A West African hardwood
Iroko is sometimes called “African teak”, which sells it short. It’s its own thing — denser than teak in places, softer in others, and the grain runs in a way that catches lateral light beautifully when you finish it right.
Why we use it
It tolerates Lagos. That sounds glib but it’s the whole answer. Humidity in March, harmattan in December, a sea wind that never quite leaves your living room. Iroko, properly cured, holds against all of it without warping the joinery you spent four weeks getting right.
Cured ourselves
We air-dry our stock for at least eighteen months before we cut a frame. Mills will sell you wood after twelve weeks of kiln-drying and tell you it’s ready. It isn’t, not really. The first dry season after install will pull the grain in a way you don’t want to see.
What it asks of you
A soft cloth and oil twice a year. That’s it. We use a 50/50 cut of beeswax and tung oil; it builds a slow patina that, after a decade, looks like nothing else.
What we make in it
The Oban lounge chair frame is iroko. So is the spine of every dining bench we’ve shipped. We pick it for the way it ages — yellower at year one, deeper amber at year five, almost ebony in shadowed places by year fifteen.
