Tropical wood · Southeast Asia and Oceania
White Lauan wood
White Lauan (Pentacme contorta, family Dipterocarpaceae) is a tropical timber from Southeast Asia and Oceania. Dry, its Janka hardness is 690 lbf (3,069 N), and air-dry it weighs about 33 lb/ft³ (529 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 703–704.
Other names, by country: Bayokan, Lauan-blanco, Tiaong (Philippines).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 690 lbf (3,069 N)
- Green: 580 lbf (2,580 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness 580 lb for green material and 690 lb for dry.”
- Air-dry density
- 33 lb/ft³ (529 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.43 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.43; air-dry density 33 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 7.7% tangential
- Radial 4.0%
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 | 7,550 psi (52 MPa) | 1.38 million psi (9.5 GPa) | 3,700 psi (26 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 11,600 psi (80 MPa) | 1.69 million psi (11.7 GPa) | 6,000 psi (41 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood grayish, sometimes with a pinkish tinge; sapwood not distinct. Texture moderately coarse; grain interlocked; luster low; without characteristic odor or taste.
- Working properties
- Works with some difficulty. Planes and turns well but works poorly in other operations. Rotary peels well, glues satisfactorily.
- Durability
- Vulnerable to attack by decay fungi and termites.
- Uses
- Furniture, cabinetmaking, interior finish, flooring, veneer and plywood, particle board, pulp and paper, construction.
- Where it grows
- Abundant in primary forests of the Philippines.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 703–704, 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 Lauan against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.