Ekki: heavy tree puts 'hard' in hardwood.

As woods go, ekki is a workhorse. It is noted more for its impressive strength and difficulty in working than its appearance. These characteristics have resulted in a long list of practical rather than decorative uses.

Ekki grows principally on the West Coast of Africa, from Sierra Leone to Nigeria and the Cameroons in the heavy rain forests and swamps.

The wood's most common names are ekki and azobe, but it is also called red ironwood, likely due to its extreme hardness and strength and the tendency for the dark-colored wood to have a red tinge.

Tough Enough for Building Stuff

Ekki is classified as "exceptionally heavy" with a weight that averages 65 pounds per cubic foot. It is considered by many to be one of the most durable of all the African woods.

In the book Know Your Woods, Albert Constantine sums up the wood's dual personality, writing that ekki is used "when great strength is required, as in flooring, where the wood is subject to a good deal of wear. It is extremely difficult to season, however, because of the tendency to warp and split."

Ekki's properties make it a perfect material for heavy construction or other uses where great strength and durability is needed. Typical applications for ekki include wharfs, bridges, sea fences and river pilings because of the wood's strength and resistance to decay. It is also used for other forms of heavy-duty construction such as decking, railway sleepers, railroad cross-ties, mine shaft guides, heavy-duty and parquet flooring, rollers, wagons and joinery. In addition to being durable, the wood is very acid-resistant, which makes it good for use in filter press plates and frames.

Other reasons that the wood is so well suited to heavy construction and marine uses is that the wood is resistant to insect and fungal attack.

One of its more interesting uses, according to The Encyclopedia of Wood, is as the running track for the rubber-wheeled trains of the Paris Metro.

Putting the 'Hard' in Hardwood

Ekki might have more widespread use, but the wood is difficult to work with hand tools and poses some problems with machine tools, too. Ekki is so hard a wood that it severely blunts the surfaces of cutting tools. To combat this problem, experts recommend using strong, sharp cutting edges and reducing the cutting angle.