Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Belian wood
Belian (Eusideroxylon zwageri, family Lauraceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 3,020 lbf (13,434 N), and air-dry it weighs about 64–71 lb/ft³ (1,025–1,137 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 643–644.
Other names, by country: Tambulian (Philippines), Onglen, Ulin (Indonesia).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 3,020 lbf (13,434 N)
- Green: 2,845 lbf (12,655 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 2,845 lb for green material and 3,020 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 64–71 lb/ft³ (1,025–1,137 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.86–0.92 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.86-0.92; air-dry density 64-71 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 7.5% tangential
- Radial 4.3%
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 | 20,850 psi (144 MPa) | 2.57 million psi (17.7 GPa) | 11,590 psi (80 MPa) |
| 11% MC | 25,810 psi (178 MPa) | 2.65 million psi (18.3 GPa) | 13,620 psi (94 MPa) |
| Green | 19,500 psi (134 MPa) | 2.62 million psi (18.1 GPa) | 11,570 psi (80 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light brown to almost bright yellow when freshly cut, darkens on exposure to a deep reddish-brown, very dark brown, or almost black; sapwood bright yellow, darkening on exposure, sharply defined. Texture fine and even; grain straight or only slightly interlocked; somewhat lustrous; has a lemon-like odor that persists, no marked taste.
- Working properties
- In spite of its high density the wood can be sawn without difficulty, blunting of cutters is only moderate; machines cleanly; reported to be difficult to glue with the synthetic resins.
- Durability
- Heartwood is rated as very durable, service life of 50-100 years in ground contact is reported; immune to termite attack. A service life of 20 years and more for marine work in tropical waters is reported.
- Uses
- Heavy construction, marine work, boatbuilding, piling, printing blocks, specialty furniture, industrial flooring, roofing shingles, tool handles.
- Where it grows
- Throughout the lowlands of Sabah extending into the remainder of Borneo, other Indonesian islands, and the Philippines; occasionally abundant.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 643–644, 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 belian against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.