Sapeli Mahogany…..a misnomer.  Sapeli is not related to Mahogany in any way, other than being one of the African “red” woods.

The grown region is throughout West, Central and Eastern Africa – color will vary from each region, but is typically a golden red variation with some iridescence.

The “standard” logs can be flat sliced or quarter sliced depending on market demand – the latter being most popular, yielding the standard ribbon stripe.

Sapeli has come to be one of the species used for fuming, which is a chemical process where the veneers are put in a chamber with a catalyst in order to change the color.  Fuming takes the red color and turns it into a deep chocolate.  It still has reddish undertones, but consider those as blue corn chips dusted with cayenne!  We like to call fumed Sapeli, Mink Sapeli because of the iridescence exacerbated by the fuming process.