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Sipo
Also called sipo mahogany
The quieter cousin of sapele.
Color over time
Approximate, in a normally lit room. Illustrated grain; real boards vary.
- Hardness
- 1,180 HardHigher number means harder to dent. About the Janka test
- Weight
- Medium
- Cost of the wood
- $$Moderate, per board foot
- Grows in
- West and Central Africa
What it looks like
Golden to reddish-brown, a little more muted than sapele, with smooth, even grain. Its stripes are broader and softer than sapele’s. Straight boards look very much like genuine mahogany.
How it changes over time
Darkens to a warm reddish-brown like mahogany, a little less red than sapele.
Shimmer
A soft, slow shimmer from broad stripes. Gentler than sapele.
Smell
A faint cedar-like smell when cut; none once finished.
With a natural wax finish
A quiet, matte brown with soft stripes.
With a semi-gloss lacquer finish
Deepens to a mahogany red-brown, and the broad stripes shimmer gently.
Safe for food?
Good for foodFine for serving boards and works for cutting boards. It is less common for end-grain cutting boards because the chatoyance isn’t visible on the end-grain.
Looks great with
- Hard Maple: light accents; the contrast grows with age
- Curly / Quilted Maple: shimmering panels
- Wenge: near-black against warm brown
- American Black Walnut: a warm all-brown pairing
- White Ash: blond against red-brown
- Macassar Ebony: thin black accents