Tropical wood · Africa
Difou wood
Difou (Morus mesozygia, family Moraceae) is a tropical timber from Africa. 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. 463–464.
Other names, by country: Wonton (Ghana), Aye (Nigeria), Kankate (Zaire).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- Not printed
- 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 oven-dry
- 5.8% tangential
- Radial 3.3%, volumetric 8.0%
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 | 24,000 psi (165 MPa) | 2.26 million psi (15.6 GPa) | 12,800 psi (88 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood yellow when freshly cut darkening on exposure to a goldenor coffee-brown; sapwood wide, grayish-white, distinct. Texture fine to moderately coarse; grain shallowly interlocked; moderately high luster.
- Working properties
- Works with moderate ease with most hand and machine tools, good sawing characteristics; glues well; takes a good finish; veneers well.
- Durability
- Heartwood vulnerable to attack by decay fungi and liable to termite attack.
- Uses
- Joinery, turnery, flooring, veneer.
- Where it grows
- Found on the edge of the humid rain forests from Senegal to the Cameroon and Gabon; also in dry savanna formations. Widely planted as a shade and farm boundary tree.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 463–464, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for flooring with the species picker
Weigh difou against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.