Makore — Density, Movement, Workability & Cost

Cut makore (Tieghemella heckelii) with a dull blade and you'll understand the hazard immediately — this West African species carries silica in its structure, and silica does to a cutting edge exactly what it sounds like it would do: it takes the temper off a jointer knife in the space of a single board.

A fine-textured wood that fights the tools that shape it

At 42.9 lb/ft³ and 1,200 lbf on the Janka scale, makore has an almost poreless, extremely fine and even texture that takes detail beautifully and blunts steel relentlessly. Carbide is close to mandatory rather than optional here, and even carbide needs sharpening more often working this species than most tropical hardwoods demand. Mottled and figured logs produce some of the most striking veneers coming out of the African timber trade.

Movement on a veneer-scale panel

Radial shrinkage of 5.5% against a tangential figure of 7.7% gives a 1.4 ratio, genuinely well-behaved. A 9"-wide panel gives up about 0.116" (2.9mm) across its width moving from an 11% moisture content down to a dry 6%; a narrower or wider panel runs through the wood movement calculator. Backing veneer at 1/4" thick, 40" long and that same width weighs about 2.2 lb — the wood weight calculator covers other panel dimensions.

Gluing, finishing, and a genuine health warning

Makore glues reliably, though the near-poreless surface benefits from a light sanding pass to give an adhesive something to grip. It needs no filler at all and polishes to a deep, lustrous shine, darkening considerably with light exposure over time. The health note here is serious, not routine caution: makore dust is a well-documented severe respiratory irritant and sensitiser, causing nosebleeds, headaches, and dermatitis in exposed workers — extraction at the source and a proper respirator aren't optional with this species the way they might be a lower-priority precaution with a milder wood.

Durability, cost, and a sourcing question worth asking

Makore's heartwood is very durable, with good insect resistance to match, and it's priced at roughly $15 per board foot — this site's premium tier. Veneer and panelling, boatbuilding, furniture, plywood faces, and turnery round out its markets. The species carries an IUCN Endangered rating, and while it's not CITES-listed, that endangered status makes chain-of-custody documentation genuinely worth asking a supplier about rather than assuming any tropical import is automatically sustainably sourced.

Where it's chosen specifically for its trade name

"African cherry," one of makore's common trade names, hints at why furniture buyers reach for it — a warm, reddish-brown tone that develops with age, somewhat evocative of true cherry despite no botanical relationship at all. For a project that wants that warm tone with considerably more durability and hardness than actual cherry offers, makore is a genuine, if pricier, alternative.

What people actually ask about makore

Does makore's silica content shorten a carbide blade's usable life the way it dulls a plane iron? Carbide holds up far longer than steel against silica, but it still wears meaningfully faster on makore than on a comparably dense non-silica species, which is why shops that mill it regularly budget for more frequent carbide sharpening rather than expecting standard tooling intervals to hold.

Do the severe dust reactions to makore fade if someone stops working it for a while, or is sensitisation permanent once it develops? Documentation on makore specifically is thinner than for a well-studied sensitiser like cocobolo, but the safer working assumption, consistent with other severe wood-dust irritants, is that a developed sensitivity should be treated as lasting rather than something a break in exposure reliably reverses.

Why did makore get marketed as "African cherry" instead of under a name referencing its silica or its actual botanical family? Trade names in the timber industry are chosen to sell wood, not to describe it accurately — a warm, cherry-like tone was the marketable hook for furniture buyers, while the working hazards that actually define the species at the bench have no equivalent appeal in a showroom name.

Is a half-mask respirator adequate for makore, or does the dust hazard call for a full-face or powered air-purifying respirator? A well-fitted half-mask rated for fine particulates is the commonly recommended minimum, but anyone milling large quantities regularly, rather than working occasional small pieces, should weigh stepping up to a powered air-purifying respirator given how consistently severe the documented reactions are.

Makore doesn't appear in the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Table 4-4, so its density, Janka hardness and shrinkage on this page all come from The Wood Database's 12%-moisture-content testing.