Sapele

For years, this wood has been difficult to get and has now become almost impossible to acquire in the USA. Part of the reason is that it is almost all being sold to veneer and other manufacturers in China, who pay more and have thus cornered the market. The wood is worth more as veneer and the lumber prices for the small remaining stocks of highly figured solid wood are now very high. Wood with medium or low or no figure is still easy to get and much less expensive. The figure may look like the pictures above or others below (more quilted/curly or intensely quilted, or a combination of the two). The color can also be lighter or darker as well. Most people are very happy with our gallery grade (gg) material, and even gallery grade minus (gg-) material is very nice compared to most figured woods.