What is the closest thing to it in a typical wood? Oak, Ironwood, Teak, etc?
Until today, I had never heard of this...
Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022
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Used for truck beds.
Tough as nails in that application.
Don't know of any other use.
Lew
I have seen it used in boat building, as in sail boats, for the keel.
There seem to be four or five species in the group. Similar to luaun in one species, but used for boatbulding in others (as well as general construction, veneers and similar items). No info on workability, but one assumes durability is at least reasonable if it's used for boatbuilding. Out of the Phillipines, from what I can find.
Railroad car floors, too. Spent two or three years in the Purchasing Dept at SPRR working the car repair facilities. We used tons of it on car rehab projects.
Dave in Houston
None of those. General appearance similar to meranti or other Philippine mahoganies but It is dark red, rather coarse grain. Hard, strong, durable. Works OK, similar to white oak. I miss being able to get it.
well, in terms of looks it's closest to teak of the ones you've mentioned. might even be related to teak. it's nice enough looking in an unremarkable generically mahogany sort of way.
you might be asking about it's working properties, in which case "ironwood" it is. of course, ironwood isn't a botanical term, it gets applied to whatever is the hardest, meanest wood locally available, and as such, it's one of the names for apitong.
the working qualities are it's pretty damn hard, the sawdust is fairly toxic, the tree uptakes a lot of silica so it dulls tools rapidly, even carbide. it's pretty strong but when it fails it has a brittle fracture. it has a lot of resin in the wood so it won't accept very much of a penetrating finish and adhesive bonding is problematic. otoh, that resin makes it durable for below the waterline uses and the toxicity makes it ideal for direct burial applications. it gets used as dock pilings driven straight into the sea floor. it has a high specific gravity, so it's less desirable as working timber in boats below the waterline- lighter stronger woods are available.
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