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PADAUK
Pterocarpus spp.
my samples:
small piece and end grain
small piece and end grain, but this one has been oiled, which as you can see does not make much change in the already dark rich red color of the side grain, although it does make the end grain noticibly darker. The oil finish shows up better if you click to enlarge. The end grain pic is a little darker than the actual wood, mostly I think just due to the lighting of that shot and the fact that I didn't do any color correction.
plank and closeup --- I bought this one because of the orange streaks in the red wood
plank and closeup --- cut from the same long plank as the one directly above
two planks and a closeup of same --- these are more the traditional red, even-grained, variety
some planks shot at a lumber yard --- I moved these to the top of the pile to show some of the color variety. The first pic shows three planks with a color range I had seen before but I had not previously seen the more purple padauk. I assume the light color in those planks is sapwood.
one end of a long plank and a closeup
the other end of the same plank as directly above, and a closeup
plank and end grain --- cut from another large plank I bought and choosen to show this particular shade of sapwood and also because of the tiny area of spalting in the sapwood because this is the only spalted padauk I've ever encountered.
end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- again, note the small area of spalting
planks with nicely captured deep red color
plank and closeup --- the closeup (especially the enlargements) shows the porous nature of the grain in this wood, with obvious open pores throughout the face grain. Also demonstrated is the clear and abrupt transition from heartwood to sapwood, also typical of padauk. The distance shot is just a little too dark --- actual color is more like that of the closeup, although that reflects how the wood looks in a strong light.
slab --- color of wood is actually a little darker and richer than what shows up in this pic
bowl blank
very nice stripy bowl blank
bowl blank
veneer --- the left of the two veneer pieces, when enlarged, shows the vessels particularly well.
My own samples are quite accurate in color. Although most padauk is a rich red color, there is a variety that is harvested in the Congo that is more commonly orange in color. My next two samples shows that:
some small sticks of "congo" padauk, showing very accurately the bright orange color that is common to padauk harvested in the Congo.
congo padauk plank and end grain
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
three planks of unusually dark and heavy padauk. When I first saw these pieces I thought I had received bloodwood by mistake and when I picked them up and felt the weight I was sure of it, but close examination of the grain makes it clear that they are padauk. The rest of my padauk samples on this page weighted from 40 to 48 lbs/cubic foot and these planks weighted 51, although they actually felt heavier.
veneer with a little sapwood --- very subdued color by padauk standards
veneer with very accurately represented color --- this is brilliant stuff
Based on the tannish orange color, accurately shown here, this one hardly looks like padauk, but the vendor is reliable and there is enough grain similarity to make the identification seem reasonable.
Based on the purplish brown color, accurately shown here, this one hardly looks like padauk, but the vendor is reliable and there is enough grain similarity to make the identification seem reasonable. Although, now that I think about it, the color reports do sometimes mention purplish brown, I just hadn't ever seen this color padauk before.
sample showing color aging. This oak/padauk laminate was made about 8 years ago then ended up in a tightly wrapped, sealed, cardboard container until just recently, so the wood was not exposed to fresh air for long after having been cut else I believe it would have darkened even more. The sample on the left is freshly cut from the same piece as the one on the right. It's only the outside of the wood that shows aging. You can also see a faint effect of aging on the oak as well.
this slab sat in my garage for a year or so with one face (shown in the 2nd pic) exposed to direct sunlight and the other (shown in the first pic) exposed to a small amount of indirect sunlight. The bright color edge is just now freshly cut and sanded and the rough edge was on the bottom so not exposed to light at all
small piece with blue stain in the sapwood
a set of pictures of a plank that I bought from the BogusColorVendor. The plank was a hair over 5 feet long so I had it cut in half for shipping, so the two sections shown here are each 7.5"x30"x2"
plank 1 side 1 and closeup, then the corresponding portion as pictured by the BogusColorVendor. The color in the closeup is very accurate; the distance pic is uneven due to the spotlights I used. The misrepresentation by the BogusColorVendor is VERY mild compared to what they sometimes do.
