Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Machilus wood
Machilus (Machilus spp., family Lauraceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 630 lbf (2,802 N), and air-dry it weighs about 30–35 lb/ft³ (481–561 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 677–678.
Other names, by country: Kulilisiau (Philippines), Seiknangyi (Burma), Pau hoi (China).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 630 lbf (2,802 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 630 lb for dry material.”
- Air-dry density
- 30–35 lb/ft³ (481–561 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.40–0.46 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) variable with species, generally 0.40-0.46; air-dry density 30-35 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 6.0% tangential
- Radial 2.8%, volumetric 10.2%
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 3 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 | 7,255 psi (50 MPa) | 1.09 million psi (7.5 GPa) | 3,585 psi (25 MPa) |
| 14% MC | 8,070 psi (56 MPa) | 1.12 million psi (7.7 GPa) | 4,110 psi (28 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 8,400 psi (58 MPa) | 1.26 million psi (8.7 GPa) | 4,840 psi (33 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Working properties
- Easy to work with hand and machine tools, dresses to a smooth finish.
- Durability
- Generally reported to be only moderately durable when in ground contact.
- Uses
- Carving, furniture, light construction, joinery, veneer and plywood, musical instruments. A mucilaginous extract has been made from wood shavings in China and used as a hair pomade.
- Where it grows
- India, Malay Archipelago, and northward to the Philippines, Japan, and China.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 677–678, 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 machilus against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.