Trade name: Wenge
Country of origin: Africa
Occurrence: West Africa, Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, Zaire; concentrated between Stanley Pool and Kiwu, in Equator Province and around Kisantu.
Uses: Furniture and interior decoration, parquet, construction wood, ornamental objects.
Character: Wenge is a very striking dark and coarse-grained wood with distinctive two-tone texture. A light brown streaking or veining caused by the storage cells contrasts with the coffee brown base tone of the wood. These dark and contrasting veneer patterns with a matte sheen emphasize an elegant worn atmosphere.
Special Features: The medium-sized trees grow up to 20 m high, reach a trunk diameter of 60-100 cm. The wood is hard, heavy, elastic and weather-resistant and is used in furniture and interior finishing, for doors, stairs and as parquet, furthermore for woodturning and carving and as fingerboard e.g. for guitars. Few bleaches out strongly in sunlight and loses the typical dark color. Therefore, today the wood is first chemically bleached and then dyed. With the appropriate finish, the color is then preserved for a long time.
