Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Bintangor wood
Bintangor (Calophyllum spp., family Guttiferae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,475 lbf (6,561 N), and air-dry it weighs about 31–50 lb/ft³ (497–801 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 577–578.
Other names, by country: Poon (India), Bitanghol, Bitaog (Philippines), Tamanou (New Caledonia), Penaga (Sabah), Ka thang han, Ka thang lan, Tang hon (Thailand), Damanu (Fiji Islands).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,475 lbf (6,561 N)
- Green: 1,040 lbf (4,626 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,040 lb for green material and 1,475 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 31–50 lb/ft³ (497–801 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.40–0.65 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) varies with species from 0.40 to 0.65; air-dry density 31 to 50 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 5.7% tangential
- Radial 3.9%
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 | 8,450 psi (58 MPa) | 1.24 million psi (8.5 GPa) | 4,090 psi (28 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 13,700 psi (94 MPa) | 1.48 million psi (10.2 GPa) | 8,640 psi (60 MPa) |
| Green | 9,500 psi (66 MPa) | 1.33 million psi (9.2 GPa) | 4,755 psi (33 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 13,255 psi (91 MPa) | 1.71 million psi (11.8 GPa) | 7,165 psi (49 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood deep red, red-brown, pink-brown, or orange-red; sapwood yellow-brown with a pink or orange tinge, clearly defined. Texture coarse to moderately coarse, rather uneven; lustrous; grain interlocked; without distinctive odor or taste; figured by concentric irregular bands of parenchyma.
- Working properties
- Most species are reported to be fairly easy to saw and work; sawn surfaces are often woolly; dresses rather smoothly.
- Durability
- Rated as nondurable in ground contact and is vulnerable to termite attack as well as marine borers.
- Uses
- Flooring, furniture components, light construction, boatbuilding, cabinetwork.
- Where it grows
- The genus is widely distributed throughout Southeast Asia on sites that range from coastal and swamp to mountain forests.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 577–578, 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 bintangor against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.