When choosing to build custom furnishings from reclaimed lumber our Wood Shop Manager Billy Leeka uses his keen eye when picking out different species of domestic and exotic hardwoods. He chose Sapele and Cypress for this colorful custom table and it turned out just beautiful.
Sapele is an exotic hardwood native to tropical Africa, and is in the same family as Mahogany. The American car maker Cadillac uses sapele wood for interior wood trim on its vehicles. The shower seat manufacturer Hudson Reed also use sapele wood for certain shower seats. Boutique headphone manufacture Forte Audio uses Sapele Wood in the construction of their ‘Forte Clairity’ line of hi-end headphones. American specialty furniture maker Geek Chic uses sapele wood for a variety of custom furniture pieces they offer, including gaming tables and chairs.
Most cypress species are trees, while a few are shrubs. Different species grow in different areas of North America. The trees are especially prized for their wood, of which the heartwood is extremely rot- and termite-resistant. The heartwood contains a sesquiterpene called cypressene, which acts as a natural preservative. It takes decades for cypressene to accumulate in the wood, so lumber taken from old-growth trees is more rot resistant than that from second-growth trees.
Age also increases susceptibility to Pecky Rot fungus, which attacks the heartwood and causes some damaged trees to become hollow and thus useless for timber, although many custom builders use ‘Pecky Cypress’ for custom projects. Bald Cypress wood was much used in former days in the southeastern United States for roof shingles. The shredded bark of these trees is used as a mulch.
Billy decided to maintain the character of the live edge on both the table top and the matching bench.
This was just another one of the beautiful tables built in the Eco Relics Wood Shop using reclaimed lumber. Remember that using these materials is environmentally friendly, it has an age and character that can’t be matched, most old-growth wood is no longer available, and each piece has its own history!
Come by the shop and see how easy it is for you to own a custom table of your own!
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