Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Champaca wood
Champaca (Michelia spp., family Magnoliaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 650–800 lbf (2,891–3,559 N), and air-dry it weighs about 31 lb/ft³ (497 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 689–690.
Other names, by country: Saga, Sagawa, Sanga (Burma), Chempaka (Malaya), Sandit, Hangilo (Philippines).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 650–800 lbf (2,891–3,559 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 650-800 lb for dry material.”
- Air-dry density
- 31 lb/ft³ (497 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.43 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.43; air-dry density 31 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 5.2% tangential
- Radial 3.2%, volumetric 8.2%
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 | 8,010 psi (55 MPa) | 1.2 million psi (8.2 GPa) | 4,020 psi (28 MPa) |
| 9% MC | 9,250 psi (64 MPa) | 1.39 million psi (9.6 GPa) | 6,420 psi (44 MPa) |
| Green | 7,665 psi (53 MPa) | 1.44 million psi (9.9 GPa) | 3,825 psi (26 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 11,465 psi (79 MPa) | 1.65 million psi (11.4 GPa) | 5,960 psi (41 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light yellowish-brown to olive-brown; sapwood whitish to light-brown, fairly distinct from the heartwood. Grain straight to interlocked; texture rather fine to medium; lustrous; without characteristic odor or taste.
- Working properties
- Easy to work with hand and machine tools, takes a good finish. Specimens with whitish deposits dull cutters. Easy to peel into veneers.
- Durability
- Reported to be moderately durable and resistant to attack by termites.
- Uses
- Furniture, carvings, general light construction, plywood, carvings and turnery, cabinetwork, patternmaking, joinery.
- Where it grows
- Indo-Malayan region and extending into the Philippines, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Mostly confined to hilly regions and mountain slopes. Cultivated extensively.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 689–690, 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 champaca against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.