Tropical wood · Tropical America
Nogal wood
Nogal (Juglans spp., family Juglandaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Air-dry, it weighs about 38 lb/ft³ (609 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 179–180.
Other names, by country: Nogal silvestre, Nuez meca (Mexico), Nogal blanco, Tocte (Peru), Nogal criollo (Argentina).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- Not printed
- Air-dry density
- 38 lb/ft³ (609 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.50 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.50; air-dry density 38 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 5.5% tangential
- Radial 2.8%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15% MC | 9,100 psi (63 MPa) | 1.02 million psi (7 GPa) | 5,180 psi (36 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood chocolate-brown and generally darker than the North American black walnut, sometimes with a purplish cast; sharply demarcated from the whitish sapwood. Texture rather coarse; luster high, grain straight to irregular; odor and taste mild but distinctive.
- Working properties
- The wood works well, cutting cleanly with hand and machine tools and taking an excellent finish; also peels and slices readily but the veneers are also reported to dry slowly.
- Durability
- No data available.
- Uses
- Decorative veneers, furniture, cabinet work, interior finish, and other applications similar to North American black walnut.
- Where it grows
- Varying with species, these walnuts range from southern Mexico, through Central America, and the Cordilleras of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Also found in mountain regions of Argentina.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 179–180, 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 nogal against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.