Royal Sekadau

This Sekadau tree is the most famous agarwood tree of our times. Everyone who had a share in its harvest became millionaires overnight. It’s not that they sold the wood at inflated prices. It’s that the tree demanded a mighty price for what it was.

Not just that, the entire tree was a gigantic cylinder of solid carvable goodness. They had to cut it up into massive slabs because they were too expensive to sell as-is. And when I say “cut up”… just one smaller-cut weighed about 20 kilos and sank like a stone.

You’ll meet collectors from Hong Kong to Tokyo to Singapore to Jakarta, all with a story to tell about the find of the century. It took me years before I could get my hands on some of the Sekadau, and that was only thanks to my close relationship with one of the kingpins of the China Market.

And here it is, the first leak to the ‘outside-world’.

I’ve been to a few of the mansions paid for by this tree, and I’ve watched millions gambled away. There’s still an 18-kg piece of the Sekadau for sale. The only reason it’s still there is because it requires you to sell one of those mansions to pay for it.

Surprisingly, from the entire tree, there were very few chips set aside. The bulk of the batch was reserved for carving, and these are of the few pieces that remain to be enjoyed the way oud was meant to be enjoyed: sizzling on your heater.

When they were busy cleaning the wood right after harvest, the big bosses wouldn’t hear anything about making oil from this wood. Whatever position I held with them wasn’t sufficient to score me any of the cleaning powder or smaller shavings. All was reserved for the bosses-special brew of whiskey which they had made from the wood as they smirked and gave me sideways glances.

“This Muslim doesn’t really understand the value of a fine Scotch made from kinam dust, but we sure do!” their jubilant eyes said sarcastically.

My message was quite the opposite: “You non-Muslims only understand Scotch, and fail to see this could well be the oil of the century. Scotch, even if it had any value, is gone after a few shots; whereas even the smallest yield of oil can go a long way when distilled from such colossal agarwood.”

The bosses wouldn’t even part with the kyen (which needed to be removed so the seah could sink). I had to wait three years and watch the bosses file for bankruptcy before they gave me anything at all from the Sekadau.

In retrospect, I am thankful to have all the kyen (it is, according to most, shin kyara) and a few sinking medallions which I will take with me to the grave. Yet all I keep thinking about is the kind of oil we could have made if they didn’t insist on the Scotch idea.

The best of plans is surely God’s, and oil or no oil, what you have here is the wood of your olfactory lifetime. Only suited to slow gentle heat, it will open a world of sensual bewilderment like no other agarwood can with the possible exception of the other kynam varietals.

You’ll notice something strange in the pictures below: the flow of kyen, but the color is unsually dark, some pieces with a hue approaching the shine of space black. Instead of a shell-shaped carve-out typical of chiseled kyen, here you see layers that form a dense stack of veins. There’s a hint of the more familiar yellow of high-grade kyen, but covered in a silver glaze that shows the transition towards seah.

This is the kind of kyen you can only get from an explosion of resin, the kind that gives birth to 20 kg slabs of carvable resin. And that’s what makes these chips such a treat, and why it challenges the widespread idea that seah (hard resin), and seah only, contains the secret of the oud fragrance.

The scent is piercing, not the warm, soothing kind. An aroma on par with the blackest, hardest sinking nuggets you’ve smelled — even better than many. Instead of clinking metallic sounding chips, these are soft, even delicate. Yet, in a blind test, you’d equate the scent with heavy-resin sinkers.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Hidden Treasure

I’ve had the pleasure to enjoy a tiny chip in office yesterday and it had been quite a home run out of the park kind of aromatic experience.

At about 250° C on a small temp controlled electric kinam heater, the rich creamy kinamic wafts kept rising and slowly evolving into a lovely beautiful thick scent cloud that filled the entire area.

The chip maintained colour for several hours before it eventually started forming some shimmering black lines through its tiny cracks which added luxurious powdery and smokiness mixed with hints of very faint leather-like wafts that turned the situation into a more pleasant and enjoyable one.

Such a great hidden treasure. Easy to enjoy. Easy to fall in love with. Even mind-boggling how it’s made easier to get access to via OudBar at a no-brainer £32.5/gr rate.

—Acainc M. / Canada

One You Shouldn’t Miss

I didn’t read the description when this hit the website. I just saw the word Royal in the name and immediately decided I had to have it because my previous experience with EO Royal woods (e.g. Royal Maluku, Royal Jaya, Royal Ceylon) has been transformative in my appreciation of oud wood. I knew Ensar Oud wouldn’t use the word Royal in naming this wood if it didn’t hold the same standard.

When I first got the wood, I energized those thin wires on my Subitism until they were red piping hot, threw a chunk of wood on it, and to my surprise I was not blown away. It smelled nice but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

I immediately called a close friend who shares my love for wood and asked him if he’s heated the Sekadau wood yet. I explained to him that I was underwhelmed and slightly disappointed because my expectations were so high for a Royal EO wood. He quickly brushed me off and assured me it’s probably because my nose wasn’t working properly at the time or something along those lines. We have never been underwhelmed by an EO wood before.

It was then that I decided to read through the description which when sifting through its own literary artwork I found the part where it explains heating this wood in a gentle manner.

I realized in my haste, I wasn’t at all patient with the wood.

I then carved the wood and heated it kodo style with the lowest and most delicate heat as I would the highest of grades of wood and kyara and 🤩 🤯 I was instantly humbled by the beautiful nuances in each tenth of a volt that I initially passed on my first go around.

The reality is that I was correct in my initial gut instinct that EO Royal woods are amazing, but I was temporarily fooled by my haste and inexperience.

This wood from OudBar is one you shouldn’t miss on. The EnsarOud/OudBar royal wood collection wears its crown proudly.

—Abu Naeem / USA

Ok this is why I use a kinam heater… One session all to myself probably >an hour. Amount of wood used? Below 0.01g.

I added pics of the wood weight and of the calibration weight just to show to you that the damn thing’s working 🤣

How fragrant is this wood? That same amount in my pan yesterday transferred to my subitism heating at 7.85V do note that for different builds the temperature is different is sufficient to scent a 5x5m room. Like fully scent, not just a wiff of it. Oh and that’s after using it for > an hour on the kinam heater..🤣

—Darell J. / Singapore