Specialty Lumber Solutions logo featuring "SLS" in stylized font with a wooden texture background, representing tropical hardwood products and lumber offerings.
Zebrawood tabletop showcasing distinctive dark and light striped grain patterns, relevant to tropical hardwood discussion on Specialty Lumber Solutions.

Know your wood: Zebrawood

  • March 4, 2012
    • |
  • 0 Comment(s)
    • |
  • 10:32 pm
    • |
  • 0 Comment(s)

Zebrawood

Zebrawood table showcasing distinctive wavy grain patterns and contrasting growth rings, illustrating the exotic hardwood's unique appearance and texture.

Now that’s a table! Zebrawood tends to be quite expensive, because quarter-sawn sections are required to achieve its distinctive look.

Trade Name: Zebrawood, Zebrano.

Genus: Microberlinia brazzavillensis

Janka Hardness (pounds-force): 2097

Description: Highly contrasting growth rings, resulting in the name from its quarter-sawn sections. Wildly chaotic sections may also be found from flat-sawn sections of Zebrano. The texture is fairly coarse, and its grain is usually wavy in nature.

Location: West Africa, namely: Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea. Zebrawood’s availability is further limited by the accessibility of the stock. Zebrano is found in remote locales, and is a slow growing species, with lots of cull from the milled to finished product.

Common Aliases: African zebrawood, Amouk, Enuk-enug, Zebrano, Izingana.

Performance: Cuts well, but does not plane quite so easily due to the wildly contrasting nature of the product. Stinks, but it only stinks like Zebrano. Zebrawood glues and finishes well, so presumably, once the product is well sealed, the odor encountered during the woodworking can be remedied. This isn’t a wood I would much want to put outside (personal preference…I wouldn’t want to smell rotting Zebrano), but it is a durable wood suitable for outdoor use. Insects don’t like the smell, or the taste of it.

Zebrawood eyeglasses showcasing the wood's distinctive striped pattern, highlighting its use in decorative objects and furnishings.

If you’re already having trouble seeing, AND you read Japanese, AND you need something to rapidly accelerate your vision loss, these should turn the trick.

Common Uses: Eyeglasses, decorative objects, flooring, furnishings, cabinetry, pens, plywood, veneers, turnings, and anything else that as a piece of furnishing needs to scream just a little bit.

From: The Wood Database:

Common Name(s): Zebrawood, Zebrano
Scientific Name: Microberlinia brazzavillensis
Distribution: West Africa
Tree Size: 150 ft (46 m) tall, 4-5 ft (1.2-1.5 m) trunk diameter
Average Dried Weight: 54 lbs/ft3 (860 kg/m3)
Basic Specific Gravity: .64
Hardness: 2,097 lbf (9.330 N)
Rupture Strength: 20,000 lbf/in2 (137,900 kPa)
Elastic Strength: 2,340,000 lbf/in2 (16,100 MPa)
Crushing Strength: 9,600 lbf/in2 (66.2 MPa)
Shrinkage: Radial: 6.8%, Tangential: 11.5%, Volumetric: 16.5%, T/R Ratio: 1.7

Get Wholesale Pricing & Stock Alerts

Specialty Lumber Solutions logo featuring "SLS" in stylized font with a wooden texture background, representing tropical hardwood products and lumber offerings.

3824 Fremont Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64129
816‒506‒4131

Monday to Friday: 8:00 – 3:00

Charles: 816 - 506 - 4131

Specialty Lumber Solutions represents the nation’s largest wholesalers of tropical hardwood products and domestic lumber mills. If you are looking for Ipe, Teak, Cumaru, Massaranduba or another species, we sell tropical hardwood rain screen siding and decking materials at the best prices.

For high end domestic species, we offer clear grade Western Red Cedar and Select Southern Cypress custom milled to your specifications. We also have your flooring needs covered by working with direct importers to offer a line of tropical hardwood flooring at the most competitive prices.