Tropical wood · Tropical America
Ceiba wood
Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra, family Bombacaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 240 lbf (1,068 N), and air-dry it weighs about 18 lb/ft³ (288 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 85–86.
Other names, by country: Fromager (French West Indies), Pochota, Yaxché (Mexico), Bonga, Ceiba de lana (Colombia), Ceiba yuca (Venezuela), Sumaúma (Brazil), Toborochi (Bolivia).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 240 lbf (1,068 N)
- Green: 220 lbf (979 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 220 lb for green wood and 240 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 18 lb/ft³ (288 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.25 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.25; air-dry density 18 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 4.1% tangential
- Radial 2.1%, volumetric 7.7%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 2,180 psi (15 MPa) | 0.41 million psi (2.8 GPa) | 1,060 psi (7 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 4,330 psi (30 MPa) | 0.54 million psi (3.7 GPa) | 2,380 psi (16 MPa) |
| 15% MC | 3,980 psi (27 MPa) | — | 2,490 psi (17 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood pinkish-white to ashy-brown when dry and not clearly distinguished from the sapwood. Luster low; grain generally straight, sometimes irregular; texture coarse with a harsh feel; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood is easy to machine but not satisfactorily; sawed surfaces are fuzzy; tears the grain in shaping, boring, turning, and mortising, but gives excellent results in planing and sanding. Poor nail and screw holding properties. Easy to peel into veneers.
- Durability
- Laboratory tests indicate nondurable to white-rot fungus attack but durable to very durable when exposed to brown rot. Rated as extremely vulnerable to decay when in ground contact, also very susceptible to insect attack. Logs and lumber often discolored by sap-staining fungi.
- Uses
- Plywood, packaging, lumber core stock, light construction, pulp and paper products, also used locally for canoes and rafts. Floss on seeds (kapok) harvested for use in buoys, life belts, stuffing pillows, and similar articles.
- Where it grows
- Throughout the tropical world; from the Tropic of Cancer in Mexico southward through Central America to Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, and Ecuador. Also West Africa and Malay Peninsula. Characteristically an open-grown tree.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 85–86, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for your project with the species picker
Weigh ceiba against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.