Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Turpentine wood
Turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera, family Myrtaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 2,600–2,900 lbf (11,565–12,900 N), and air-dry it weighs about 60 lb/ft³ (961 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 743–744.
Other names, by country: Luster (Australia).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 2,600–2,900 lbf (11,565–12,900 N)
- Green: 1,370–1,495 lbf (6,094–6,650 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 1,370-1,495 lb for green material and 2,600-2,900 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 60 lb/ft³ (961 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.70 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.70; air-dry density 60 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to air-dry
- 10.4% tangential
- Radial 5.7%, volumetric 16.7%
- As printed: “Shrinkage green to air-dry: radial 5.7%; tangential 10.4%; volumetric 16.7% (before reconditioning).”
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 | 11,500 psi (79 MPa) | 1.73 million psi (11.9 GPa) | 6,240 psi (43 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 19,700 psi (136 MPa) | 2.23 million psi (15.4 GPa) | 11,400 psi (79 MPa) |
| Green | 11,200 psi (77 MPa) | 1.54 million psi (10.6 GPa) | 5,950 psi (41 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 23,500 psi (162 MPa) | 2.26 million psi (15.6 GPa) | 11,900 psi (82 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood red or reddish-brown, sapwood pale pinkish, sharply differentiated. Texture fine to medium; lustrous; grain straight, interlocked, or wavy.
- Working properties
- Difficult to work with hand tools because of the high density; dulling of saw teeth and planer knives; turns well and takes a good polish.
- Durability
- Classified as very durable with high resistance to attack by decay fungi and termites; outstanding resistance to marine borers.
- Uses
- Marine work, shipbuilding, railway crossties, wharf decking, piling and poles, heavy construction, mallets, bearings, bushings.
- Where it grows
- Blue Mountains and the coastal districts of Queensland and New South Wales (Australia).
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 743–744, a USDA Forest Products Laboratory work in the public domain.
Work it out for your project
- Rank woods for outdoor work with the species picker
Weigh turpentine against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.