Tropical wood · Tropical America
Bulletwood wood
Bulletwood (Manilkara bidentata, family Sapotaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 3,190 lbf (14,190 N), and air-dry it weighs about 66 lb/ft³ (1,057 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 197–198.
Other names, by country: Chicozapote (Mexico), Ausubo (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic), Nispero (Panama), Beefwood (Guyana), Bolletri (Surinam), Balata rouge (French Guiana), Maçaranduba (Brazil).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 3,190 lbf (14,190 N)
- Green: 2,230 lbf (9,920 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 2,230 lb for green material and 3,190 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 66 lb/ft³ (1,057 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.85 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.85; air-dry density 66 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 9.4% tangential
- Radial 6.3%, volumetric 16.9%
One source: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Tropical Timbers of the World (Chudnoff, 1979 edition), the only published source read for this wood
One 12% stiffness is printed as "3,1450" (thousand psi), which cannot be read as one number, so it is left out.
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 | 17,310 psi (119 MPa) | 2.7 million psi (18.6 GPa) | 8,690 psi (60 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 27,280 psi (188 MPa) | — | 11,640 psi (80 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 29,200 psi (201 MPa) | 3.52 million psi (24.3 GPa) | 13,300 psi (92 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 32,600 psi (225 MPa) | — | 15,200 psi (105 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light to dark reddish-brown, distinct but not sharply demarcated from the whitish or pale brown sapwood. Texture fine and uniform; luster low to medium; grain straight to occasionally slightly wavy or interlocked; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood is moderately easy to work despite its high density, rated good to excellent in all operations. Gluing requires special care to acquire a good bond. Steam bending properties are rated excellent.
- Durability
- Very resistant to attack by decay fungi; highly resistant to subterranean termites and moderately resistant to dry-wood termites. Not resistant to marine borer attack.
- Uses
- Heavy construction, textile and pulpmill equipment, furniture parts, turnery, tool handles, flooring, boat frames and other bent work, railway crossties, violin bows, billiard cues and other specialty uses. Also well known for its yield of balata or gutta-percha collected from tapped trees.
- Where it grows
- Widely distributed throughout the West Indies, Central America, and northern South America; occurs in many forest types and not exacting as to soil or topography. Locally frequent.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 197–198, 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 bulletwood against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.