Tropical wood · Africa
Mbarika wood
Mbarika (Isoberlinia scheffleri, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,420 lbf (6,316 N), and air-dry it weighs about 50 lb/ft³ (801 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 433–434.
Other names, by country: None.
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,420 lbf (6,316 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,420 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 50 lb/ft³ (801 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.65 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.65; air-dry density 50 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to air-dry
- 5.9% tangential
- Radial 2.5%
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 one data set, each at the moisture content printed beside it, never restated as 12%.
| Moisture | Bending strength (MOR) | Stiffness (MOE) | Crushing strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12% MC | 14,900 psi (103 MPa) | 2.12 million psi (14.6 GPa) | 8,180 psi (56 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood reddish-brown with irregular darker and lighter bands; sapwood 3-4 in. wide, whitish, well differentiated. Texture coarse; grain straight or slightly wavy; green timber has an unpleasant odor; veins exude a grayish gum on freshly-cut cross sections.
- Working properties
- Saws and machines well and dresses to a smooth finish. Machined timber tends to distort during storage due to residual stresses after drying.
- Durability
- Heartwood is nondurable and not resistant to termite attack.
- Uses
- Heavy construction, flooring.
- Where it grows
- Common in the rain forests of the East Usambara mountains in Tanzania.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 433–434, 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 mbarika against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.