Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Gmelina wood
Gmelina (Gmelina arborea, family Verbenaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 525–720 lbf (2,335–3,203 N), and air-dry it weighs about 30 lb/ft³ (481 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 653–654.
Other names, by country: Yemane (Burma, Malaya).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 525–720 lbf (2,335–3,203 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 525 to 720 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 30 lb/ft³ (481 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.41 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.41; air-dry density 30 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 4.9% tangential
- Radial 2.4%, volumetric 8.8%
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 | 6,870 psi (47 MPa) | 0.75 million psi (5.2 GPa) | 3,230 psi (22 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 8,650 psi (60 MPa) | 0.8 million psi (5.5 GPa) | 4,900 psi (34 MPa) |
| Green | 6,940 psi (48 MPa) | 1.12 million psi (7.7 GPa) | 3,300 psi (23 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 9,375 psi (65 MPa) | 1.29 million psi (8.9 GPa) | 4,850 psi (33 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Pale straw-yellow, sometimes tinged with pink with no marked contrast between sapwood and heartwood. Grain interlocked, wavy; texture moderately coarse; lustrous; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- Easy to work with hand and machine tools and takes a smooth finish. Rotary peels well into veneers without heating of bolts. Easy to glue and nail.
- Durability
- Generally rated as nondurable but denser heartwood is moderately durable. Resistance to termite attack is variable.
- Uses
- General carpentry, furniture components, utility plywood, pulp and paper products, particleboard, matches, carvings, clogs.
- Where it grows
- India, Burma, and eastward to Vietnam; scattered occurrence but becomes frequent in moist localities in Burma. Widely planted throughout the lowland tropics, a favored plantation species.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 653–654, 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 gmelina against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.