Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Gubas wood
Gubas (Endospermum spp., family Euphorbiaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. 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. 631–632.
Other names, by country: Sesendok, Sendok sendok (Malaya, Sabah), Terbulan, Ekor belangkas (Sarawak), Gubas (Philippines).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- Not printed
- Air-dry density
- 30 lb/ft³ (481 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.38 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.38; air-dry density 30 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to 12% moisture content
- 3.6% tangential
- Radial 2.0%
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 one data set, each at the moisture content printed beside it, never restated as 12%.
| Moisture | Bending strength (MOR) | Stiffness (MOE) | Crushing strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green | — | — | 3,350 psi (23 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light brown, straw, or pale cream in color; not differentiated from the sapwood. Texture rather coarse; grain straight to shallowly interlocked; somewhat lustrous; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood machines easily in both the green and dry condition though surfaces may be slightly woolly when sawn; can be peeled for veneer without prior heating.
- Durability
- The timber is nondurable and is particularly prone to stain and powder-post beetle attack.
- Uses
- Joinery, matches, pattermnaking, boxes and crates, furniture components, plywood, light construction, carvings, wooden shoes.
- Where it grows
- Malaya, Philippines, New Guinea, Fiji and other western Pacific islands. Common in lowland forests, especially in secondary growth (Malaya).
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 631–632, 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 gubas against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.