Tropical wood · Africa
Antiaris wood
Antiaris (Antiaris spp., family Moraceae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 500 lbf (2,224 N), and air-dry it weighs about 27 lb/ft³ (432 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 331–332.
Other names, by country: Kyenkyen, Chenchen (Ghana), Mkuzu, Mlulu (Tanzania), Oro, Ogiovu (Nigeria), Kirundo, Mumaka (Uganda), Ako (Dahomey, Senegal).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 500 lbf (2,224 N)
- Green: 380 lbf (1,690 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 380 lb for green and 500 lb for dry material.”
- Air-dry density
- 27 lb/ft³ (432 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.38 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.38; air-dry density 27 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 6.8% tangential
- Radial 4.2%, volumetric 12.4%
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 4 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 | 4,770 psi (33 MPa) | 0.81 million psi (5.6 GPa) | 2,930 psi (20 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 7,270 psi (50 MPa) | 0.96 million psi (6.6 GPa) | 5,090 psi (35 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 6,040 psi (42 MPa) | 0.82 million psi (5.7 GPa) | 4,500 psi (31 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 8,550 psi (59 MPa) | 1.04 million psi (7.2 GPa) | 5,400 psi (37 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Wood is whitish or light yellow-brown with no distinction between sapwood and heartwood. Texture medium to coarse; grain interlocked; lustrous; without characteristic odor or taste when dry, but has an unpleasant odor when green.
- Working properties
- Works easily with hand and machine tools but sharp cutters are needed; dresses smoothly, some tearing of interlocked grain; glues and nails satisfactorily.
- Durability
- Wood is perishable and liable to ambrosia beetle and powder-post beetle attack. Very susceptible to sap stain, requires rapid extraction and chemical treatments.
- Uses
- Veneer and plywood, furniture components, joinery, boxes and crates, light construction.
- Where it grows
- Distributed throughout the high forest zone of West, Central, and East Africa on widely varying sites.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 331–332, 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 antiaris against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.