Khaya or African Mahogany comes from Western Africa, Ivory Coast and south.  There are a number of different species that are sold as “African Mahogany” which was a practice that began in France.  Acajou, which means Mahogany in French also refers to Sipo, Utile, Kosipo (pretty much any African reddish wood) having a Mahogany quality, including Khaya.  Sapeli was also included in this mix, but maintained it’s name as Sapeli Mahogany, which is completely a misnomer.

Khaya logs are large dimension and offer flat sliced and quartered veneers.  Some logs yield veneers that can look very plain, very uniform, whereas others might produce more of a stripey appearance, even with some horizontal type figures like fiddleback.  Color ranges from a medium / pale amber to a deep red.  Khaya stains very well.

In this example we see a quartered Khaya veneer with a broken fiddleback figure.