Tropical wood · Africa
Cassipourea malosana wood
Cassipourea malosana (Cassipourea malosana, family Rhizophoraceae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,250–1,650 lbf (5,560–7,340 N), and air-dry it weighs about 47 lb/ft³ (753 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 361–362.
Other names, by country: Ndiri, Msengera, Funzare (Tanzania), Musaisi (Kenya).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,250–1,650 lbf (5,560–7,340 N)
- Green: 900–990 lbf (4,003–4,404 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 900-990 lb for green material and 1,250-1,650 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 47 lb/ft³ (753 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.59 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.59; air-dry density 47 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to air-dry
- 8.0% tangential
- Radial 3.5%
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 | 9,130 psi (63 MPa) | 1.15 million psi (7.9 GPa) | 4,500 psi (31 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 19,200 psi (132 MPa) | 1.67 million psi (11.5 GPa) | 8,900 psi (61 MPa) |
| Green | 11,700 psi (81 MPa) | 1.65 million psi (11.4 GPa) | 4,850 psi (33 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 15,500 psi (107 MPa) | 1.8 million psi (12.4 GPa) | 9,420 psi (65 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Sapwood and heartwood not differentiated, whitish to light-brown, often with purplish streaks associated with fungal attack. Texture fine and even; grain usually straight but with a slight to marked tendency to spiraling. PILLARWOOD
- Working properties
- Sawing of green timber is difficult because of a strong tendency to spring; rather easy to work dry wood with hand and machine tools, dressing to a smooth clean finish; suitable for turnery; somewhat troublesome to glue.
- Durability
- Classified as nondurable and not resistant to termite attack.
- Uses
- Flooring, turnery, tool handles.
- Where it grows
- A high mountain forest tree, 6,000-9,000 ft elevation in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya; also in Somalia and Ethiopia.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 361–362, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for flooring with the species picker
Weigh cassipourea malosana against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.