Tropical wood · Africa
Muirungi wood
Muirungi (Casearia battiscombei, family Flacourtiaceae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 720 lbf (3,203 N), and air-dry it weighs about 40 lb/ft³ (641 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 359–360.
Other names, by country: Casearia, Mlikawandu, White Matua (Tanzania).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 720 lbf (3,203 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 720 lb for dry material.”
- Air-dry density
- 40 lb/ft³ (641 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.52 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.52; air-dry density 40 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to air-dry
- 4.9% tangential
- Radial 1.9%
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 | 11,700 psi (81 MPa) | 1.5 million psi (10.3 GPa) | 6,620 psi (46 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Timber is mainly sapwood, whitish to pale yellow-brown with red streaks; heartwood limited to a narrow dark-brown core. Texture fine and even; grain straight; has an unpleasant odor when freshly sawn, disappears on drying.
- Working properties
- Works easily with machine and hand tools, dresses to a smooth surface, easy to nail. Sawdust can be irritating to mucous membranes.
- Durability
- Wood is vulnerable to attack by decay fungi and termites, liable to blue stain.
- Uses
- Boxes and crates, interior joinery, furniture components.
- Where it grows
- Common in the montane rain forests of the Northern Province of Tanzania, also in Uganda and Kenya.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 359–360, 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 muirungi against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.