Embarking on a woodworking project involves meticulous planning, and more importantly, choosing the right materials. In my journey through woodworking and design, I’ve encountered a myriad of wood types, each offering unique characteristics and aesthetic appeal.
But what about when the project calls for something truly exceptional? Let me guide you through the most luxurious of materials, the most expensive wood types in the world today.
1. Pink Ivory
Pink Ivory wood, commonly known as Red Ivory, is an African wood that grows in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. Pink ivory is rarer than diamonds, which is one of the factors for its high price.
Pink Ivory is also highly valued for its color. The brighter and more vivid it is, the better. Its exceptional beauty, coupled with its dense and durable nature, further enhances its desirability and drives up its market value.
- Estimated Price: $80 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Berchemia zeyheri
- Color: Ranging from brownish red to almost neon pink
- Common Uses: Carvings, billiard cues, knife handles, and novelty objects
2. Bocote
Bocote wood is an expensive wood native to the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America. The distinctive, figured grain pattern of this flowering plant, especially on flat-sawn wood pieces, is a characteristic that makes it extremely valuable to woodworkers.
This wood has a distinctive oily gloss. As a result, you may smell an odor of dill pickles when working on it. Also, it is heavy, solid, and sturdy.
- Estimated Price: $33 per BDFT
- Scientific Name: Cordia spp
- Color: Yellowish-brown hardwood with brown to almost black stripes
- Common Use: Flooring and fine furniture making
3. Lignum Vitae
The Bahamas’ national tree, Lignum Vitae, is the most cumbersome and laborious woods in the world. Even the first nuclear-powered submarine utilized this wood for its bearings. Unfortunately, it has been exploited to the brink of extinction.
In addition, it includes natural oils that make the bearings self-lubricating, enhancing their wear resistance. Its incredibly high wood density makes it an ideal material for equipment requiring longevity and consistency.
- Estimated Price: $23-25 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Guaiacum officinale
- Color: Ranges from olive to dark green/brown to black, sometimes with a reddish hue.
- Common Use: Mechanical engineering, manufacturing of fine art pieces and decorative plywood
4. Agarwood
Agarwood is a valuable wood found in Southeast Asian tropical forests. It yields an oil whose perfume belongs to the class of aphrodisiacs and is more valuable than gold. Also, it is one of the world’s rarest trees due to its depletion of the wild.
The dark, aromatic resin that eventually permeates the heartwood of the tree is produced by the aquilaria tree when it is infected with mold as part of its defense mechanism. Its natural oils give unique wood properties and aromatic wood qualities from mold infection.
- Estimated Price: $25 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Aquilaria malaccensis
- Color: Light, soft and dark-white
- Common Use: Incense, perfume, traditional medicine
5. Ebony
Ebony wood is most commonly linked with luxury goods and is found in Western Africa. The wood has a wonderful grain but is highly dense for processing. This wood is a rare species because of its limited growth environment, slow growth, and high demand.
It is a tough and dense wood type. This wood is used to complete pricey furniture, construct musical instruments and flooring, and incorporate inlays. It also conceals a two-inch-thick of pure white wood surrounding a nearly-black core.
- Estimated Price: $100 per BDFT
- Scientific Name: Diospyros crassiflora
- Color: Black
- Common Use: Small ornamental items
6. Bubinga
Bubinga is another magnificent African wood that comes in various grain patterns. The more rare its pattern is, the more precious the wood. It is sometimes referred to as a substitute for Rosewood.
Revered for its workability, it’s a top choice for crafting high-quality furniture and tools. Its prestige doesn’t just rest on its aesthetic appeal or malleability; its resilience adds to its allure. Remarkably resistant to termites and marine borers, Bubinga’s durability matches its beauty, justifying its position as one of the most sought-after and pricey woods in the world.
- Estimated Price: $17 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Guibourtia
- Color: Ranges from a pinkish red to a darker reddish brown with darker black or purple streaks
- Common Use: Veneer for cabinetwork, furniture, and paneling, high-end musical instruments
7. African Blackwood
Another one of the most prized and expensive woods in the world is African Blackwood. This exceedingly slow-growing tree is often found only south of the Sahara Desert in Africa.
Its heartwood is dense, fine-grained, and melodic. Moreover, African Blackwood is an oily wood that prevents rust from forming on tools.
African Blackwood is the most costly wood in the world, and it is also one of the rarest primarily due to human overexploitation and habitat loss. This indicates that African Blackwood may soon become endangered or extinct.
