Tropical wood · Tropical America
Guachapele wood
Guachapele (Pseudosamanea guachapele, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,040 lbf (4,626 N), and air-dry it weighs about 41 lb/ft³ (657 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 257–258.
Other names, by country: Cadeno (Guatemala), Frijolillo (Honduras), Tabaca, Guamarillo (Colombia), Samanigua (Venezuela), Guachapele (Ecuador).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,040 lbf (4,626 N)
- Green: 1,030 lbf (4,582 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,030 lb when green and 1,040 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 41 lb/ft³ (657 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.56 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.56; air-dry density 41 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 4.5% tangential
- Radial 2.9%, volumetric 7.6%
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 2 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 | 8,190 psi (56 MPa) | 1.2 million psi (8.3 GPa) | 3,930 psi (27 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 10,750 psi (74 MPa) | 1.15 million psi (7.9 GPa) | 6,570 psi (45 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light orange-brown when freshly cut becoming yellow-brown or brown with a golden luster on drying; rather sharply demarcated from the thin whitish sapwood. Texture medium to rather coarse; grain generally interlocked; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood is easy to work and surfaces finish smoothly after sanding; sawn surfaces are somewhat woolly.
- Durability
- Heartwood is rated durable to very durable upon exposure to both white-rot and brown-rot fungi. Reported to have excellent weathering characteristics.
- Uses
- Shipbuilding (planking, ribs, decking), railroad crossties, general construction, flooring, decorative veneers, furniture components.
- Where it grows
- From Guatemala southward to Venezuela and Ecuador. Generally grows in dry areas and seeds naturally in pastures and abandoned fields. Often used for shade in coffee plantations.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 257–258, 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 guachapele against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.