Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Pyinma wood
Pyinma (Lagerstroemia spp., family Lythraceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,055 lbf (4,693 N), and air-dry it weighs about 43 lb/ft³ (689 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 671–672.
Other names, by country: Jarul (India), Banglang (Vietnam), Intanin (Thailand), Bungor (Malaya, Sabah), Banaba (Philippines), Bang-lang (Cambodia).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,055 lbf (4,693 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness about 1,055 lb for dry material.”
- Air-dry density
- 43 lb/ft³ (689 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.55 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.55; air-dry density 43 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 6.8% tangential
- Radial 4.4%, volumetric 12.7%
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 4 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 | 8,590 psi (59 MPa) | 1.29 million psi (8.9 GPa) | 4,275 psi (29 MPa) |
| 8% MC | 13,255 psi (91 MPa) | 1.54 million psi (10.6 GPa) | 7,250 psi (50 MPa) |
| Green | 9,200 psi (63 MPa) | 1.29 million psi (8.9 GPa) | 4,400 psi (30 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 14,800 psi (102 MPa) | — | 9,300 psi (64 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light red to reddish-brown, darkening on exposure; sapwood light yellow-brown to grayish-white, rather wide. Grain usually straight; texture moderately fine to rather coarse; rather lustrous; without distinctive odor or taste. Wavy grain, if present, and semiring porous growth produce an attractive figure.
- Working properties
- The timber saws and works well, finishes to a smooth surface, and takes a good polish.
- Durability
- Generally classified as moderately durable and somewhat resistant to termites. Sapwood liable to powder-post beetle attack.
- Uses
- Furniture, interior joinery, boatbuilding, general construction, parquet flooring, paneling.
- Where it grows
- Indo-Malayan region including Indo-China and extending into Indonesia and the Philippines; along rivers and on moist flat land; often cultivated as an ornamental.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 671–672, 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 pyinma against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.