Tropical wood · Africa
Mtundu wood
Mtundu (Brachystegia spiciformis, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,830 lbf (8,140 N), and air-dry it weighs about 51 lb/ft³ (817 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 349–350.
Other names, by country: Messassa (Mozambique), Mundu, Myombo, Mtondo (Tanzania), Muputu (Zambia).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,830 lbf (8,140 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,830 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 51 lb/ft³ (817 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.67 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.67; air-dry density 51 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to 12% moisture content
- 4.4% tangential
- Radial 3.0%
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 | 17,300 psi (119 MPa) | 2.08 million psi (14.3 GPa) | 9,570 psi (66 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood variable from pale brown to a red-brown, darkening on exposure, striping sometimes present; sapwood creamy or white, clearly demarcated. Texture coarse; grain irregular and interlocked; lustrous; without characteristic odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The timber is difficult to work and to saw, moderate blunting of cutters, interlocked grain liable to tear in planing, sands to a good finish and polishes well, very poor steam bending properties.
- Durability
- Nondurable and vulnerable to termite attack; sapwood readily attacked by staining fungi.
- Uses
- General construction work, furniture components, parquet flooring.
- Where it grows
- Savanna forests of East Africa, mostly Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique; reaching from the coastal belt to the highlands.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 349–350, 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 mtundu against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.