- Estimated Price: $100 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Dalbergia melanoxylon
- Color: Often nearly black, with little discernible grain. Occasionally slightly lighter, with a purplish hue or dark brown.
- Common Use: Mystical instruments, ornamental objects, and knife handles
8. Dalbergia
Dalbergia is native to tropical regions such as Central and South America, Africa, South Asia, and Madagascar. Dalbergia is an extremely durable, sturdy, highly dense, and rare wood.
This wood is complicated to work with, and its sawdust can poison people, that’s why some refuse to work with Dalbergia wood. Despite this, it creates workpieces capable of lasting a lifetime if maintained correctly.
- Estimated Price: $16 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Dalbergia sissoo
- Color: Warm brown color with darker streaks.
- Common Use: High-class furniture, railway sleepers, and sports products.
9. Purpleheart
Purpleheart wood may be found across Central America. As a result of the exceptionally severe conditions under which it grows, it tends to be extremely robust, dense, and resistant to insects that would like to make their home in the heartwood of the tree.
This wood is widely recognized for its purple hue, which undergoes a color metamorphosis over its lifetime. It is difficult to manipulate and flatten. Since this wood is water-resistant, it is frequently used for flooring, decks, and boats.
- Estimated Price: $15 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Peltogyne spp.
- Color: Purplish brown/dull grayish. Becomes a deeper eggplant purple when exposed
- Common Use: Boatbuilding, furniture, heavy construction, inlays/accent pieces, flooring, and various specialty wood items.
10. Sandalwood
- Estimated Price: $10 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Santalum album
- Color: Tan, brown, and white
- Common use: Ornamental objects, medicine, perfumes, and food
Sandalwood is often used in the cosmetics industry, particularly in fragrances. It’s one of the most expensive woods in the world because of its oil. Sandalwood oil is highly sought after due to its rich, creamy, and long-lasting aroma.
Its pungent odor lasts for years, making it the most costly wood for scent. Rather than its building applications, its tremendous demand is due to what can be synthesized from its essence.
However, based on my research, sandalwood is seldom used in mass production these days because it’s on the brink of extinction.
11. Cocobolo Wood
Cocobolo trees are extremely rare wood native to Mexico and Central America. There are uneven dark lines on it, and its heartwood becomes a different color after being cut.
In addition to its beauty, the floral scent of Cocobolo wood makes it easy to identify. It is also water-resistant. It is simple to deal with, but it is difficult to find outside protected areas due to high market demand.
- Estimated Price: $55 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Dalbergia retusa
- Color: Wide color range includes yellow, red, deep purple, and more
- Common use: Fine furniture and ornamental boxes, carvings
12. Koa Wood
Koa trees grow in the volcanic soil [1] of the Hawaiian islands Maui, Oahu, and Kauai. The wood’s combination of red and gold hues gives it a more lively appearance than other types of wood.
Although koa trees are abundant, only dead or dying trees on public lands can be harvested, making this a precious material for instrument makers and other artisans.
- Estimated Price: $62 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Acacia koa
- Color: Typically golden or reddish-brown
- Common use: Everything from furniture to gunstocks and making musical instruments
13. Holly Wood
The holly wood tree is widespread in the Eastern United States. The holly tree is not threatened, but it is known as an extremely slow-growing tree.
Holly trees are susceptible to peculiar fungal staining that imparts a bluish-gray hue. It must be harvested in the winter and rapidly dried. Holly wood is easily stained and occasionally used as a substitute for ebony.
- Estimated Price: $35 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Ilex opaca
- Color: Pale with very little grain
- Common use: Inlays, furniture, and piano keys
14. Ziricote
Ziricote is a thick, medium to dark brown beautiful wood typically found in Central America and Mexico. It is recognized for its spider-web-like fine texture.
The wood is known for its decay resistance and lasting good looks. It’s difficult to find affordable alternatives that offer the same look and feel as ziricote. Moreover, carpenters are fond of working with it since it works well with hand and machine tools.
- Estimated Price: $60 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Cordia dodecandra
- Color: Medium to dark brown with darker bands of black growth rings intermixed.
- Common use: Expensive furniture and cabinetry
15. Brazilian Rosewood
Although the grain is usually straight, Brazilian Rosewood can also be wavy or curled, giving it a unique appearance. It is resistant to insects and decay, simple to work with hand or power equipment, and often simple to finish.
