Tropical wood · Tropical America
White-cedar wood
White-cedar (Tabebuia spp. (white-cedar group), family Bignoniaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,160–1,400 lbf (5,160–6,228 N), and air-dry it weighs about 42 lb/ft³ (673 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 297–298.
Other names, by country: White-cedar, Warakuri (Guyana), Zwamp panta (Surinam), Bois blanchet, Cédre blanc (French Guiana).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,160–1,400 lbf (5,160–6,228 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness for dry material 1,160 to 1,400 lb.”
- Air-dry density
- 42 lb/ft³ (673 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.57 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.57; air-dry density 42 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 7.2% tangential
- Radial 4.7%, volumetric 10.8%
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 3 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 | 13,700 psi (94 MPa) | 2.3 million psi (15.9 GPa) | 6,200 psi (43 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 14,900 psi (103 MPa) | 2.26 million psi (15.6 GPa) | 8,240 psi (57 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 18,600 psi (128 MPa) | 2.04 million psi (14.1 GPa) | 9,340 psi (64 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood brownish with reddish or olive hue, also creamy or yellowish, varying in different specimens; not sharply demarcated from the sapwood. Luster rather high; texture medium and uniform; grain fairly straight; without distinctive odor or taste.
- Working properties
- Dry lumber machines easily with smooth clean surfaces in all operations. Green logs are reported to spring badly in sawing.
- Durability
- The wood does not have decay resistance and is vulnerable to termite attack.
- Uses
- Tool handles, furniture, flooring, interior trim, general carpentry, boxes, and crates. Suggested as a possible substitute for ash and birch.
- Where it grows
- The Guiana Region and Brazil.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 297–298, 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 white-cedar against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.