Wenge Dish
Wenge is a very hard, very dense, and very colorful streaked hardwood from Africa. It is not often found in sizes adequate for bowl turning, and when it is found, it will come at a rather dear price compared to many other available woods of comparable sizing. I just priced an 8 inch square blank, of 3 inches thickness, at over $62, not including shipping. The piece I used was smaller, but it still retailed at the time I purchased it for about $40. But for its unique appearance, texture, and heft, it might be worth it.
Wenge Basics
Wenge is native to central Africa, usually being exported from the following countries: Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zaire. The wood is derived from some pretty good sized trees, averaging at time of harvest a hefty 60-90 feet tall with 3-4 foot trunk diameters. The wood is quite dense at 54 pounds per square foot (compare to red oak at 44 pounds) and incredibly hard at a Janka hardness reading of 1,930 pounds (again, for comparison, red oak comes in at 1,220 pounds on the same scale). It is reported to work well, while being splintery along the cut edge, and it is also reported to not sand well while being highly porous, which often signals trouble with end grain tear out.
Initial Impressions
The wood was obviously dense given the weight of the original piece relative to its size. I had just previously worked with a piece of hackberry that was twice the size, but probably about half the weight nonetheless. The wood was also clearly hard as I had a struggle to cut it on the bandsaw. I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to succeed about half way through cutting to round. I didn’t feel the need to mount it between centers to get to round since the cut was round enough for me to feel comfortable starting right off on the face plate.
Working Wenge
Cutting the wood at all required absolutely fresh carbide inserts in the Easy Wood Tools. And even then it was quite a battle to make even the smallest cuts during the rounding down. The chatter was intense and the tools were hot! There was splintering along the cut edges and I was careful to avoid these splinters as they have a nasty reputation for easily becoming infected once in a finger. In fact, because of a recent very bad allergic reaction, that still isn’t over, due to working with Timborana, I had checked out the reported health risks of Wenge on the Wood Database. Wenge was rated a 3 star out of 4 for health risks, so I was careful to avoid not only splinters, but also to use a new vented respirator to reduce, if not avoid, respiratory contact with dust or shavings.
Sanding Wenge and Tear Out
Once round, I was very worried about the obvious end grain tear out. I wood was incredibly hard but with some very light cuts this turned to my advantage as the tear out was mostly cleanly cut away, a much more difficult task with a softer wood. I was barely able to get the divot for the chuck started on the face grain, but I managed it. When it came time to sand the edges of the dish, I was surprised to find that there was very little, if any, dust being generated even with 60 or 80 grit paper or Abranet sanding screens! This wood simply doesn’t sand. I tried rough sandpaper, which simply clogged practically immediately with oily residue. I was finally able to have some success with very fresh, never before used, Abranet screens, but I was very grateful that the majority of the end grain tear out had been cut away because I fear I would still be sanding at it otherwise. I had read that Wenge doesn’t sand evenly because of the differing densities between the light and dark streaks, but I didn’t notice this effect so much as it simply seemed impervious to sanding in general. The positive side of it turned out to be that little sanding was really required and once sanded down to 600 level Abranet screen, the natural gloss of the wood made it appear that a gloss finish had been applied! It seems that the sanding screens had the effect of polishing or buffing the natural wood oils, resulting in a great shine without artificial chemicals at all. The piece literally reflects overhead light with only the wood itself giving the effect.
Wenge Finishing Touches
The pores are noticeably open if you look closely but I was still able to achieve a nice touch feel without using any sort of filler. I was happy with the natural shine and didn’t want to risk using a waxy finish on something so open pore for fear that the wax would simply clog in the pores and not buff out evenly. Some Wenge users have reported using oil finishes on their pieces but they also note that this will turn the Wenge very dark, dark enough to substitute for Ebony, and I didn’t want to lose the streaks that make the Wenge so attractive. Again, I am thrilled with the naturally buffed finish achieved with Abranet 600 grit screens and the natural wood oils alone.
Cutting the hollow, admittedly relatively shallow, of the face was challenging and slow. Again, I struggled with tear out but was able to cut away the worst of that by using very sharp, very fresh carbide inserts and a quite small tool, intended for pen or small spindle work, to improve control on the lightest of cuts. I was successful, although I did have to sand a bit more on the inside than had been required on the outside. However, I found the required sanding to be minimal compared to similar sized pieces, which, again, was a good thing because Wenge just isn’t impressed by sandpaper!
Coming Attractions and Final Thoughts
I had worked with pen blank size pieces of Wenge before and didn’t recall any particularly noteworthy issues or experiences, other than the open pores of the wood, but the experience of working with a bowl blank sized piece is quite different in the challenges it presented. I have bowl blank sized pieces of Lignum Vitae, one of the hardest, if not the single hardest, woods in the world, which I have also turned pen blank sized pieces of, and now, having experienced Wenge which isn’t as hard as that, I confess to be a bit scared of the time when I will tackle something even harder!
If you can find a suitably sized piece of Wenge, and I could only find one vendor offering one, Bell Forest Products of Michigan, and you find the price acceptable for a single blank, then by all means I would encourage anyone to tackle it. Just be sure that you have very fresh and sharp tools, that you are prepared to sharpen or replace carbide frequently during the process, can make light cuts to clean the end grain, and are patient with sanding (although you shouldn’t need much if you make nice cuts on this hard of a wood…nor will sanding help you rescue poor cuts in wood this hard), then you just might enjoy the process, and if not the process, almost certainly the potentially stunning outcomes!