Tropical wood · Tropical America
Timbauba wood
Timbauba (Enterolobium schomburgkii, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 2,330 lbf (10,364 N), and air-dry it weighs about 62 lb/ft³ (993 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 135–136.
Other names, by country: Harino (Panama), Menudito (Venezuela), Bougou bati batra, Acadia franc (French Guiana), Angelium, Timbaúba (Brazil), Jebio, Hevio (Bolivia).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 2,330 lbf (10,364 N)
- Green: 2,000 lbf (8,896 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 2,000 lb for green material and 2,330 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 62 lb/ft³ (993 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.82 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.82; air-dry density 62 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 8.8% tangential
- Radial 3.8%, volumetric 13.9%
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 | 16,490 psi (114 MPa) | 2.82 million psi (19.4 GPa) | 7,430 psi (51 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 23,540 psi (162 MPa) | 3.18 million psi (21.9 GPa) | 11,520 psi (79 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 18,200 psi (125 MPa) | 2.72 million psi (18.8 GPa) | — |
| 12% MC | 21,900 psi (151 MPa) | 3.12 million psi (21.5 GPa) | 13,100 psi (90 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Seasoned heartwood is light yellowish-brown sometimes with darker streaks; narrow sapwood is deep cream in color. Grain is usually straight, sometimes interlocked; texture medium; luster low to medium; without odor or taste.
- Working properties
- The wood is rated as easy to moderately difficult to work, generating only a small amount of fuzzy grain in planing, otherwise finishing smoothly. Workmen occasionally allergic to the dust.
- Durability
- The wood is rated as very durable in resistance to attack by both white-rot and brown-rot fungi.
- Uses
- Furniture and cabinet work, heavy construction, railroad crossties, flooring, and tool handles.
- Where it grows
- Central America and southward to the Guianas and northern Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia; preferring noninundated sandy soil,
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 135–136, 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 timbauba against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.