However, this uniquely colored wood tends to be oily and is often difficult to bond. However, it is resilient and takes little maintenance under normal circumstances. The usage of Brazilian rosewood has been abused, but it is currently highly regulated.
- Estimated Price: $70 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Dalbergia nigra
- Color: Chocolate brown to purplish or reddish-brown
- Common use: Veneer, fine furniture, and musical instruments
16. Macassar Ebony
The last expensive wood on this list is the Macassar Ebony. This wood originates solely in Southeast Asia. However, it is difficult to work with.
It is a wood best suited for indoor use that has a glamorous look. Despite its allure, it has vulnerabilities – it’s prone to insect attacks and can split while drying.
Given its rarity and its status as an endangered species, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to find. However, one can still come across small Macassar Ebony items like pens, pool cues, and musical instruments.
- Estimated Price: $65 per board foot
- Scientific Name: Dalbergia nigra
- Color: Yellowish or red-brown with darker stripes
- Common use: High-end cabinetry and musical instruments
Uses of Wood and Its Characteristics
Wood is a versatile and abundant natural resource used for centuries in various applications. It is commonly used for framing, flooring, and decorative veneer features in construction.
Furniture-making is also one of the major uses of wood. Wood’s versatility allows for a wide range of furniture styles, from classic and traditional to modern and contemporary designs. Whether it’s a dining table, a cozy bed frame, or an elegant cabinet, there’s a timeless beauty and reliability that wood brings to the table.
Archic Furniture, a renowned expert in the field, emphasizes the importance of selecting the right type of wood for furniture-making projects. Different wood species have distinct characteristics, such as strength, durability, and grain patterns, which contribute to the overall quality and appearance of the final piece. I’ll delve more into the types of wood later in this article.
The characteristics of wood that make it useful are its strength, durability, and natural beauty. Moreover, wood is also a renewable resource as it can be replenished through sustainable forestry practices.
However, it is important to note that not all wood types are the same.
Common Types of Wood
All wood types are classified into hardwoods, softwoods, and manufactured boards.
Hardwoods are produced by broad-leaved trees. These trees produce flowers, fruit, nuts, and fruit-seed seeds. Oak, beech, and mahogany are examples of hardwoods.
See Also: Is Oak Good for Knife Handles?
Hardwoods are stronger, more durable, and denser than softwoods. They are utilized for furniture construction. Lastly, softer woods are considerably more affordable than hardwoods.
Softwoods are produced by cone-bearing trees. Although softwoods can be used for furnishings and doors, they are most commonly utilized to construct roof trusses and stud walls.
Manufactured boards are lumber that has been processed. MDF (medium-density fibreboard), plywood, and chipboards are materials with novel and advantageous qualities.
Exotic Woods
Exotic woods are not indigenous to the place where they are used. Typically, they are imported from other continents and countries. Due to transportation costs and restricted availability, exotic wood types are considered more expensive woods in the world.
FAQ
What type of wood has the highest quality?
The type of wood that has the highest quality is Teakwood. It is among the hardest and most resilient natural woods.
It is resistant to decay, sunlight, rain, frost, and snow, making it appropriate for outdoor buildings and furnishings. While it’s not one of the expensive woods out there, it is pricey and occasionally difficult to locate. (But can you paint teak lumber for a better shade? Read next!)
What is the priciest wood in the US?
The priciest wood in the US is Koa at over $60 per board foot. It is one of the most expensive woods in the world that can be found in the Hawaiian Islands. It resembles mahogany in appearance and is frequently used to create bowls, ukuleles, and guitars.
Why is mahogany wood expensive?
Mahogany is an expensive wood because it has high demand and is becoming increasingly hard to acquire. Mahogany is in high demand due to its attractive appearance, fine dark grain, and enduring strength.
The wood has grown rarer, resulting in a supply shortage and higher pricing.
Next Read: Is Walnut Wood Expensive?
Conclusion
The world of wood is vast, and the cost of different types varies greatly. While each type has unique characteristics and qualities, all are valuable for their beauty and durability, thus making them expensive investments.
Whether used for furniture, musical instruments, skis, or boats, these 16 most expensive wood types are among the most exquisite and sought-after options available in the world today.
Robert Johnson is a passionate furniture maker & carpenter, sought after for his knowledge on the craft.
You’ve probably seen his down-to-earth wisdom in USA Today, Bobvila, Family Handyman, and The Spruce, where he has shared commentary and guidance on various woodworking topics.
Robert is the brain behind Sawinery, where he aims to share tips, tricks, and a passion for all things carpentry.
