Tropical wood · Tropical America
Copaia wood
Copaia (Jacaranda copaia, family Bignoniaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 350 lbf (1,557 N), and air-dry it weighs about 26 lb/ft³ (416 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 177–178.
Other names, by country: Gualandai (Panama), Chingale (Colombia), Abey, Cupay (Venezuela), Goebaja (Surinam), Copaia, Faux simarouba (French Guiána), Carnauba da matta, Pará-pará (Brazil).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 350 lbf (1,557 N)
- Green: 280 lbf (1,246 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 280 lb for green wood and 350 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 26 lb/ft³ (416 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.35 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.35; air-dry density 26 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 6.5% tangential
- Radial 4.5%
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 | 4,580 psi (32 MPa) | 1.16 million psi (8 GPa) | 1,980 psi (14 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 7,040 psi (49 MPa) | 1.31 million psi (9 GPa) | 4,120 psi (28 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 9,850 psi (68 MPa) | 1.73 million psi (11.9 GPa) | — |
| 12% MC | 8,600 psi (59 MPa) | 1.9 million psi (13.1 GPa) | 4,650 psi (32 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood and sapwood not sharply demarcated, dull white to oatmeal color; prominent brown vessel lines. Luster rather high; texture medium to coarse; grain straight; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood is easy to work; however, sawn surfaces of green lumber are often woolly. Even after seasoning, sawn and planed surfaces are apt to be fuzzy unless cutters are very sharp; easy to peel and slice into veneer.
- Durability
- The wood is perishable in ground contact, vulnerable to insect attack, and prone to blue stain.
- Uses
- Furniture components, interior construction, utility plywood, boxes and crates, concrete form work, matchsticks and matchboxes, fiberboard, particleboard, and pulp and paper.
- Where it grows
- From Belize southward to Brazil. A component of the upland forests of the Amazon region and also common in the mixed hardwood forests of Guyana. Regenerates abundantly on old clearings.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 177–178, 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 copaia against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.