Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Thitka wood
Thitka (Pentace spp., family Tiliaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 930–1,305 lbf (4,137–5,805 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. 701–702.
Other names, by country: Melunak (Malaya), Takalis (Sabah), Baru baran (Sarawak), Sisiat (Thailand), Kashit (Burma).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 930–1,305 lbf (4,137–5,805 N)
- Green: 915–1,070 lbf (4,070–4,760 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 915-1,070 lb for green material and 930-1,305 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 40 lb/ft³ (641 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.56 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.56; air-dry density 40 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 6.5% tangential
- Radial 3.1%, volumetric 10.1%
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 | 10,845 psi (75 MPa) | 1.49 million psi (10.3 GPa) | 5,790 psi (40 MPa) |
| 13% MC | 12,960 psi (89 MPa) | 1.61 million psi (11.1 GPa) | 7,295 psi (50 MPa) |
| Green | 10,590 psi (73 MPa) | 1.63 million psi (11.2 GPa) | 5,130 psi (35 MPa) |
| 16% MC | 12,320 psi (85 MPa) | 1.75 million psi (12 GPa) | 6,330 psi (44 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood reddish-brown, golden-brown, or deep red-brown, darkening on exposure; sapwood yellowish, not sharply defined. Texture moderately fine; grain interlocked producing a narrow regular stripe on quartered faces; without characteristic odor or taste but has a sour smell when freshly milled; lustrous.
- Working properties
- Works satisfactorily with hand and machine tools, interlocked grain results in tearing on radial faces when planed; good nailing and gluing and finishes well.
- Durability
- Reports on durability somewhat variable, liable to termite attack.
- Uses
- Furniture, millwork, paneling, joinery, flooring, specialty items (instrument boxes, T-squares).
- Where it grows
- Throughout Burma, Malay Peninsula including IndoChina, and North Borneo.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 701–702, 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 thitka against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.