Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Sandalwood wood
Sandalwood (Santalum album, family Santalaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,680 lbf (7,473 N), and air-dry it weighs about 58 lb/ft³ (929 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 723–724.
Other names, by country: None.
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,680 lbf (7,473 N)
- Green: 1,520 lbf (6,761 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,520 lb for green material and 1,680 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 58 lb/ft³ (929 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.75 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.75; air-dry density 58 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 2 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 | 12,300 psi (85 MPa) | — | 5,300 psi (37 MPa) |
| 14% MC | 15,600 psi (108 MPa) | — | 7,500 psi (52 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood light yellowish-brown when freshly cut, turning dark brown on exposure, and with further aging, to a dark reddish-brown; sapwood whitish. Texture very fine and even; grain straight, sometimes wavy; dull to somewhat lustrous, with oily feel; heartwood with a strong fragrant scent that persists, without characteristic taste.
- Working properties
- Saws without difficulty and works to a smooth satin-like finish, an excellent carving wood, turns well.
- Durability
- The heartwood is rated as extremely durable.
- Uses
- Fine furniture, carvings, turnery, specialty items. Oils extracted from the heartwood are in high demand for incense, perfumery, medicines, scenting clothing, etc.
- Where it grows
- Native to the southern regions of India, growing best on dry, stony, but fertile soils. Other species widely scattered from the Malay Archipelago to Australia and the Pacific Islands including Hawaii.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 723–724, 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 sandalwood against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.