Tropical wood · Tropical America
Carbonero wood
Carbonero (Piptadenia pittieri, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,550–1,680 lbf (6,895–7,473 N), and air-dry it weighs about 44–49 lb/ft³ (705–785 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 239–240.
Other names, by country: Hediondo, Bocachico, Rabo de iguana (Columbia), Carbonero, Carabali (Venezuela), Huilca, Tarahuilca (Peru).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,550–1,680 lbf (6,895–7,473 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,550 to 1,680 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 44–49 lb/ft³ (705–785 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.57–0.67 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.57 to 0.67; air-dry density 44 to 49 pcf.”
- Shrinkage
- Not as one figure
- As printed: “Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial 2.6 to 4.4%; tangential 6.4 to 7.5%; volumetric 9.0 to 11.6%.”
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 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12% MC | 15,400 psi (106 MPa) | 1.96 million psi (13.5 GPa) | 8,250 psi (57 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 17,000 psi (117 MPa) | — | 8,600 psi (59 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 19,700 psi (136 MPa) | 2.48 million psi (17.1 GPa) | 9,220 psi (64 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood brown, yellow-brown, or reddish-brown; sapwood light brown to whitish, not always clearly demarcated. Texture fine to medium; grain straight to irregular; luster high; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- Rated as fair to good in all machining operations. However, will tend to tear when planing irregular grain.
- Durability
- Generally reported to be vulnerable to attack by decay fungi and insects.
- Uses
- Heavy construction, posts, railroad crossties (treated), furniture, flooring, turnery.
- Where it grows
- Abundantly represented in tropical South America; timber described in this group mostly from Venezuela and Colombia.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 239–240, 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 carbonero against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.