plank 1 side 2 --- a section of the plank that was exposed and turned brown. The 2nd pic is the corresponding portion of the one posted by the BogusColorVendor and here the misrepresentation is more serious, and more typical of their work. I've kept the closeup large to show the color differences and grain pattern, and I've provided two enlargements, so the largest enlargement of the closeup gives you a VERY close look at padauk grain. The color on the closeup is very accurate and the color on the distance pic is accurate but just a shade too rich in both the brown and the red.
plank 2, both sides and a closeup of each. The colors in the closeups is quite accurate and the distance pics are reasonably accurate but somewhat mixed due to the spotlights. The area between the bright spot-lit areas is the most accurate in color for both pics, but the closeups are still more accurate.
end grain of the two planks. This is where the vendor cut it for shipping, but the ends have been waxed for protection against moisture absorbsion so they look richer than the actual wood will look, until a finishing agent has been applied to it at the end of a project.
some freshly exposed small pieces cut from the plank shown directly above. As you can see, the freshly exposed wood is slightly more bright than the longer exposed wood (particularly the brown area that had been exposed to sunlight). The color here is quite accurate.
web pics
a couple of large planks (10 feet long). The top one is a very believable orange color and the bottom one is a purple that I have not personally experienced in padauk but that I find believable.
planks
plank with nice variagated grain color and a closeup of the 2nd set
plank listed as amandan padauk
turning stock
curly turning stock --- now, I have seen some VERY bright padauk but even so I do not believe the vibrancy of color in this pic
planks --- these were not labled congo padauk but certainly the color seems to suggest that they are.
the pictures posted by the BogusColorVendor for the plank that I have numerous pictures of in my own samples at the top of this page. Since this plank was a pretty bright red to start with, their misrepresentation is not as blatant on this plank as it usually is.
a pair of wide, six-foot long planks that appear to have been moistened (possibly waxed)
book matched planks --- color on the second set could be accurate even though it is way off red (see my own samples)
small pen-turning blanks listed as compression wood
two views of a mottled padauk plank. It's from the BogusColorVendor, so the color is almost certainly way too deep a red, but the grain pattern is why I have the pics here.
pen blanks made of spalted padauk sapwood (oiled and waxed)
veneer
quartersawn veneer
veneer, all from the same vendor
veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement available --- these sheets are from the same vendor as the set directly above.
burls
none of the web shots are color corrected and these two in particular seem to me to have just a little more bright red than I have experienced in actual pieces (though I've seen many internet pictures that are even brighter)
"myanmar" padauk veneer
matched pairs of thin sheets sold as a guitar back set
small (4"x3") box and mid-sized jewlery box --- based on my experience I'd say that the jewlery box pic has had some clumsy color correction done which accounts for the slightly gauzy look, but the colors don't look unrealistic.
serving tray
guitar
a padauk highlight on a turned bowl. The bright orangish-red color is accurate. The bowl has one coat of low gloss polyurethane
padauk highlight on a turned bowl, and a closeup showing the graininess of the wood
same shots after the application of one coat of natural stain. The blotchy oval at the left rear is western red cedar and the messy effect of the stain application on that wood is discussed and shown in more detail on that wood's page.
another padauk highlight on a turned bowl --- this one has a couple of coats of polyurethane, thus the wet look. I do not use filler, so even after the application of several coats of poly, the open end grain still shows up (you can see it particularly well on the enlargement), although the generally graininess of the wood is subdued after the finishing.
The turning sample above was done to show padauk side grain, end grain, and so forth. It has been coated with polyurethane, and this shot is not color corrected --- it is slightly darker than the actual wood. If you click on it to increase the size, you'll have a good view of the ocassonally prominent vessels of padauk. I did not use any filler under the poly, and although the poly (I applied several light coats) did fill in many of the vessels, some still show up markedly, as you can also see in the color-corrected shot below.
This picture has been very carefully color-corrected. On my monitor it looks exactly like the piece of wood and shows the full richness of a typical piece of aged padauk. This piece is over 10 years old and clearly shows signs of the color darkening, but this piece has not been exposed to direct sunlight so has not turned the dark reddish brown that it otherwise would have but has retained some red as it faded to a more purplish color.