Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Haldu wood
Haldu (Adina cordifolia, family Rubiaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,140 lbf (5,071 N), and air-dry it weighs about 41–48 lb/ft³ (657–769 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 545–546.
Other names, by country: Hnaw (Burma), Kwao, Kwow, Kan-luang (Thailand), Kovao, Gáo (Cambodia).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,140 lbf (5,071 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,140 lb at 15% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 41–48 lb/ft³ (657–769 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.54–0.63 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) varies from 0.54 to 0.63, depending on source; air-dry density 41 to 48 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 6.8% tangential
- Radial 3.4%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15% MC | 12,230 psi (84 MPa) | 1.34 million psi (9.2 GPa) | 6,040 psi (42 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 13,000 psi (90 MPa) | — | 8,600 psi (59 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood yellow when freshly cut, turning pale yellowish or reddish-brown on exposure; not sharply demarcated from the yellowish-white rather thick sapwood. Lustrous; fairly straight-grained but sometimes interlocked; texture fine and even; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- Easy to work with hand and machine tools; turns well; takes a very fine and smooth finish.
- Durability
- Reports vary from moderately durable to nondurable.
- Uses
- Joinery, turnery, furniture, decorative paneling, bobbins, flooring.
- Where it grows
- India, Ceylon, Thailand, and Burma; scattered in mixed deciduous forests.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 545–546, 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 haldu against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.