This huge coffee table is a very impressive piece (56 inches square), and will need a large room to fit it into. However, it is so beautiful that it will be treasured by anyone who truly appreciates the finest hardwoods (and this is the finest!). As with all our harvested Zambezi Teak coffee (or centre) tables it can be made with turned legs.

 Dimensions

Coffee Tables available in Reclaimed & Harvested Zambezi Teak. Click on Images to Enlarge:
Reclaimed African Hardwood Table	Harvested Zambezi Teak Table

Reclaimed African Hardwood Info (Subject to availability)

This huge coffee table is a VERY impressive piece (56 inches square), and will need a large room to fit it into. However, it is so beautiful that it will be treasured by anyone who truly appreciates the finest hardwoods (and this is the finest!). As with all our reclaimed African Hardwood coffee (or centre) tables it can be made in a ‘rough’ version (where we leave the wonderful character of the original timer’s surface exposed) or as a smooth table with turned legs.

Manufactured from ancient African hardwoods that have been reclaimed principally from railroads, the timber used was harvested fifty to a hundred and fifty years ago by early colonial settlers. We purchase the railway sleepers, or ties, as they are replaced by concrete. They are now a very rare commodity, and therefore a unique investment. Because of the rarity of the resource, only a limited number of tables can ever be made. Their value is enhanced by the fact that they are from a fully reclaimed, or recycled, source, allowing you to enjoy the beautiful grain and texture of probably the finest furniture wood in the world without any guilt that a tree may have been cut down to afford you the pleasure! Because of the years spent on the railway line where the timber is exposed to the full fury of the elements and massively heavy trains thundering overhead, it develops a particular character or ‘distressed’ look. This happens to varying degrees depending on the length of time the timber has been down, its position on the line and so on. This character only adds to the beauty of the wonderful timber from which it originated.
An investment of a lifetime that will last for many lifetimes.

Harvested Zambezi Teak Info
The wildness and beauty of the African bush growing on the deep and ancient sands of the Kalahari veldt belies the savagely harsh conditions under which diverse species of flora manage to prosper and grow. To survive these adverse conditions requires a resilience and toughness unknown in other species. One of the hardest and most durable of these African hardwood trees, Baikiaea plurijuga, a.k.a. Zambezi Teak, is amongst the most beautiful timbers in the world, with a fine, close grain and deep, rich natural colour. Savanna Wood harvest B. plurijuga on a strictly sustainable basis from the vast forests of Matabeleland situated on the fringe of the Kalahari Desert, under the watchful supervision of the Forestry Commission, an internationally respected body who are charged with the preservation of all indigenous forests.  Savanna Wood pay royalties on all timber cut to Forestry Commission and into a trust for development projects in the communities living on the fringes of the forests. These projects include self sufficiency gardening projects, installation of boreholes, development of school and clinic infrastructure and so on (please see our sections on ‘Community Projects’, the Savanna Wood ‘Employment Policy’ and ‘Preserving the Zambezi Teak forests’). Because they benefit so much from these arrangements, it is in the communities’ interests to preserve the forests. If they did not benefit in this manner it would not be in their interests to look after the forest, and they would simply cut the trees down and convert it to agricultural use. This would be a disaster on two counts: firstly we would lose the teak forests, and secondly the very fragile soils of the Kalahari sands would rapidly deteriorate under peasant agricultural practice and become desert wasteland. The sustainable utilization of these forests is therefore essential to their preservation.