Tropical wood · Africa
Burkea wood
Burkea (Burkea africana, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Air-dry, it weighs about 46–61 lb/ft³ (737–977 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 353–354.
Other names, by country: Mgando, Mkarati, Msangala (Tanzania).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- Not printed
- Air-dry density
- 46–61 lb/ft³ (737–977 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.60–0.80 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.60-0.80; air-dry density 46-61 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to 12% moisture content
- 2.1% tangential
- Radial 1.2%
One source: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Tropical Timbers of the World (Chudnoff, 1979 edition), the only published source read for this wood
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood dark brown or reddish-brown; sapwood whitish or yellowish, not always sharply defined. Texture moderately fine; grain interlocked or wavy; lustrous.
- Working properties
- Not difficult to saw but is difficult to work with hand and machine tools, tends to tear in planing, glues well, takes a good finish.
- Durability
- Heartwood is rated as very durable and is immune to termite attack.
- Uses
- Parquet flooring, fine cabinet and furniture work, joinery, railroad crossties, mining timbers.
- Where it grows
- Widely distributed in dry savanna forests from Nigeria southward to the Transvaal.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 353–354, 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 burkea against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.