Tropical wood · Tropical America
Yellow Sanders wood
Yellow Sanders (Buchenavia capitata, family Combretaceae) is a tropical timber from tropical America. Dry, its Janka hardness is 1,220 lbf (5,427 N), and air-dry it weighs about 47 lb/ft³ (753 kg/m³). The figures are from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 51–52.
Other names, by country: Granadillo (Puerto Rico), Almendro (Colombia), Amarillo, Olivo negro (Venezuela), Mirindiba, Periquiteira (Brazil).
Key numbers
- Janka hardness, dry
- 1,220 lbf (5,427 N)
- As printed: “Janka side hardness averages 1,220 lb for air-dry wood.”
- Air-dry density
- 47 lb/ft³ (753 kg/m³)
- Basic specific gravity
- 0.63 oven-dry weight, green volume
- As printed: “Basic specific gravity (ovendry weight/green volume) 0.63; air-dry density 47 pcf.”
- Shrinkage, green to oven-dry
- 5.7% tangential
- Radial 2.8%, volumetric 8.6%
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 | 10,050 psi (69 MPa) | 1.46 million psi (10.1 GPa) | 5,130 psi (35 MPa) |
| 12% MC | 12,970 psi (89 MPa) | 1.65 million psi (11.4 GPa) | 7,440 psi (51 MPa) |
A dash means the sheet prints no value; none is filled in.
What the data sheet says
- Color, grain and texture
- Heartwood yellowish-brown when freshly cut becoming yellowto golden-brown usually with a gray or olive hue upon exposure; sapwood light yellow-brown. Grain more or less interlocked; texture medium to rather coarse; luster high; with faint spicy odor and mildly bitter taste when green.
- Working properties
- The wood machines with moderate difficulty because of its hardness, but it produces good surfaces in all operations even though some tearing may result from irregular grain. Performs well in spindle carving. Easy to finish. Rated as fair in steam-bending characteristics.
- Durability
- Heartwood reported as fairly resistant to decay and to attack by termites and rated as very resistant to attack by dry-wood termites. The wood has little resistance to marine borers. The wood weathers well. Heartwood is relatively high in resistance to moisture absorption. Sapwood highly vulnerable to powder-post beetle attack.
- Uses
- An attractive furniture wood and suggested for decking, planking, and framing in boat construction; exterior and interior flooring; decorative veneers; turning; wood tanks. The wood has many characteristics similar to white oak and teak.
- Where it grows
- West Indies, Panama, and South America from Venezuela to French Guiana, Brazil, and Bolivia. Several related species are found in the Amazon region.
Quoted from Tropical Timbers of the World, pp. 51–52, 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 yellow Sanders against other woods on hardness, weight, movement and color, every figure from the Wood Handbook.