Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Pipli wood
Pipli (Bucklandia populnea, family Hamamelidaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,145 lbf (5,093 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. 573–574.
Other names, by country: Dingdah, Pipli, Singliang (India), Gerok (Malaya).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,145 lbf (5,093 N)
- Green: 625 lbf (2,780 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 625 lb for green material and 1,145 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 40 lb/ft³ (641 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.51 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.51; air-dry density 40 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- Not printed
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 | 8,760 psi (60 MPa) | 1.48 million psi (10.2 GPa) | 4,430 psi (31 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 15,720 psi (108 MPa) | 2.03 million psi (14 GPa) | 8,770 psi (60 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 10,260 psi (71 MPa) | 1.39 million psi (9.5 GPa) | 5,690 psi (39 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Wood light reddish-brown to brown or grayish-brown; heartwood and sapwood not sharply differentiated. Texture fine and even; grain broadly interlocked; dull to somewhat lustrous; without characteristic odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The timber is easy to saw and plane, turns easily on a lathe, finishes to an exceptionally smooth surface, and takes a good polish.
- Durability
- In Malaya, limited tests show severe decay after 3 years of ground contact. In India the wood is rated as fairly durable in exposed positions.
- Uses
- General carpentry, joinery, millwork, light construction, furniture components, used for tea chests in India.
- Where it grows
- Eastern Himalayas, Assam, Lower Burma, and Malayan Peninsula; abundant in mountain forests.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 573–574, 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 pipli against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.