How to Identify African Padauk

The first and most obvious clue is color. Freshly cut or sanded African Padauk is an intense orange-red to vermillion or blood-red found in almost no other common timber, sharply set off from its pale straw-colored sapwood. If you are examining an older piece that has already darkened to reddish-brown, scratch or sand a hidden spot: the bright orange color underneath the oxidized surface is a strong confirmation that it is padauk rather than a naturally brown wood.

Check the end grain and pores. Padauk is ring-porous to semi-ring-porous with large, open pores that are visible to the naked eye, often in a wavy or diagonal arrangement and sometimes filled with pale mineral or reddish deposits. The texture is coarse and open — noticeably more porous than fine diffuse-porous woods — and the grain runs straight to interlocked with a medium, slightly ribboned figure on quartered faces, matching the medium interlocked grain of the sample.

Weight and hardness are useful confirmations. Padauk is distinctly heavy in the hand and hard to dent with a thumbnail, consistent with its ~1,970 lbf Janka rating; a light, soft board that merely looks red is almost certainly a stained imitation. Freshly worked padauk has a faint characteristic scent, and its dust and shavings are unmistakably orange-red and will stain your hands and bench.

The main look-alikes are other red tropical woods. Bloodwood (Brosimum / satine) is a deeper, more uniform brick-red, much denser and finer-textured with tiny pores, and it holds its color far better than padauk. Redheart (Erythroxylum / chakte kok) is a brighter pinkish-red but lighter in weight and finer-grained. Other Pterocarpus species such as Burma/Andaman padauk are browner-red and more figured. And any suspiciously uniform red on a lightweight, bland-grained board points to dyed or stained wood rather than true padauk — the giveaway is that real padauk's color sits in vivid heartwood with pale sapwood and coarse open pores, not in a flat surface tint.