Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Rengas wood
Rengas (Gluta spp., family Anacardiaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,400–2,040 lbf (6,228–9,074 N), and air-dry it weighs about 45–50 lb/ft³ (721–801 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 651–652.
Other names, by country: Thitsi, Thayet-thitsi (Burma), Rak (Thailand), Lingas (Philippines), Gluta, Thitsi (India).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,400–2,040 lbf (6,228–9,074 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,400 to 2,040 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 45–50 lb/ft³ (721–801 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.60–0.65 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) about 0.60-0.65; air-dry density averaging 45 to 50 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 5.3% tangential
- Radial 2.9%
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 | 8,585 psi (59 MPa) | 1.38 million psi (9.5 GPa) | 5,325 psi (37 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 10,070 psi (69 MPa) | 1.66 million psi (11.4 GPa) | 8,135 psi (56 MPa) |
| Green | 11,820 psi (81 MPa) | 2.03 million psi (14 GPa) | 6,020 psi (42 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 16,120 psi (111 MPa) | 2.17 million psi (15 GPa) | 8,625 psi (59 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood deep blood-red, darkens on exposure, streaked with bands of darker color; sapwood light pink-brown to almost white, rather wide in most species. Texture rather fine to moderately coarse; grain straight to irregular; without characteristic odor or taste; mostly without luster. Bark and wood contain a strongly irritating sap which persists until thoroughly dried.
- Working properties
- Green material easier to cut than dry, works well with hand and machine tools and dresses smoothly, takes a high polish. Severe dulling of cutters due to silica content. Even when thoroughly dried, wood may still be a skin irritant to some.
- Durability
- Heartwood generally reported to be only moderately durable and not highly resistant to termite attack; sapwood vulnerable to powder-post beetle attack.
- Uses
- Furniture, turnery, cabinetwork, specialty items, decorative veneers, joinery.
- Where it grows
- Indo-Malaysian region, reaching into Indonesia and the Philippines.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 651–652, 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 rengas against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.