Tropical wood · Africa
Panga Panga wood
Panga Panga (Millettia spp., family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,630 lbf (7,251 N), and air-dry it weighs about 50–60 lb/ft³ (801–961 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 457–458.
Other names, by country: Millettia laurentii: Wenge (Zaire), Awong (Cameroon). Millettia stuhlmannii: Panga panga, Mpande (Tanzania).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,630 lbf (7,251 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness for dry material 1,630 lb.”
- Air-dry density
- 50–60 lb/ft³ (801–961 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.65–0.78 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.65-0.78; air-dry density 50-60 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 5.8% tangential
- Radial 3.1%
- As printed: “Panga panga shrinkage green to ovendry: radial 3.1%; tangential 5.8%.”
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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12% MC | 16,200 psi (112 MPa) | 1.97 million psi (13.6 GPa) | 9,950 psi (69 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 28,400 psi (196 MPa) | 2.53 million psi (17.4 GPa) | 14,500 psi (100 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 17,700 psi (122 MPa) | — | 10,200 psi (70 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood dark brown to almost black with alternate layers of light and dark tissue forming a decorative figure; sapwood yellowish-white, clearly demarcated. Texture rather coarse; grain straight.
- Working properties
- Sawing and machining somewhat difficult, rapid blunting of cutting edges occurs, turns well, difficult to glue if resinous.
- Durability
- Heartwood is rated as very durable and resistant to termite attack.
- Uses
- Parquet or strip flooring, joinery, general construction, specialty items. Wenge is used as a hickory substitute in sporting goods, also for decorative veneers.
- Where it grows
- Southern regions of Tanzania and Mozambique, found in open forests. Wenge occurs in the Congo region in periodically inundated swampy forests.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 457–458, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for flooring with the species picker
Weigh panga Panga against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.