shedua

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

shedua / Guibourtia ehie (et. al.)
Guibourtia ehie (syn. Copaifera ehie) is the wood most commonly meant by "shedua". Other common names are ovangkol and mozambique. Other species that also use the common name shedua are Daniella thurifera and Daniellia ogea (syn. s Daniellia fosteri, Daniellia punchii, and Daniellia similis)

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, medium sized, randomly spaced, sparse pores with lozenge shaped aliform parenchyma. Occasional pore multiples, usually radial. Rays vary in width and are clear at 10X, marginal parenchyma is about the only thing defining growth ring boundaries but also usually there is a sparsity of pores right at the start of the earlywood and that makes the rings stand out more by creating a darker area free of pores.

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 shedua (ovangkol) / Guibourtia ehie --- HUGE enlargements are present.

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

both sides of a sample plank of shedua. HUGE enlargements are present.

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

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

plank with particularly nice flat grain surface but looking just slightly more green, and less brown, than the actual wood is.

plank with more of a green tint than is in the wood (it's more brownish, but not a light brown like the piece directly below)

both sides of a small piece of shedua / Guibourtia ehie --- HUGE enlargements are present. This was cut from the plank directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of shedua / Guibourtia ehie --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. The first face is freshly sanded and the second face is just the way it came from the lumber yard.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of shedua / Guibourtia ehie --- 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

a plank section and end grain --- somewhat boring compared to many others but the color is very accurate.

end grain closeup of the piece directly above

Leo Frilot sent me several wood samples to see if I could help identify them. Rarely have I found such a close and obvious match as that of one of the samples he sent and my own sample of a wood. The side grain match was not at all as obvious but this end grain match is pretty hard to argue with.

some pieces cut-off of another plank, and these seem even more boring than the one above.

both sides of a sample plank of ovangkol / Guibourtia ehie --- 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 labeled side is rough but the 2nd side has been sanded to 240 grit and so looks a bit richer in color and shows the face grain details better.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a piece of curly shedua / Guibourtia ehie --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Note that the first face was sanded to 240 grit and the second face was not and this accounts for minor differences in color between the two (the second face still has a patina) and the better resolution of the detail characteristics as seen in the first one. The color correction on these pics is not quite right: the first side has a bit too much red and the second side has a bit too much orange and the end grain needs just a hair more brown. The designation of "curly" is technically true, barely, but I would never call this piece curly.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

sample plank and end grain sold to me as shedua / Guibrourtia spp. but since the only Guibourtia spp. that I am aware of that uses the name shedua is Guibourtia ehie, I'm sure that's what it is.

end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- the color is a bit too green

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above --- the color is a bit too red

both sides of a small piece --- HUGE enlargements are present for both these and the pics directly below. This is one of those shedua pieces that has fantastic chatoyancy. Also note that it is almost perfectly quartersawn and has nice ray flakes on the face.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

two pieces of shedua / Guibourtia ehie contributed to the site by Mike Stafford, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

both sides of one of the pieces directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

a pair of planks; the upper one is sanded to 100 grit, the lower just rough sanded and still showing planer marks. You can just see that the upper plank has a weak curl.

end grain and end grain closeup of upper of the two planks directly above.

END GRAIN UPDATE from a piece in the same batch as the one directly above

planks

a couple of small planks

end grains and one end grain closeup from the pieces directly above

plank

planks shot at a lumber yard

both sides of a sample plank of curly shedua / Guibourtia ehie --- 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 curl is weak but definitely there; the red is these pics is slightly exaggerated --- the wood is a bit more brown than what is shown.

NOTE: based on the end grain update which shows extremely weak to non-existent rays, the fact that the parenchyma cells are not aliform, and the way the pores are arranged, I now believe that this is NOT Guibourtia ehie

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

curly plank

three views of pieces from a freshly cut log --- pics of this really outstanding sample were contributed by Pat Dean who said "I will never forget that log- simply outstanding. I was like a schoolboy who got a date with the best looking girl around when they opened up that log."

veneer, all sold to me as mozambique. All of these veneer sheets are from the same lot, which was sold to me as "figured" but which has such a weak figure that I would not represent it as figured at all. the web pic posted by the vendor who sold it to me is shown somewhere down below in the web pics section.

