Tropical wood · Africa
Abura wood
Abura (Mitragyna ciliata, family Rubiaceae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 780 lbf (3,470 N), and air-dry it weighs about 34 lb/ft³ (545 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 459–460.
Other names, by country: M'Boy (Sierra Leone, Liberia), Bahia (Ivory Coast), Baya, Subaha (Ghana), Elolom (Cameroon), Elelom (Gabon), Vuku, M'Voukou (Zaire), Nzingu (Zambia, Uganda).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 780 lbf (3,470 N)
- Green: 700 lbf (3,114 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 700 lb for green material and 780 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 34 lb/ft³ (545 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.45 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.45; air-dry density 34 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 9.0% tangential
- Radial 4.1%, volumetric 12.0%
One source: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Tropical Timbers of the World (Chudnoff, 1979 edition), the only published source read for this wood
Strength
Bending strength is the modulus of rupture (MOR); stiffness is the modulus of elasticity (MOE); crushing strength is compression parallel to the grain. The sheet collects these from published tests: it prints 3 data sets, from different tests and sources, so they can differ widely; all are shown, in the sheet's order, each at the moisture content printed beside it, never restated as 12%.
| Moisture | Bending strength (MOR) | Stiffness (MOE) | Crushing strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 7,900 psi (54 MPa) | 1.18 million psi (8.1 GPa) | 3,960 psi (27 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 12,100 psi (83 MPa) | 1.35 million psi (9.3 GPa) | 6,740 psi (46 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 10,300 psi (71 MPa) | 1.02 million psi (7 GPa) | 5,600 psi (39 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood uniform light yellowish-or pinkish-brown; sapwood wide, not usually differentiated. Texture fine and even; grain moderately straight to interlocked or spiral; luster low; sometimes with gum veins that appear as dark streaks; freshly-cut timber has an unpleasant odor. Silica up to 0.24% is reported.
- Working properties
- Works well with both hand and machine tools and takes a good finish if cutters are kept sharp; blunting is slight to severe because of silica; easy to glue; veneers easily.
- Durability
- Heartwood is not durable nor resistant to termites; sapwood liable to powder-post beetle attack. Good acid resistance.
- Uses
- A general-purpose timber, furniture components, joinery, domestic flooring, plywood, carving.
- Where it grows
- Mainly West Africa from Sierra Leone to the Congo region and Angola, gregarious in freshwater swamps.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 459–460, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for furniture with the species picker
Weigh abura against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.