Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Benguet Pine wood
Benguet Pine (Pinus insularis, family Pinaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 425–785 lbf (1,890–3,492 N), and air-dry it weighs about 32–38 lb/ft³ (513–609 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 705–706.
Other names, by country: Saleng (Philippines), Tinyu, Tinshu (Burma), Dingsa (India).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 425–785 lbf (1,890–3,492 N)
- Green: 400–540 lbf (1,779–2,402 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 400-540 lb green and 425-785 lb dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 32–38 lb/ft³ (513–609 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.43–0.50 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.43-0.50; air-dry density 32-38 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 7.8% tangential
- Radial 4.4%
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 | 7,650 psi (53 MPa) | 1.46 million psi (10.1 GPa) | 3,520 psi (24 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 15,000 psi (103 MPa) | 2.12 million psi (14.6 GPa) | 7,400 psi (51 MPa) |
| Green | 6,300 psi (43 MPa) | 1.05 million psi (7.2 GPa) | 3,330 psi (23 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 10,660 psi (73 MPa) | 1.44 million psi (9.9 GPa) | 6,070 psi (42 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood yellowish, light reddish-brown, to pale brown, darkening on exposure; sapwood whitish to creamy-white, not distinct. Texture moderately course, uneven; grain straight; dull to somewhat lustrous; resinous odor.
- Working properties
- Easy to work; resin, though, may gum cutters and tools.
- Durability
- Heartwood not durable in ground contact, readily attacked by termites.
- Uses
- General construction, posts and poles, pulp and paper, fiberboard, veneer and plywood, furniture components, boxes and crates, millwork.
- Where it grows
- High mountain areas of southeast Asia including Assam and Burma, southern Vietnam, and northern Luzon in the Philippines. A favored plantation species in Zambia, Kenya, and elsewhere.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 705–706, 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 benguet Pine against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.