Tropical wood · Tropical America
Nargusta wood
Nargusta (Terminalia amazonia, family Combretaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,610–2,100 lbf (7,162–9,341 N), and air-dry it weighs about 44–56 lb/ft³ (705–897 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 299–300.
Other names, by country: Almendro (Honduras), Canshán (Mexico), Amarillo carabazuelo (Panama), Guayabo león (Colombia), Pardillo negro (Venezuela), Pau-mulato brancho (Brazil).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,610–2,100 lbf (7,162–9,341 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness at 12% moisture content 1,610 to 2,100 lb.”
- Air-dry density
- 44–56 lb/ft³ (705–897 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.58–0.73 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.58-0.73; air-dry density 44 to 56 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 8.7% tangential
- Radial 6.4%, volumetric 14.9%
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 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 | 12,130 psi (84 MPa) | 2.01 million psi (13.9 GPa) | 5,530 psi (38 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 17,750 psi (122 MPa) | 2.3 million psi (15.9 GPa) | 9,540 psi (66 MPa) |
| Green | 13,600 psi (94 MPa) | 1.89 million psi (13 GPa) | 6,700 psi (46 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 19,100 psi (132 MPa) | 2.13 million psi (14.7 GPa) | 10,350 psi (71 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 25,200 psi (174 MPa) | 2.91 million psi (20.1 GPa) | 11,600 psi (80 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 yellowish-olive to golden-brown, sometimes with prominent reddish-brown stripes; not readily separated from the yellowish sapwood. Luster medium to rather high; texture medium; grain roey; without distinctive odor or taste in dry material.
- Working properties
- Generally reported to be somewhat fair to difficult to work with hand and machine tools; straight-grained material planes well, some tearing occurs on strongly roey surfaces.
- Durability
- Pure culture tests showed the wood to be durable to both a white-rot and brown-rot fungus. Results of graveyard tests indicate considerable variability from very durable to only slight or fair resistance. Reported to be resistant to dry-wood termites but not to subterranean termites.
- Uses
- Flooring, railroad crossties, furniture and cabinet work, shipbuilding, turnery, general construction, utility plywood. It is suggested as a possible substitute for oak.
- Where it grows
- Southern Mexico southward through Central America and into northern South America to Brazil and Peru; also Trinidad. The tree is common in the Wallaba forests of Guyana. Concentrations of four to five trees per acre are not unusual in Belize.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 299–300, 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 nargusta against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.