About our Timber

Utile Is The Best Mahogany Alternative.

Mahogany is an iconic wood for furniture and high end millwork. It has been used for hundreds of years as the prime species based on its ease of use, consistent color, and outstanding appearance.  These days genuine Mahogany is not used as often.   Not so much because of availability but because the price has been tough to swallow.  Regulation of the species has slowed down the supply chain and added a great deal of cost.  Users of Mahogany have been searching for an alternate species and this is in large part what has created such a viable African hardwoods market.  While there are many species available, Utile has the closest match to Genuine Mahogany but is still mostly unknown to the general buying public.

Flat sawn Utile on the left and quarter sawn on the right

Still relatively unknown, Utile or Sipo (Entandrophragma utile) is gaining notoriety fast as the best Genuine Mahogany substitute out of Africa.  In the same genus as Sapele, Utile has a lot of the same properties that make Sapele so popular.  Where Utile differs is a not so pronounced interlocking grain for easier, tear out free work.

Flatsawn Utile on the left compared with Flatsawn Genuine Mahogany.
The darker lines in the Utile add a little more interest and depth.

Utile is lighter than Sapele but only a small percentage heavier than Genuine Mahogany.  Utile also is much softer than Sapele and marginally harder than Genuine so Utile has a lot of the easy to work characteristics that makes Genuine so appealing to furniture makers and architectural millwork houses.  When quartersawn, Utile will display a mellowed version of Sapele’s striking ribbon stripe but the flatsawn appearance is so similar to Genuine Mahogany as to be almost identical.  Utile shows some darker medullary ray lines on a flatsawn surface that can be used to tell it apart from Genuine Mahogany and those darker lines actually add great interest to the board.

Like Sapele, Utile is a very large tree.  It is easy to get 12/4 and thicker boards that exceed 10-12″ in width.  The lower density than Sapele makes Utile an even more stable species. .  Depending on the source and time of year, Utile prices can flirt with Sapele and has occasionally risen above Sapele a small amount.  We can expect to see Sapele creating more of a gap as it’s market continues to gain popularity.  This leaves Utile as a great solution for someone seeking a great alternative to

Genuine Mahogany

What is startling is that Utile is still so unknown.  We do our best to inform our customers of this untapped species to save them money but also introduce them to a great lumber species in it’s own right.  In some ways, Utile may even be a superior species to Genuine Mahogany.

Call The Sash Window Replacement Company today
on 0800 6129187 or 07706 414941