Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Magas wood
Magas (Duabanga spp., family Sonneratiaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 310–615 lbf (1,379–2,736 N), and air-dry it weighs about 25 lb/ft³ (400 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 623–624.
Other names, by country: Loktob (Philippines), Myaukngo (Burma), Berembang bukit (Malaya), Lamphu (Thailand).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 310–615 lbf (1,379–2,736 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 310-615 lb for dry material.”
- Air-dry density
- 25 lb/ft³ (400 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.33 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.33; air-dry density 25 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to 12% moisture content
- 3.0% tangential
- Radial 1.5%
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 4 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 | 5,230 psi (36 MPa) | 0.76 million psi (5.2 GPa) | 2,470 psi (17 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 7,100 psi (49 MPa) | 0.94 million psi (6.5 GPa) | 3,900 psi (27 MPa) |
| Green | 6,985 psi (48 MPa) | 1.19 million psi (8.2 GPa) | 3,660 psi (25 MPa) |
| 14% MC | 9,115 psi (63 MPa) | 1.27 million psi (8.8 GPa) | 4,660 psi (32 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light reddish-brown, pale brown, or grayish and often with yellow to light nut-brown streaks; not distinct from sapwood. Texture coarse; grain straight to shallowly interlocked or wavy; rather lustrous; without characteristic odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood works well with both hand and machine tools; though of low density, the timber is easy to turn. Easy to nail. Rotary peels well even when cut cold up to veneer thicknesses of 3.2 mm.
- Durability
- The wood is very susceptible to attack by decay fungi and termites.
- Uses
- Utility plywood, core stock, furniture components, millwork, joinery.
- Where it grows
- Indo-Malayan region extending into the Philippines, a lowland species found along streams and on abandoned farmlands.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 623–624, 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 magas against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.