Tropical wood · Africa
Ekop wood
Ekop (Tetraberlinia tubmaniana, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Air-dry, it weighs about 46 lb/ft³ (737 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 525–526.
Other names, by country: Sikon, Gola (Liberia).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- Not printed
- Air-dry density
- 46 lb/ft³ (737 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.60 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.60; air-dry density 46 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 10.2% tangential
- Radial 5.6%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14% MC | 16,750 psi (115 MPa) | 2.21 million psi (15.2 GPa) | 9,010 psi (62 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood pale red or red-brown; sapwood 1-2 in. wide, grayish with a pinkish tint, clearly demarcated. Texture medium to coarse; grain interlocked; medium luster; has an attractive figure.
- Working properties
- Works well with hand and machine tools, some tearing of grain when planing quartersawn faces, excellent turnery, slices well into veneers, good gluing properties.
- Durability
- Heartwood durability is only moderate; sapwood is liable to powder-post beetle attack.
- Uses
- A general utility wood, veneer and plywood, furniture components, turnery.
- Where it grows
- Known, presently, only from Liberia; occurs in evergreen rain forests, often in large concentrations.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 525–526, 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 ekop against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.