Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Neem wood
Neem (Azadirachta spp., family Meliaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,460 lbf (6,494 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. 565–566.
Other names, by country: Ranggaii (Sabah), Sentang (Malaya), Ranggu (Sarawak), Tamaka (Burma).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,460 lbf (6,494 N)
- Green: 1,220 lbf (5,427 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,220 lb for green material and 1,460 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- 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
- 4.3% tangential
- Radial 2.2%, volumetric 6.5%
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 3 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 | 11,000 psi (76 MPa) | 1.12 million psi (7.7 GPa) | 5,300 psi (37 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 14,300 psi (99 MPa) | 1.27 million psi (8.8 GPa) | 7,370 psi (51 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 11,480 psi (79 MPa) | 1.01 million psi (7 GPa) | 6,680 psi (46 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, darkening on exposure; sapwood straw-colored to pale red, not sharply demarcated. Texture moderately coarse; grain interlocked; dull to somewhat lustrous; has a faint cedary odor when fresh which fades on drying, no distinctive taste.
- Working properties
- Works well with hand and machine tools; a fine smooth finish is produced.
- Durability
- A. excelsa reported not resistant to decay while A. indica is rated as durable to moderately durable.
- Uses
- Veneer and plywood, furniture and cabinetwork, joinery, carving.
- Where it grows
- Throughout the Indo-Malayan regions, well distributed in lowland forests. Extensively planted as an ornamental and for shade in gardens and along roadsides in the tropics.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 565–566, 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 neem against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.