Tropical wood · Tropical America
Roble wood
Roble (Tabebuia spp. (roble group), family Bignoniaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 960 lbf (4,270 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. 295–296.
Other names, by country: Roble (Spanish America), Amapa, Roble blanco (Mexico), Roble blanco, Roble de sabana (Costa Rica), Roble del rio (Colombia), Apamate (Venezuela).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 960 lbf (4,270 N)
- Green: 910 lbf (4,048 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness for green wood 910 lb, 960 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 40 lb/ft³ (641 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.52 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.52; air-dry density 40 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 6.1% tangential
- Radial 3.6%, volumetric 9.5%
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 5 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 | 10,770 psi (74 MPa) | 1.45 million psi (10 GPa) | 4,910 psi (34 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 13,780 psi (95 MPa) | 1.6 million psi (11 GPa) | 7,340 psi (51 MPa) |
| Green | 9,600 psi (66 MPa) | 1.62 million psi (11.2 GPa) | 5,030 psi (35 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 12,500 psi (86 MPa) | 1.75 million psi (12.1 GPa) | 6,010 psi (41 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 14,700 psi (101 MPa) | — | 7,050 psi (49 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light brown to golden; not clearly differentiated from the sapwood. Luster low to medium; texture medium to rather coarse; grain straight to roey; without distinctive odor or taste when dry.
- Working properties
- The wood has excellent machining characteristics but some care is required in planing to prevent torn and chipped grain. Finishes well, easy to glue. With care, cuts well into sliced veneer.
- Durability
- Both pure culture tests and field evaluations indicate the wood to be moderately durable to very durable; reported to be very susceptible to dry-wood termite attack and little resistance to marine borers.
- Uses
- Flooring, furniture, cabinetwork, interior trim, tool handles, decorative veneers, boat building. For some applications suggested as a substitute for ash and oak.
- Where it grows
- From the West Indies and southern Mexico to Venezuela and Ecuador. Inhabits various sites from wet lowlands to dry mountain sides.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 295–296, 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 roble against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.