Tropical wood · Tropical America
Jucaro wood
Jucaro (Bucida buceras, family Combretaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Green, its Janka hardness is 2,340 lbf (10,409 N), and air-dry it weighs about 69 lb/ft³ (1,105 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 53–54.
Other names, by country: Black-olive (Jamaica), Ucar, Gregre (Puerto Rico), Bois gri-gri (Haiti), Grignon (French Guiana), Leertouwarsboom (Surinam).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- Not printed
- Green: 2,340 lbf (10,409 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 2,340 lb for green wood.”
- Air-dry density
- 69 lb/ft³ (1,105 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.93 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.93; air-dry density 69 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 7.9% tangential
- Radial 4.4%, volumetric 12.2%
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 | 15,400 psi (106 MPa) | 2 million psi (13.8 GPa) | — |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood yellowishto greenish-brown, olive hued; not always sharply demarcated from yellowishto light-brown sapwood. Longitudinal stripes are frequent as a result of roey grain; moderately fine to medium in texture; very lustrous. Although green wood has a tarry odor, seasoned wood has no characteristic odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood is rather difficult to saw and machine with hand and power tools because of its very high density. Very smooth finishes can be obtained, however torn grain is common in planing.
- Durability
- Resistant to dry-wood termites and durable in ground contact but not resistant to marine borers.
- Uses
- Highly valued for posts, poles, railway crossties, and other durable construction; heavy duty flooring, workbenches; charcoal. The bark has been employed in tanning.
- Where it grows
- Upper Florida Keys, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, and Leeward Islands to Guadeloupe in Lesser Antilles. Also from southern Mexico to Panama and northern South America along the coasts of Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 53–54, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for flooring with the species picker
Weigh jucaro against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.