# Acupuri wood - What is it?



## Palaswood

I've been seeing exotic lumber on ebay sold as "Acupuri" and I've never heard of it, nor can I find any info on it. I've asked the seller who has responded before, as I've bought some nice Iroko and Katalox before from him.

I found a youtube clip of a guy who made some shotgun shell openers out of it. He was saying that it's so hard it messed up all his blades and he won't be using it again.

Any info would be appreciated.

thanks!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Kevin

Ramin


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## Sprung

The picture reminds me of Ipe.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Palaswood

Kevin said:


> Ramin


kevin I know thats what comes up on google but ramin is a light colored wood. This wood is very dark


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## Kevin

Palaswood said:


> kevin I know thats what comes up on google but ramin is a light colored wood. This wood is very dark



Yeah it was more of a question - I think Matt is closer saying Ipe but I don't really know.


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## Palaswood

Kevin said:


> Yeah it was more of a question - I think Matt is closer saying Ipe but I don't really know.


Yes I agree. My searches come up with Portuguese results so maybe its a foreign name for ipe, which is consistent with the dulling of blades


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## phinds

That name is not in my database. Can you get a good shot of cleaned up end grain?


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## ripjack13

I called the guy just now. He says it's from Africa, and that's all he knows about it.....

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Palaswood

phinds said:


> That name is not in my database. Can you get a good shot of cleaned up end grain?


I don't have any of it, that's from ebay.

Maybe I'll get a board of it, and see for myself.


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## Tony

If it's Ipe, it is hard as all get out. Personally I think it's a bland looking wood. Tony


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## phinds

Tony said:


> If it's Ipe, it is hard as all get out. Personally I think it's a bland looking wood. Tony


Yeah, it can get just a bit colorful (greens and reds) when you sand the surface but it quickly reverts to a bland brown or greenish brown. VERY tough stuff. Used widely for flooring.


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## ripjack13

I love Ipe....


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## Tony

phinds said:


> Yeah, it can get just a bit colorful (greens and reds) when you sand the surface but it quickly reverts to a bland brown or greenish brown. VERY tough stuff. Used widely for flooring.



Down here at least it's real popular for decking.


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## ripjack13

I looked at the rest of his stuff....looks like ipe to me...


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## DKMD

Wasn't @Mr. Peet talking about a book describing African wood?


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## Palaswood

@phinds So I found another video from the same guy. In this one he unwraps the board and talks about how he can't find any info on the wood. There are end grain shots in this video.


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## phinds

Palaswood said:


> @phinds So I found another video from the same guy. In this one he unwraps the board and talks about how he can't find any info on the wood. There are end grain shots in this video.


From what I can see, this is not ipe. Growth rings are much too strong. Also the color streaking in the middle is something I've never seen in ipe.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Palaswood

After watching this video, this is not ipe. Could this be something new out of Africa?!


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## Mr. Peet

'Missanda' (_Erythophleum_) was my first guess, but the end grain lacked the obvious tyloses. Not 'ipe' the video clearly showed brown sawdust versus the yellow/green of the _Handroanthus_ genus.

Yes Doc, I listed a book for sale at the bottom of the forum list that covers 'Southern African Wood'. It might be in there, so a challenge for me to read. It might be a mid latitude wood as well and not in the book.

@DKMD

Reactions: Like 2


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## Mr. Peet

'muhuhu' (Brachylaena), ekki (Lophira), oboto (Mammea), iroko is likely too light at 42 pcf,

I think it could be 'Angico' (Parapiptadenia rigida), 78 pounds per cubic foot, 0.95 density, na, too red and wrong continent. Well found nothing in the 'Useful Woods of the World' books, try the other book another day....


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## Nature Man

ripjack13 said:


> I love Ipe....


Who's she? Chuck

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 3


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## Palaswood

Mr. Peet said:


> 'muhuhu' (Brachylaena), ekki (Lophira), oboto (Mammea), iroko is likely too light at 42 pcf,
> 
> I think it could be 'Angico' (Parapiptadenia rigida), 78 pounds per cubic foot, 0.95 density, na, too red and wrong continent. Well found nothing in the 'Useful Woods of the World' books, try the other book another day....



Thanks for your help. Even if it's none of those, I'm always excited to learn about new species.

So I came across this cool site, the ITTO species search that has a TON of exotic woods I've never heard of.

I ordered a board of "Acupuri" and we shall have a looksee once it arrives in a few days, i'll get some close up end grains shots posted.


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## Palaswood

Acupuri wood is sitting on my doorstep waiting to be unwrapped and investigated

I was clued into this information just now by a text from my girlfriend:



ROFL

Reactions: Great Post 1 | Funny 4


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## Kevin

Palaswood said:


> Acupuri wood is sitting on my doorstep waiting to be unwrapped and investigated
> 
> I was clued into this information just now by a text from my girlfriend, "Joseph Edward Palas, did you buy more wood?"
> 
> ROFL





Man you better get her trained fast - if she's already giving you the full name treatment when she's mad what's she gonna do when she has her hooks in you!?

