Tropical wood · Africa
Vitex wood
Vitex (Vitex doniana, family Verbenaceae) is a tropical timber from Africa. Dry, its Janka hardness is 680 lbf (3,025 N), and air-dry it weighs about 30 lb/ft³ (481 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 535–536.
Other names, by country: Mfuru, Mgwobe (Tanzania), Munyamazi, Muhomozi (Uganda).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 680 lbf (3,025 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 680 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 30 lb/ft³ (481 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.40 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.40; air-dry weight 30 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to 12% moisture content
- 3.3% tangential
- Radial 1.1%
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 one data set, each at the moisture content printed beside it, never restated as 12%.
| Moisture | Bending strength (MOR) | Stiffness (MOE) | Crushing strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12% MC | 5,950 psi (41 MPa) | 0.75 million psi (5.2 GPa) | 3,900 psi (27 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Wood is whitish or yellow-gray, sapwood and heartwood are not differentiated. Texture medium to coarse; grain wavy or slightly interlocked.
- Working properties
- Works easily with hand or machine cools, drills easily but leaves a rough surface, nails well, too soft for good turnery, veneers well. Dust may cause dermatitis.
- Durability
- Heartwood is perishable; sapwood liable to stain.
- Uses
- Boxes and crates, utility furniture, joinery.
- Where it grows
- Widespread from tropical West Africa and extending eastward to Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania; occurs in savanna and high rainfall areas.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 535–536, 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 vitex against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.