Tropical wood · Africa
Berlinia wood
Berlinia (Berlinia spp., family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,360 lbf (6,050 N), and air-dry it weighs about 44 lb/ft³ (705 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 343–344.
Other names, by country: Ekpogoi (Nigeria), Ebiara (Gabon), Melegba (Ivory Coast), Essaben, Abem (Cameroon).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,360 lbf (6,050 N)
- Green: 1,000 lbf (4,448 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,000 lb for green material and 1,360 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 44 lb/ft³ (705 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.58 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) averaging about 0.58; air-dry density 44 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 8.9% tangential
- Radial 4.4%, 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 | 10,500 psi (72 MPa) | 1.32 million psi (9.1 GPa) | 4,930 psi (34 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 15,300 psi (105 MPa) | 1.57 million psi (10.8 GPa) | 7,690 psi (53 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 17,200 psi (119 MPa) | 1.72 million psi (11.9 GPa) | 8,000 psi (55 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 13,200 psi (91 MPa) | 1.27 million psi (8.8 GPa) | 8,000 psi (55 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood brown, pinkish-brown to deep red-brown, with dark purple or brown streaking; sapwood rather wide, whitish, often with a pink tint, clearly demarcated. Texture medium to coarse; grain straight, interlocked, or irregular; without characteristic odor or taste when dry. Traumatic gum ducts frequently present.
- Working properties
- Saws easily and generally works well with hand and machine tools but there is some tearing of interlocked grain; good gluing properties; rated as a moderate steam bending wood.
- Durability
- Heartwood durability variable with species, generally moderately resistant to attack by decay fungi and moderately resistant to termite attack. Logs liable to severe attack by ambrosia beetles and sapwood vulnerable to powder-post beetles.
- Uses
- Heavy construction, furniture and cabinetwork, decorative veneers, paneling. Often suggested as an oak substitute.
- Where it grows
- West Africa and reaching into Zaire. Found in various forest types: savanna formations, marshy localities, or dense high forests.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 343–344, 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 berlinia against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.