Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Cordia wood
Cordia (Cordia spp., family Boraginaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Air-dry, it weighs about 30–50 lb/ft³ (481–801 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 595–596.
Other names, by country: Bohari, Shelu, Kum paiman, Dhaivan (India), Thanat, Kalamet (Burma), Anonang, Balu (Philippines).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- Not printed
- Air-dry density
- 30–50 lb/ft³ (481–801 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.40–0.65 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) varies with species 0.40 to 0.65; air-dry density 30 to 50 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 6.2% tangential
- Radial 2.5%
One source: USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Tropical Timbers of the World (Chudnoff, 1979 edition), the only published source read for this wood
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood variable from clear yellow or yellowishor olive-gray to yellowish-brown, purple-brown, or dark brown, often with light to dark streaks; not sharply demarcated from the sapwood. Grain straight to shallowly interlocked, or wavy; texture moderately fine to somewhat coarse; dull to lustrous; oily feel; some species with fragrant odor, pronounced when fresh, others without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- Easy to saw and works well with both hand and machine tools.
- Durability
- Varies with species from durable to vulnerable to attack by decay fungi.
- Uses
- Furniture, cabinetmaking, novelty items, tool handles, musical instruments, carvings, turnery.
- Where it grows
- India, Burma, Malay Peninsula, Philippines, and extends to North Borneo.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 595–596, 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 cordia against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.