Tropical wood · Africa
African-walnut wood
African-walnut (Lovoa trichilioides, family Meliaceae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 940 lbf (4,181 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. 447–448.
Other names, by country: Mpengwa (Ghana), Anamemila, Apopo, Sida (Nigeria), Bombulu (Zaire), Dibétou (Gabon, Ivory Coast), Congowood, Tigerwood (USA).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 940 lbf (4,181 N)
- Green: 690 lbf (3,069 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 690 lb for green material and 940 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 12% moisture content
- 5.0% tangential
- Radial 2.0%
- As printed: “Shrinkage green to 12% moisture content: radial about 2.0%; tangential about 5.0%.”
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 | 8,200 psi (57 MPa) | 1.06 million psi (7.3 GPa) | 4,320 psi (30 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 11,900 psi (82 MPa) | 1.34 million psi (9.2 GPa) | 6,990 psi (48 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 12,600 psi (87 MPa) | — | 6,400 psi (44 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood yellowish-brown, sometimes marked with dark streaks or veins; sapwood buff or light gray, narrow, clearly demarcated. Texture fine to medium; grain usually interlocked with an attractive ribbon figure; lustrous; cedarlike scent.
- Working properties
- Easy co work but sharp tools are required to avoid tearing, particularly when machining quartersawn faces. Good gluing properties, moderate steam-bending properties.
- Durability
- Heartwood is rated as moderately durable, liable to dry-wood termite attack. Sapwood liable to powder-post beetle attack.
- Uses
- Furniture and cabinetwork, decorative veneers, paneling, joinery, shop fixtures, gunstocks.
- Where it grows
- West Tropical Africa from Sierra Leone to Gabon; occurs in evergreen and deciduous forests, preferring moist sites, tends to be gregarious.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 447–448, 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 african-walnut against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.