Saag or sevan: choosing the wood
Two timbers, both teak, both carved the same way. The difference is colour, weight and what a finish will do to them.
Both are teak. Both are solid boards, not veneer over board, and both are carved the same way by the same hands. The choice is about colour, weight and what a finish will do to the wood. Neither is a substitute for the other.
Saag
Saag is teak: Tectona grandis, the timber the word usually means. It is dense, oily, and ranges from mid-brown to a deep warm brown with visible grain. It is the traditional timber for carved work in Gujarat and it is what most older pieces are made from.
Because it is already dark and strongly figured, saag takes a wide range of finishes convincingly. A natural finish shows the grain; the darker finishes deepen it without hiding it. It is the heavier of the two, which matters when someone has to carry it up a flight of stairs.
Sevan
Sevan is white teak, a different species: pale, even and fine-grained, with far less figure. It is lighter in colour and lighter in weight.
Its evenness is the point. A pale finish on sevan reads as a single clean tone, which is what you want if the piece is going into a room that is already busy, or if you want the carving to read as form rather than as pattern. Dark finishes are not offered on it, because a dark stain on a pale even timber looks like paint rather than like wood.
Side by side
| Property | Saag (teak) | Sevan (white teak) |
|---|---|---|
| Colour | Mid to deep brown | Pale, close to cream |
| Grain | Strong, visible figure | Fine and even |
| Weight | Heavier | Lighter |
| Finishes | Six, natural through to espresso | One pale finish, cream |
| Price | The higher of the two | The lower of the two |
Which to choose
What usually decides it, in rough order of how often:
- The room's existing wood. If the floor, the doors and the furniture are dark, saag sits with them. In a pale room, sevan disappears into the wall in a way that lets the carving show.
- How much you want the carving to read as pattern. Figured grain plus deep carving is a lot of visual information. Sevan quiets one of the two.
- Whether anyone has to lift it. For a large piece going upstairs, the weight difference is real.
- Whether you want a dark finish. If the answer is yes, the choice is already made.
There is no durability argument between them for indoor furniture kept out of the sun. Both are stable timbers and both will outlast the person who bought the piece if they are looked after, which mostly means leaving the carving alone.
What the price difference is
Wood is the only choice that changes the price of a piece. The finish does not: every finish costs the same on every piece, so choosing espresso over natural changes nothing but the look. Each piece's page shows both timbers with their own price before you order, so the difference is a number you can see before you decide.
If you are still working out which size you need before you think about timber, start with what size mandir fits your room.