Tropical wood · Tropical America
Djedoe wood
Djedoe (Sclerolobium spp., family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 700 lbf (3,114 N), and air-dry it weighs about 35 lb/ft³ (561 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 275–276.
Other names, by country: Jawaledan, Yawarridana (Guyana), Rode Djedoe, Witte Djedoe, Djaditja (Surinam) Passariuva, Tachy, Tachyrana (Brazil).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 700 lbf (3,114 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness about 700 lb for dry material.”
- Air-dry density
- 35 lb/ft³ (561 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.47 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.47; air-dry density 35 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 8.9% tangential
- Radial 4.4%, volumetric 12.3%
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 5 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 | 7,750 psi (53 MPa) | 1.75 million psi (12.1 GPa) | 3,850 psi (27 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 13,150 psi (91 MPa) | 2.04 million psi (14.1 GPa) | 6,530 psi (45 MPa) |
| Green | 8,150 psi (56 MPa) | 1.3 million psi (9 GPa) | 3,620 psi (25 MPa) |
| 15% MC | 11,750 psi (81 MPa) | — | 5,800 psi (40 MPa) |
| 15% MC | 10,380 psi (72 MPa) | 1.46 million psi (10.1 GPa) | 5,550 psi (38 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood pale to rather dark brown with a pinkish, yellowish, or olive tinge; scarcely distinct from the sapwood. Luster high; texture medium to coarse; grain straight to interlocked; tasteless but some species have a mild scent.
- Working properties
- The wood is easily worked; sawn surfaces are somewhat fuzzy; planing usually results in chipped and torn grain, particularly on quartered surfaces of roey material. Dust from machining operations reported to be extremely irritating.
- Durability
- Pure culture decay studies show the heartwood to be durable with respect to a white-rot fungus; however, wood of this genus is generally reported to be low in decay resistance and susceptible to dry-wood termite attack.
- Uses
- Light construction under cover, utility furniture, boxes and crates, suggested as a veneer wood.
- Where it grows
- Tropical Brazil, eastern Peru, the Guianas, and Venezuela.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 275–276, 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 djedoe against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.