Tropical wood · Tropical America
Para-angelim wood
Para-angelim (Hymenolobium excelsum, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,720 lbf (7,651 N), and air-dry it weighs about 47 lb/ft³ (753 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 173–174.
Other names, by country: Erejoeroe, Lialiadan koleroe, Saandoe (Surinam), Angelim do Pará, Carámate, Sapupira amarella (Brazil).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,720 lbf (7,651 N)
- Green: 1,720 lbf (7,651 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,720 lb for both dry and green material.”
- Air-dry density
- 47 lb/ft³ (753 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.63 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.63; air-dry density 47 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 7.1% tangential
- Radial 4.4%, volumetric 10.2%
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 | 14,610 psi (101 MPa) | 1.95 million psi (13.4 GPa) | 7,460 psi (51 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 17,610 psi (121 MPa) | 2.05 million psi (14.1 GPa) | 8,990 psi (62 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 13,300 psi (92 MPa) | 2 million psi (13.8 GPa) | 9,050 psi (62 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood when fresh is light orange-tan to orange-brown turning to pale brown on exposure with a rather gradual transition to the white or grayish sapwood. Texture rather coarse and uneven; luster rather low; grain straight to interlocked; without distinctive odor or taste. Alternating zones of dark and light tissue give a figure of the Partridge wood type.
- Working properties
- The wood is easy to work in all operations and machines to a smooth surface.
- Durability
- In laboratory tests heartwood was rated very durable to durable upon exposure to a white-rot and durable in resistance to a brown-rot fungus. Exposure tests indicate the heartwood is only moderately resistant to marine borers.
- Uses
- Heavy construction, turnery, and furniture.
- Where it grows
- Upland forests of the central and eastern parts of the Brazilian Amazon region and extending northward into the Guianas and southward to Rio de Janeiro.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 173–174, 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 para-angelim against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.