfall pomelle" (the next three). There is, as far as I can tell, only one vendor who uses the term "waterfall" so I hypothesize that it is a made-up term. Also, I note that I cannot tell the difference betweeen what she calls "blistered" and what she calls "pomelle", but she is very loose with descriptive terms so I don't find this particularly surprising.

flat cut waterfall veneer

roapy veneer

wavy figure veneer

listed as quilted veneer, the absurd color on this pic is the kind of thing that drove me to create this web site in the first place.

quilted veneer

rotary cut veneer --- these are all from the vendor whose pics always add a shine that is not present in the wood. Veneer from at least one of these lots is in my own samples above and you can see that there is no shine.

listed as "flat cut figured" veneer but looks rotary cut to me --- this was posted by the same vendor as the rotary cut sheets directly above and she is extraordinarily loose in nomenclature --- seems to just use whatever phrase strikes her fancy at the time, even to the point of calling obviously flat cut pieces quartersawn and vice verse.

these two pics are from the same board, so I'm sure the purple color is bogus. I've seen several vendors posting purple pictures of wood that definitely isn't even remotely purple. There seems to be some lighting condition that causes digital cameras to pick up brown and brown-orange as purple, and the vendor who posted these pics shows many woods as purple, regardless of the true color.

listed as sapele crotch veneer but this looks suspeciously like makore crotch veneer to me

sapele bowl shot at a craft show. I found this to be a particuarly elegant turning. HUGE enlargements are present and the sapele grain is shown very clearly and to great advantage in this turning.

bowl shot at a woodworking show. HUGE enlargements are present.

9"x2" bowl turned and photographed by John Fuher. HUGE enlargements are present which REALLY show the grain nicely, although John had the F-stop set too low so only the rear portion is in focus. Thanks for the pic John.

bowl with nicely representative grain (and what I believe is too much green color)

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. Although Steve did not list these as having any particuarl figure, the first one is pomelle, the second one is "figured" (a catch-all term) and the last is normal sapele

bowl

shallow sapele bowl by Steve Earis --- the second enlargement in particular nicely shows both the shinyness and the porosity that is often exhibited by sapele

pomelle sapele bowl