This sheet of Mozanbique veneer was loaned to me by John Koehn whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

veneer sold to me as mozambique --- this pic has accurate color but the wood has a very nice shimmer that barely shows up here

veneer sold to me as figured mozambique

quartersawn curly flaky veneer sheet and two closeups; this was sold to me as mozambique. The flakes are small but can be seen clearly in the enlargements.

shedua veneer pic contributed by Danny Tjan, whom I thank for these and other contributions to the site.

web pics:

planks

plank listed as ovengkol / Guibourtia ehie

quartersawn planks

quartersawn bookmatched figured planks

moistened bookmatched pair of curly planks

planks listed as amazique

plank listed as mozambique --- yes, I'm aware that it is the same as one of the "amazique" pics directly above; the pics were taken from different web sites and I leave this here to point out the confusion among wood names AND the fact that some sites have renamed pics stolen from other sites. That is one reason why I am careful to show on this site how a wood was originally listed even if I think it is not the best designation.

figured plank and figured veneer both listed as mozambique

planks, all from the same vendor. I have purchased numerous shedua planks from this vendor and can attest that these are allaccurate representations

plank listed as amazakoue

plank and closeup from a vendor whose pics make most woods look purple regardless of their actual color. This wood was listed as amazakoue

planks listed as ovangkol

planks listed as fiddleback, but you'll notice that some of the "curly" planks below are MUCH more like fiddleback than these --- just another indication of how subjective these designations can be (and how some dishonest vendors call things fiddleback when they are not)

curly planks (the last two are strong enough to be called fiddleback)

figured planks (figure is mostly a mottle)

planks listed as curly "African black" shedua. As nearly as I can tell, the "African black" name is just something arbitrarily added by the vendor for marketing purposes and not a name that actually exists anywhere outside their marketing department (a situation that would not be unusual for this vendor).

quartersawn figured planks --- bright color is unlikely

"figured" planks and closeup with the "figure" being a strong block mottle

misc pieces of figured / mottled shedua, all from the same vendor

shedua not listed as figured but they clearly are mottled. The color on the first two pics is not believable.

two sets of mottled planks and then a closeup of the second set; the color is so rich that these had to have been moistened for the pics

mottled ovangkol

curly ovangkol

figured plank

mottled figure plank

turning stock, some figured

figured scales --- I'm suspicious of the green color but cannot say for sure that it is incorrect.

knife handle scales listed as amazakoue

pen blanks that have been oiled and waxed

veneer listed as shedua

bookmatched veneer, not listed as figured but it does have a light figure

veneer listed as amazakoue

veneer listed as ovangkol

veneer listed as ovangkol / Guibourtia ehie --- the 2nd piece is bookmatched and figured

veneer listed as mozambique

flat cut mozambique veneer

mottled mozambique veneer sheet and closeup; both pics are by the same vendor but the distance pic has the kind of insane color that is the main reason that I started this web site in the first place.

mozambique veneer sheet and closeup

mozambique veneer listed as figured; the figure is obviously a mottle

mozambique figured veneer

mozambique quartersawn figured veneer

mozambique curly veneer

figured mozambique veneer --- this is the lot from which some of my veneer sample above were taken. Technically, this IS figured veneer, but the figure is so weak as to be almost non-existant on portions of the sheets. I don't know how this vendor manages to always make her wood appear shiny when it never is but she does --- I've purchased a number of lots from her and they are never even close to being as shiny as she pictures them and most of them, like this piece, are not shiny at all.

figured veneer listed as amazakoue

these pics are from the BogusColorVendor so I do not believe that the bright yellow content of these pics represents real wood.

both sides and a closeup of a plank (listed as amazique) from the BogusColorVendor but with considerably less color mangling that normal for them ... this is likely more rich in color than the wood actually is, but at least they didn't make it bright red.

both sides of a plank and a closeup (listed as amazique) also from the BogusColorVendor but apparently taken by an honest photographer --- their regular guy must have had the day off

both sides of a plank and a closeup (listed as amazique), from the BogusColorVendor so the red color is almost certainly bogus, given the totally dishonest nature of this vendor's pics.

plank and closeup, also from the BogusColorVendor

turning stock, also from the BogusColorVendor

plank and closeups, also from the BogusColorVendor why one of the closeups has a totally different color than the other pics, I have no idea (except that their colors can never be trusted anyway).

guitar set, undoubtedly moistened for the pic

figured shedua guitar sets

guitar

guitar back listed as ovangkol

bowl made from curly shedua

shedua section on a laminated bowl --- the pic on the left is fresh off the lathe and the one on the right is after one coat of natural stain. There is a shimmer to the wood that the pic just can't capture (see the bowl directly below for an even better example of this, and one that shows up better in the pic). The base is red oak; to the left of the shedua is white ash and to the right is aromatic red cedar.

shedua section on a laminated bowl. The first pic is fresh off the lathe and the second is after one coat of natural stain. The shimmer in the wood is even better than what is captured here, so even though the shedua oval is small relative to the size of the bowl, it is a major highlight of the bowl. Behind the shedua is paela.