Padauk Hardwood Flooring

Vivid and striking, Padauk hardwoods are most often used for decorative purposes, as in wood flooring and veneers, inlay, boad building, fine joinery, fancy turnery, tool and knife handles, and carvings. Padauk heartwood is vivid blood red, toning down to a dark purple-brown with red streaks upon exposure. Although the sapwood of padauk tends to be a very uniform cream or pale beige color, this heartwood is prized for its rich reddish orange tone which over time seasons nicely to a dark reddish- or purple-brown color, or even black. Padauk has a moderately coarse texture, with large pores and a grain that can be straight or interlocked.

The texture of Padauk hardwood flooring is similar to African mahogany, being slightly open grained. Only slight blunting effect on cutters despite its heavy weight, and the wood machines very easily and nails, screws, and glues very well. It also polishes easily to a excellent finish. Padauk hardwoods dry rapidly and well with minimum degradation. High abrasion resistance makes it an excellent heavy-duty flooring timber. Padauk is suitable for use with under-floor heating systems due to its excellent dimensional stability.

As a flooring option, padauk is one of the harder wood species. It is over one third harder than red oak, is just over eighteen percent harder than hard maple, about five percent harder than wenge, and approaches seventy-eight percent of santos mahogany's ranking of 2200.

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