Tropical wood · Tropical America
Fustic wood
Fustic (Chlorophora tinctoria, family Moraceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 2,380 lbf (10,587 N), and air-dry it weighs about 52–60 lb/ft³ (833–961 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 89–90.
Other names, by country: Bois d'orange (Trinidad), Barossa, Moral (Mexico), Palo de mora (Costa Rica), Dinde, Palo amarillo (Colombia), Mora (Venezuela), Insira (Peru), Amarillo (Bolivia), Taiúva, Amarello (Brazil), Tatayivásaiyú (Argentina).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 2,380 lbf (10,587 N)
- Green: 2,190 lbf (9,742 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 2,190 lb for green material and 2,380 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 52–60 lb/ft³ (833–961 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.71–0.78 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.71 to 0.78; air-dry density 52 to 60 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 5.4% tangential
- Radial 3.4%, volumetric 7.8%
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 4 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 | 14,840 psi (102 MPa) | 1.59 million psi (11 GPa) | 6,860 psi (47 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 19,560 psi (135 MPa) | 2.16 million psi (14.9 GPa) | 11,080 psi (76 MPa) |
| Green | 20,000 psi (138 MPa) | 1.92 million psi (13.2 GPa) | 9,700 psi (67 MPa) |
| 15% MC | 21,600 psi (149 MPa) | — | 11,900 psi (82 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Fresh heartwood is bright yellow, drying to golden-yellow, changing upon exposure to brown or russet, sometimes with a reddish tinge; sharply demarcated from the nearly white sapwood. Luster high; texture usually fine; grain variable, often interlocked; odor and taste lacking or not distinctive.
- Working properties
- The wood is somewhat difficult to work with hand and power tools but finishes smoothly and glues well.
- Durability
- Heartwood very durable in resistance to both white-rot and brown-rot fungi and also has excellent weathering characteristics. The heartwood is also rated as highly resistant to dry-wood termites. Data on resistance to marine-borer attack are conflicting.
- Uses
- Heavy construction, decking, planking, and framing for boats, exterior and interior flooring, turnery, furniture parts, tool handles, railroad ties, and wood tanks. Also contains the coloring maclurin long used as a yellowish brown or khaki dye.
- Where it grows
- Widely distributed throughout Tropical America. A northern form is found in coastal lowlands of southern Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and northern South America. A southern form is found in Misiones (Argentina), Paraguay, and southern Brazil, but nowhere abundant.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 89–90, 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 fustic against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.