Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Mengkulang wood
Mengkulang (Heritiera spp., family Sterculiaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,140–1,320 lbf (5,071–5,872 N), and air-dry it weighs about 40–45 lb/ft³ (641–721 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 659–660.
Other names, by country: Kembang (Sabab), Lumbayau (Philippines), Kanze (Burma), Chumprak (Thailand), Huynh (Cambodia).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,140–1,320 lbf (5,071–5,872 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,140 to 1,320 lb for dry material.”
- Air-dry density
- 40–45 lb/ft³ (641–721 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.52–0.59 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.52 to 0.59; air-dry density 40 to 45 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to 15% moisture content
- 3.1% tangential
- Radial 1.6%
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 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 | 11,750 psi (81 MPa) | 1.55 million psi (10.7 GPa) | 6,000 psi (41 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 16,000 psi (110 MPa) | 1.74 million psi (12 GPa) | 8,800 psi (61 MPa) |
| Green | 11,800 psi (81 MPa) | 1.7 million psi (11.7 GPa) | 5,770 psi (40 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 17,000 psi (117 MPa) | 1.92 million psi (13.2 GPa) | 8,880 psi (61 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood various shades of brown, red-brown, or dark red-brown, sometimes with dark almost black streaks; sapwood 2 to 5 in. wide, lighter colored and not always sharply differentiated. Texture moderately coarse to coarse; grain straight to interlocked, and irregular; luster low to rather high; reported to have an unpleasant odor when freshly cut.
- Working properties
- The timbers are somewhat difficult to work due to the presence of silica (generally under 0.50%), cutters dull rapidly. Takes a smooth finish, rotary peels well, and has good gluing properties.
- Durability
- The heartwood is rated as nondurable, stake tests show an average service life of only 2 years. Not resistant to marine borers.
- Uses
- Classified as a general utility timber, flooring, plywood, furniture, interior finish, boatbuilding, decorative veneers.
- Where it grows
- Indo-Malayan region extending into Indonesia, the Philippines, and other western Pacific islands.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 659–660, 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 mengkulang against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.