Wenge price per board foot
Plan on about $15.75 a board foot for 4/4 stock at U.S. retail (our 2026-08 estimate — your yard gets the final word). A typical board, 6″ wide and 8′ long, will run you around $63.00.
That espresso-black wood on mid-century Danish credenzas and modern guitar fretboards — the one that looks dyed but isn't — is wenge, from the Congo Basin. Designers reach for it when they want black without pretending. Woodworkers trade legends about it too, mostly medical: wenge splinters are notorious — needle-sharp, weirdly septic, and slow to heal. Every experienced hand who works it has one story and one scar.
Near-black with coarse, brittle grain; splinters are notorious and slow to heal. Striking accents and fretboards; pre-drill everything.
Wenge at a glance
| Price per board foot | $15.75 (2026-08) |
| Weight, dry | 54 lb/ft³ · 4.5 lb per BF |
| Janka hardness | 1,930 lbf |
| Shrinkage, green → oven-dry | 8.3% tangential · 4.8% radial |
| Cost of 10 BF | $157.50 |
| Cost of 25 BF | $393.75 |
What common thicknesses cost
Same 6″ × 8′ board, priced by rough thickness (thicker stock often carries a small premium on top of this — figured on volume alone):
| Thickness | Board feet | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/4 | 4.0 | $63.00 | 18 lb |
| 6/4 | 6.0 | $94.50 | 27 lb |
| 8/4 | 8.0 | $126.00 | 36 lb |
| 12/4 | 12.0 | $189.00 | 54 lb |
Will it stay flat?
Stiff, heavy, and reliable in service, with one asterisk: it's brittle. Thin details, fragile corners, and unsupported edges snap along the coarse grain without apology.
The measured numbers: drying from green, wenge shrinks about 8.3% across a flatsawn board's width (tangential) and 4.8% across quartersawn (radial) — that ratio is why the two cuts behave so differently in your house.
Buying wenge without regrets
Expensive enough to buy by the project, not the stack — and worth asking your dealer about sourcing, since Congo-basin supply chains vary a lot in how responsibly they're run. Handle the rough boards with gloves and the legends stay someone else's.
At the finishing bench
The pores are deep enough to cast shadows. Fill them for a sleek dark-glass surface, or wax the raw wood for the matte architectural look it was born for. And sand it far from your light-colored projects — its black dust travels with intent.
Sources & further reading
Prices vary with region, grade, width, and figure. Cheaper neighbor: Padauk ($10.50). A step up: Teak ($28.00).