Tropical wood · Tropical America
Tauroniro wood
Tauroniro (Humiria balsamifera, family Humiriaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,610 lbf (7,162 N), and air-dry it weighs about 50 lb/ft³ (801 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 165–166.
Other names, by country: Bastard bulletwood, Tabaniro (Guyana), Basra bolletrie, Tawanangro (Surinam), Bois rouge, Houmiri (French Guiana), Oloroso (Colombia), Couramira, Turanira (Brazil).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,610 lbf (7,162 N)
- Green: 1,320 lbf (5,872 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,320 lb for green wood and 1,610 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 50 lb/ft³ (801 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.66 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.66; air-dry density 50 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 9.7% tangential
- Radial 7.2%, volumetric 15.7%
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 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 | 11,720 psi (81 MPa) | 2.06 million psi (14.2 GPa) | 5,810 psi (40 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 18,770 psi (129 MPa) | 2.51 million psi (17.3 GPa) | 8,950 psi (62 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood varies from light brown to reddish-brown; poorly demarcated from the narrow light brown sapwood. Texture medium; grain straight to interlocked; luster medium; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood is moderately difficult to work, considerable chipped grain develops in planing wood with interlocked grain.
- Durability
- The species of Humiria have a reputation of being highly durable. Pure culture tests rate the wood very durable when exposed to white-rot fungus but durable to moderately durable in resistance to a brown-rot fungus. The wood is rated resistant to drywood termites, but-little resistance to marine borers.
- Uses
- Heavy construction, flooring, furniture, wheel spokes, suggested as a possible decorative veneer.
- Where it grows
- The Guianas, Colombia, Venezuela, and the Brazilian Amazon. In Guyana it is a principal dominant species in the marsh forests; does best on light sandy soils. In Surinam occurs in savanna forests.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 165–166, 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 tauroniro against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.