Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Burma Padauk wood
Burma Padauk (Pterocarpus macrocarpus, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 2,170 lbf (9,653 N), and air-dry it weighs about 54 lb/ft³ (865 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 721–722.
Other names, by country: Mai Pradoo, Pradoo (Thailand).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 2,170 lbf (9,653 N)
- Green: 2,040 lbf (9,074 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 2,040 lb for green material and 2,170 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 54 lb/ft³ (865 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.75 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.75; air-dry density 54 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 5.8% tangential
- Radial 3.4%, volumetric 8.4%
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 2 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 | 15,975 psi (110 MPa) | 1.9 million psi (13.1 GPa) | 8,200 psi (57 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 20,640 psi (142 MPa) | 2.08 million psi (14.3 GPa) | 10,945 psi (75 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood bright yellowish-red to dark brick-red, streaked with darker lines, lustrous when freshly cut but becoming a dull but attractive golden brown on exposure; sapwood grayish, narrow. Texture moderately coarse; grain interlocked; has a faint spicy odor. Janka side hardness 2,040 lb for green material and 2,170 lb for dry. 721
- Working properties
- Rather difficult to saw, especially when dry and also difficult to work with handtools, turns well, dresses to a smooth finish, glues satifactorily.
- Durability
- The heartwood is rated as very durable and also resistant to termite attack. Sapwood liable to attack by powder-post beetles.
- Uses
- Decorative flooring, furniture, cabinetwork, tool handles, billiard tables.
- Where it grows
- Sometimes rather common in the upper mixed and dry forests of Burma; also found in mixed deciduous forests of Thailand.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 721–722, 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 burma Padauk against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.