Afrormosia Timber - any good?

[Rich Stevens]

Folks,

I paid a visit to one of my long forgotten timber merchants here in Melbourne Australia. I hadn't visited this guy for more than 10 years and seeing I was in the area, decided to pay him a visit.

Like many of these sorts of specialised merchants, nothing much had changed - lots of really old stock of African, Northern American, Central American, South East Asian timbers - some good, some rubbish, but lots of old and heavy sized timbers, rarely seen nowadays. I imagine this is how it must have been with timbers dealers decades ago when sawmills around the world had access to massive old growth trees. Most high turnover furniture timber dealers now only stock up to 2" - and if a thicker board is needed, you'll need to laminate... Even 12"+ wide boards are getting tougher to find.

I am starting to ramble a bit...

As he was taking me around his yard a few unusual timbers were pointed out to me - one of which was Arformosia. He had what looked like a very tidy stack of 3" boards ranging from 6" to 12" wide and 8 foot to 16 foot long. They were beautifully sawn and straight. All were quartersawn. Next to it was another (smaller) stack of 4" boards, 6" to 10" wide, similar lengths and condition. They were more like heavy beams than ordinary planks...

This got me thinking once again about the dream workbench I've been wanting to build for the last 10 years. The 3" board could be used for the top and end caps, shoulder vise. Some of the four inch boards for the legs.

I did some Googleing and found out it comes from West Africa and has a specific density of around 700kg/cubic metre. Pretty heavy and certainly quite dense. I don't mind the colour either.

BTW, his prices are steep - about AUS $14 per bf. An 8" x 3" x 14' will cost me about $400. That's just one board!

For those of you experienced with this timber - is Arformosia suitable for workbench use? Also, if I were to limit its use for the top only (front, back and sides) and use something else for the base frame (I have some 3" & 4" Tasmanian Myrtle I was planning to use), this might keep my costs down - what do you think?

Thanks

Rich

[Roger Barga]

I am currently making a front entry door out of aframosia, after seeing one that has been in service for 10+ years and it still looks beautifull. I bet it would make a fine workbench.

roger

[Steve Wargo]

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work well for a bench top. It is fairly straight grained, and quite stable. I have a good bit of Afromasia veneer and it is beautiful. Hope you pull the trigger on it, I'd just love to see a bench made out of it. Good score, and FWIW, over here that would be a great price for it.