Tropical wood · Tropical America
Wacapou wood
Wacapou (Vouacapoua americana, family Leguminosae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,730 lbf (7,695 N), and air-dry it weighs about 59 lb/ft³ (945 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 315–316.
Other names, by country: Bruinhart (Surinam), Sarabebeballi (Guyana), Wacapou (French Guiana), Acapú (Brazil).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,730 lbf (7,695 N)
- Green: 1,610 lbf (7,162 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness for green material 1,610 lb, 1,730 lb at 12% moisture content.”
- Air-dry density
- 59 lb/ft³ (945 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.79 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.79; air-dry density 59 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 6.9% tangential
- Radial 4.9%, volumetric 13.0%
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 | 15,850 psi (109 MPa) | 2.62 million psi (18.1 GPa) | 9,170 psi (63 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 21,640 psi (149 MPa) | 2.53 million psi (17.4 GPa) | 11,480 psi (79 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood dark brown or reddish-brown, deepening upon exposure, figured with fine parenchyma lines; sharply demarcated from the nearly white sapwood. Luster medium to rather low; texture uniformly coarse; grain fairly straight to irregular; dry wood has no distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- Moderately difficult to work because of density; machines to smooth surfaces, but there is some rough and torn grain in boring and mortising. Takes glue well.
- Durability
- Very durable in resistance to attack by a brown-rot and white-rot fungus, not attacked by dry-wood termites or other insects. Reports on resistance to marine borers are variable; good resistance is noted in Panama waters.
- Uses
- Heavy construction, flooring (strip and parquet), interior trim, furniture, cabinetwork, paneling, railroad crossties.
- Where it grows
- Surinam, French Guiana, and the State of Para in Brazil. Occupies noninundated lands in upland forests.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 315–316, 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 wacapou against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.