Tropical wood · Tropical America
Manni wood
Manni (Symphonia globulifera, family Guttiferae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,120 lbf (4,982 N), and air-dry it weighs about 44 lb/ft³ (705 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 291–292.
Other names, by country: Barillo (Guatemala, Honduras), Cerillo (Costa Rica, Panama), Machare (Colombia), Mani, Paramán (Venezuela), Mataki (Surinam), Manni (Guyana), Anany (Brazil), Brea-caspi (Peru).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,120 lbf (4,982 N)
- Green: 940 lbf (4,181 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness for green material 940 lb, 1,120 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 44 lb/ft³ (705 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.58 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.58; air-dry density 44 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 9.7% tangential
- Radial 5.7%, volumetric 15.6%
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 5 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 | 11,180 psi (77 MPa) | 1.96 million psi (13.5 GPa) | 5,160 psi (36 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 16,860 psi (116 MPa) | 2.46 million psi (17 GPa) | 8,820 psi (61 MPa) |
| Green | 12,450 psi (86 MPa) | 1.89 million psi (13 GPa) | 6,040 psi (42 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 19,000 psi (131 MPa) | 2.06 million psi (14.2 GPa) | 9,650 psi (67 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 16,500 psi (114 MPa) | 2.36 million psi (16.3 GPa) | — |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood yellowish-, grayish-, or greenish-brown or striped in these shades; distinct from the whitish sapwood. Luster somewhat medium, variable; texture coarse; grain straight to irregular; without distinctive odor or taste; has a mealy appearance because of the abundant soft parenchyma tissue. Silica reported to range up to 0.21%.
- Working properties
- Very easy to work with both hand and machine tools, but surfaces tend to roughen in planing and shaping.
- Durability
- Heartwood is durable in ground contact; only moderately resistant to dry-wood and subterranean termites.
- Uses
- Railroad crossties, general construction, cooperage, furniture components, flooring, utility plywood, suggested as an oak substitute. The bark contains a yellowish resin that is medicinal, used to caulk boats, and as a substitute for shoemaker's pitch.
- Where it grows
- West Indies, Central America, and northern South America, also occurs in tropical West Africa. The trees are most abundant and reach their best development in swamp and marsh areas.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 291–292, 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 manni against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.