A note on Kenyan hardwoods

Mvule and mukwa are the workhorses of Kenyan joinery. Dense, stable, takes a hand-applied oil finish that deepens for years. The trick is reading the cut — quarter-sawn for cabinet doors that should not warp, plain-sawn where the figure is the point.

Camphor and podo enter on softer pieces — wardrobe interiors, lining shelves, drawer carcasses. They breathe more than mvule does, but they hold a finish if you let them rest in the workshop for a fortnight before the saw.

Every species moves with the season. We size mortise-and-tenon joints for a ±1.5 mm seasonal gain, and we never glue across the grain.