Tropical wood · Africa
Cordyla wood
Cordyla (Cordyla africana, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,580 lbf (7,028 N), and air-dry it weighs about 54 lb/ft³ (865 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 375–376.
Other names, by country: Mroma, Mpachamu, Mgwata (Tanzania).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,580 lbf (7,028 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,580 lb for dry material.”
- Air-dry density
- 54 lb/ft³ (865 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.70 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.70; air-dry density 54 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to 12% moisture content
- 5.3% tangential
- Radial 3.8%
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 one data set, each at the moisture content printed beside it, never restated as 12%.
| Moisture | Bending strength (MOR) | Stiffness (MOE) | Crushing strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12% MC | 11,600 psi (80 MPa) | 1.74 million psi (12 GPa) | 8,320 psi (57 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood yellowish-brown with darker bands; sapwood 2-3 in. wide, pale yellow, moderately distinct. Texture coarse; grain wavy or interlocked, showing an attractive stripe figure; cut surfaces somewhat oily.
- Working properties
- Moderately easy to work with machine tools, shapes cleanly except where grain is irregular, drills and mortises well, difficult to work with hand tools, does not dress smoothly in turnings.
- Durability
- Heartwood is rated high in durability, not liable to termite attack.
- Uses
- General heavy construction, railroad crossties.
- Where it grows
- Locally common in riparian and swamp forests throughout northern and eastern Tanzania.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 375–376, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for ground contact with the species picker
Weigh cordyla against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.