Friendly Forest Products

Chechen

Botanical Name: Metopium brownei

Range: Mexico and Central America

Other Names: Black Poison Wood

Color ranges from amber to dark brown, often with a range of colors and contrasting streaks. This wood is quite hard, dense, and tight-grained. With care, a beautiful, lustrous finish can be obtained. Slightly oily, but not as much as teak. An excellent furniture-making wood that is suitable for a variety of other applications. Very rot resistant.

The Wood: I have always liked this wood, even though it has a foreboding name. I find the problem to be in the liquid sap that oozes from the cambium layer of the fresh log. This tree and wood quality can really vary from area to area. I have seen some drier locals that produce very dark lumber with a tendency to cup and bow. The trees tend to hollow in the center as they get larger in diameter.
Other areas produce a informally richly colored Chechen with demarque grain patterns. This is where we go to select our inventory. Occasionally we will get some "flame" grain pattern in. Now that is something to covet.

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