Padauk
Vivid orange-red, the brightest wood on our bench.
lbf on the Janka scale
Inside the range we like for boards
Purpleheart is 810 lbf harder than padauk, and sits over the board range, so hard it can be tough on a knife edge.
Color
Bright orange-red when new, settling to a deep reddish brown
Where it came from
- Dried
- Kiln dried before anything is cut from it.
More about padauk at The Wood Database · Wood data: The Wood Database (Eric Meier)
Padauk comes from West Africa and we use it the way a cook uses paprika: a stripe, a rooster, a thin line down an egg tray. A whole board of it would shout. A line of it makes the maple beside it look paler and the walnut darker.
How it ages
The orange is at its loudest the day the piece is finished. Light turns it toward a deep brick red over the first year and a reddish brown after that. Keep a piece out of direct sun and it holds its color longer; nothing holds it forever.
Knife feel
Harder than maple and open grained. We keep it to accents and to pieces that are looked at more than cut on, so you will meet it in a stripe, not a surface.
