Tropical wood · Africa
Eyoum wood
Eyoum (Dialium dinklagei, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Air-dry, it weighs about 50–61 lb/ft³ (801–977 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 389–390.
Other names, by country: Dina (Gabon).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- Not printed
- Air-dry density
- 50–61 lb/ft³ (801–977 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.65–0.79 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.65-0.79; air-dry density 50-61 pcf.”
- Shrinkage
- Not as one figure
- As printed: “Shrinkage green to ovendry: radial 3.5-4.6%; tangential 7.8-8.0%; volumetric 11.6-14.0%.”
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 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12% MC | 15,200 psi (105 MPa) | 1.93 million psi (13.3 GPa) | 9,400 psi (65 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 27,000 psi (186 MPa) | 2.5 million psi (17.2 GPa) | 12,600 psi (87 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 20,200 psi (139 MPa) | 1.97 million psi (13.6 GPa) | 10,500 psi (72 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood dark pink-brown, dark red, or almost black; sapwood very wide, whitish, clearly demarcated. Texture very fine; grain usually straight; very unpleasant odor when freshly sawn; contains red resin cells and has a high silica content.
- Working properties
- Difficult to work with hand or machine tools, rapid dulling of cutters due to high silica content, dresses and polishes well, glues satisfactorily.
- Durability
- Heartwood is rated as highly durable.
- Uses
- Industrial flooring, tool handles, railroad crossties, turnery. Bark and leaves are prepared locally for medicinal uses.
- Where it grows
- West Africa, extending from Guinea to the Congo; sometimes in marshy places.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 389–390, 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 eyoum against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.