 



 


Oh wait that's what you're hoping for.

Reactions: Funny 4 | +Karma 1


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## Palaswood

Bahahahahaha!

Why do I automatically assume that you already had that image saved on your PC...

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 2


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## Mr. Peet

Must be cold, she has long socks on. I assume they are just getting in from some action on the ski slopes. My daughter does a lot of crochet things, but that is likely too risky for a 4-H project....


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## Kevin

Palaswood said:


> Why do I automatically assume that you already had that image saved on your PC...



I kid you not there's a really funny story behind me finding that picture.


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## ripjack13

Yo, I havent even got the middle name treatment yet....lol

Reactions: +Karma 1


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## ripjack13

Kevin said:


> I kid you not there's a really funny story behind me finding that picture.

Reactions: Agree 5


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## Palaswood

Ok so it was 1 week ago, but it FELT like weeks... I'll try to post a pic tonite... I'm excited! African Mystery wood ID time!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Kevin

Okay I will admit it - I could not pronounce the word "domintratrix" or whatever version you want to try - totally felt like a misipisi @Tclem stoopy but my wife knew how to even spell it. I didn't ask for websites.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Palaswood

"Acupuri" wood. 
African origin. 
Hard as hell (katalox hard)
Heavy as hell (maybe heaviest ive ever seen)
No smell i can tell.
This board is cracked to hell. Probably air dried.
Any ideas @phinds ?
sanded with some oil to bring out the grain. and without oil.

Reactions: Like 1 | EyeCandy! 1


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## Mr. Peet

Paul,

If you could lift those pictures and forward them to me, I'll send them on to Steph. Dyer, the wood anatomists from South Africa that we have dealt with before. That is if you draw a blank as first and want another opinion on the wood.
@phinds 

Joseph,

If you have purchased the wood via e-bay, they are legally bound to produce paperwork on the wood as they are directly under UCON & CITES regulations. For instance, if you try selling anything on their site that has 'ivory', it is fine, until you use the word ivory, then they will pull the add immediately until it is further investigated. The term pink ivory has caused plenty of issues too, but most of those have been better handled in the recent years.
@Palaswood

Reactions: Like 1


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## phinds

Mr. Peet said:


> Paul,
> 
> If you could lift those pictures and forward them to me, I'll send them on to Steph. Dyer, the wood anatomists from South Africa that we have dealt with before.


Done

Joseph, those are great pics and a good cleanup job. I'm just up and have some stuff to work on today but I'll see if I can make time soon to pore through my end grain shots for comparison. The combination of sparse pores, clear banded parenchyma and rays amost the same size/distribution as the parenchyma should make it easy to pin down if in fact it's anything I've ever had a sample of.

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## Mr. Peet

Paul, thanks for the pictures. After a few viewings, I find it ironic how much it looks like the 'Bongossi', _Lophira alata_, I just got from John. I wonder if it is in the same genus or even the same species....?

@phinds @Palaswood @pinky


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## phinds

Mr. Peet said:


> Paul, thanks for the pictures. After a few viewings, I find it ironic how much it looks like the 'Bongossi', _Lophira alata_, I just got from John. I wonder if it is in the same genus or even the same species....?
> 
> @phinds @Palaswood @pinky


Yeah, but one problem w/ the ekki (aka bongossi) is that the rays are almost invisible at 10X whereas this mystery wood has sharp clear rays.


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## phinds

OK, here are my notes:

Acupuri --- this is NOT anything I have a sample of. Putting into Inside Wood search engine those characteristics that I can readily identify, I get only 4 hits but I know nothing about any of these woods and have no idea whether or no any of the really fit the bill. Also, small variations in the characteristics entered can make a big difference in the reported results in Inside Wood and I am not expert in using their search engine. I tried looking at the end grain of each of these four on the NCSU LUNA site with the results shown.

Chrysophyllum pruniforme --- boa (ivory coast); NCSU pics show pore multiples that appear longer than what's in your wood but I can't be sure of that because I can't see you pores clearly enough.
Chrysophyllum africanum (syn. Gambeya africana) --- longhi (central africa, congo, liberia); NCSU pics show pore multiples that appear longer than what's in your wood but I can't be sure of that because I can't see you pores clearly enough.
Dialium guianense --- dozens of weird names (Mexico & Brazil); closest match I could find but again, extended pore multiples are a possible problem
Irvingia grandifolia --- lendo (west africa); more/closer-spaced rays

One of my problems is that as good as your end grain cleanup was, it was not good enough to show the individual pores clearly and I am having to interpolate from what I see to the belief (possible wrong) that there are very frequent pore multiples. Can you send me a sample of this to clean up? That actually may not do much good since I KNOW it isn't going to match any of my samples but it's possible that I'll be able to do a better job in finding something on Inside Wood


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## Palaswood

@phinds I will cut up the board this weekend and get that poplar to you as well. I think it may be an allergen since i got some red bumps on my wrist for a little while. i wadhed and scrubbed it and it went away. but be careful. use mask and gloves until we know more

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## phinds

Palaswood said:


> @phinds I will cut up the board this weekend and get that poplar to you as well. I think it may be an allergen since i got some red bumps on my wrist for a little while. i wadhed and scrubbed it and it went away. but be careful. use mask and gloves until we know more


Sounds good. I ALWAYS wear a mask in the garage since I have asthma.


