Tropical wood · Africa
Odoko wood
Odoko (Scottellia coriacea, family Flacourtiaceae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,090 lbf (4,849 N), and air-dry it weighs about 41 lb/ft³ (657 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 503–504.
Other names, by country: Koroko, Dein (Ghana), Mehr-chu (Liberia), Aburuhi (Ivory Coast), Emwenfuohai (Nigeria).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,090 lbf (4,849 N)
- Green: 990 lbf (4,404 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 990 lb for green material and 1,090 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 41 lb/ft³ (657 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.56 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.56; air-dry density 41 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to 12% moisture content
- 5.0% tangential
- Radial 2.5%
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 2 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 | 12,100 psi (83 MPa) | 1.64 million psi (11.3 GPa) | 5,600 psi (39 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 16,900 psi (117 MPa) | 1.86 million psi (12.8 GPa) | 9,220 psi (64 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Wood is pale yellow without distinction between heartwood and sapwood. Texture is fine; grain generally straight, occasionally slightly interlocked; conspicuous rays show a "silver-grain" figure when quartersawn.
- Working properties
- Saws easily and works well with hand and machine tools, good gluing, screwing, and peeling characteristics, tends to split on nailing.
- Durability
- The wood is not durable and is liable to termite attack. Requires rapid harvest and conversion or chemical treatments to avoid stain.
- Uses
- Furniture, joinery, flooring, turnery. A general-utility wood.
- Where it grows
- West Africa from Liberia to southern Nigeria; found in evergreen rain forests, often in small stands and along banks of streams.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 503–504, 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 odoko against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.