Category :    Heavy Hardwoods

Species

General Characteristics

Sapwood lighter-coloured but not sharply differentiated from heartwood; colour of heartwood dark-red except for the brown-black or chocolate-coloured corewood; planed surface generally not lustrous; attractively streaked on radial surface and mottled on tangential surface by the lighter-coloured wood parenchyma bands; texture moderately fine; grain spiral or shallowly interlocked; very hard and horny to cut across grain; air dry density ranging from 800 kg/m³ to 1155 kg/m³ (55 to 72 lb/ft³); moderately durable.

Structure

Growth rings ill-defined but vague concentric markings often visible. Vessels with simple perforation; medium-sized; few or moderately few; generally in about equal proportion of solitary and radial groups of 2 to 3; evenly distributed without any clear arrangement; tyloses sparse; deposits common.
Wood parenchyma abundant as closely spaced confluent bands. Rays moderately fine, just visible to naked eye on cross-section; not conspicuous on a radial surface.
Ripple marks absent.
Intercellular canals absent.

Other Features

Burning splinter test: Splinter burns to ash.
Froth test: Negative.

Uses