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## Palaswood

So I got a sample of Ekki (Azobe, Bongossi) and this "Acupuri' wood is not the same wood.

The mystery remains...


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## Palaswood

I'm glad I bought a few more boards of this Acupuri wood, since I just checked the the ebay seller has zero listings in his store. Usually has over 200. I wonder what happened.


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## phinds

@Palaswood I made another stab at this and again came up empty. The face grain and the end grain both look EXACTLY like ekki except that as I said earlier your wood has obvious rays and even at 10X you can just barely see a hint of rays in ekki.

Were you still planning on sending me a cutoff to examine?


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## Mr. Peet

Palaswood said:


> I'm glad I bought a few more boards of this Acupuri wood, since I just checked the the ebay seller has zero listings in his store. Usually has over 200. I wonder what happened.



@phinds 

So Joe, everything I saw with your wood told me it was in the Lophira genus, or closely related. 

However, the name *Acupuri* has resurfaced. I recently bought some from a friend who in turn purchased it from a commercial dealer. This 'Acupuri' is identified as _Micrandropsis scleroxylon_ and is sold out of Brazil. There does not seem to be any end-grain or any wood information available on the web on this wood at this time.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Palaswood

@mr.peet @phinds

Yes i researched and came across the reference to _Micrandropsis scleroxylon coming out of the amazon. My supplier said he got his acupuri wood from West Africa, but he sells that along with woods such as Red marblewood (S.A), black limba (W.A), shedua (W.A.), wenge (W.A.), leopardwood (S.A.)etc. _so clearly a mix of both west african AND south american woods.

The images I posted were of the first board I got from the supplier called Acupuri. I got others and you cannot really see any rays in the wood with the naked eye. Could be I'm getting different woods, and my suppliers provider is just calling it all acupuri, even if it is not.


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## Palaswood

some images from a phone stand i made for a coworker of 'acupuri'.

It is close grained, (not porous to the touch whatsoever) and harder than anything. Also had some nice curly figure. an image with and without flash shows some detail


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## phinds

Well, it may not feel grainy to the touch but it clearly has signs of large open pores (normally associated with graininess) and the end grain shows a low pore density so we have some clues to work with but I still don't know what it is.


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## Palaswood

UPDATE** 
Micrandropsis scleroxylon
Brazil.

(my specimen was reported to come from West Africa...)


Page 10 - there is a study:
Conclusion is Micrandropsis scleroxylon

https://www.woodcollectors.org/pdf/wow-may-june-2018.pdf

Reactions: Informative 1


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## phinds

Good to know. Thanks for the followup


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## Palaswood

Mr. Peet said:


> @phinds
> 
> So Joe, everything I saw with your wood told me it was in the Lophira genus, or closely related.
> 
> However, the name *Acupuri* has resurfaced. I recently bought some from a friend who in turn purchased it from a commercial dealer. This 'Acupuri' is identified as _Micrandropsis scleroxylon_ and is sold out of Brazil. There does not seem to be any end-grain or any wood information available on the web on this wood at this time.



@Mr. Peet was right. He called it back in March. I was so focused on it being an African wood but that just a good lesson to never take someones word for it.

COOL! 

So the report said that it can range from 75 - 81 *lbs/ft3* then that would rank it among the Heaviest woods in the world, based on this list:
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/top-ten-heaviest-woods/

@Mr.peet how much of it do you have? what are you planning to do with it?

I read an article on _Diterpenes in Micrandropsis scleroxylon which are basically SUPER turpenes, that are present in the species which are known to be anti-microbial, so I am thinking this wood would be very rot-resistant.

It gives me the idea to make some into little wood planters for my bonsai trees._


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## Mr. Peet

Palaswood said:


> @Mr. Peet was right. He called it back in March. I was so focused on it being an African wood but that just a good lesson to never take someones word for it.
> 
> COOL!
> 
> So the report said that it can range from 75 - 81 *lbs/ft3* then that would rank it among the Heaviest woods in the world, based on this list:
> http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/top-ten-heaviest-woods/
> 
> @Mr.peet how much of it do you have? what are you planning to do with it?
> 
> I read an article on _Diterpenes in Micrandropsis scleroxylon which are basically SUPER turpenes, that are present in the species which are known to be anti-microbial, so I am thinking this wood would be very rot-resistant.
> 
> It gives me the idea to make some into little wood planters for my bonsai trees._



I only purchased a single sample as reference materiel. Since the sample supplier could only offer basically one perspective view grain wise, I just got one. Not sure on the rot issue, but if your investment is low enough, maybe worth the risk. The second thing to look into is if any the of the roots of your bonsai may have negative interaction with the wood, or were you using a liner?


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