Anyone who knows please ... what is the hardest damn wood that exists on the face of this entire planet ... ? The hardest wood known to man currently and through- out known history (if that applies of course) ?
Alex
My vote would be for Desert Ironwood -- I am turning a large piece on my lathe at the moment. I have never seen anything so hard and heavy. I just finished a piece from Lignum Vitae, and it was soft by comparison, and the oil content made it easy to turn. The Ironwood came from a large section which I found at a junk dealer and it appears to very, very dry and old. The color and weight made identification easy, and when I started to turn it, the density, pattern and color became obvious. I am using HSS lathe bits to turn it down to a manageable size, and they just barely cut it.
Petrified.
See:
replacement of the fibers of the original wood. Doesn't count, sorry (muwahahahaha).
Alex
Most sources consider Lignum Vitae (Guaicum officinale), with a specific gravity of 1.37) to be the hardest. Desert Ironwood (Olney test) comes in sixth at 1.15 Specific gravity is the relative density of the wood to that of pure water . . . both of these woods will sink if put in water.
-Verne
Interesting, but irrelevant, as hardness and density are independent of each other. (Good example from the world of metallurgy: aluminum is harder than lead.)
What's hardest depends also on exactly what property you're measuring. I happen to have my Wood Handbook right here... a few selected values:
Compression parallel to grain (lb-ft per sq in, at 12% MC): Kaneelhart 17,400 Macawood 16,100 Marishballi 13,390 Ipe 13,010 Azobe 12,600 Greenheart 12,510 Sucupira 12,140 Mora 11,840 Bulletwood 11,640 Benge 11,400 Lignum Vitae 11,400 Manbarklak 11,210
Side hardness (lb-ft, at 12% MC): Lignum Vitae 4,500 Ipe 3,680 Marishballi 3,570 Manbarklak 3,480 Azobe 3,350 Bulletwood 3,190 Macawood 3,150 Kaneelhart 2,900
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
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Specific gravity measures density, not hardness. The metal mercury has a very high specific density, yet is not hard. Not sure these two have much if any correlation.
Dave Hinz
Hardness, like whether solid or liquid, relies on bond strength [atomic, not fibres], not amount per unit volume.
I heard of ironwood, lignum vitae, but not the other exotic woods listed by Doug. Didn't LV used to be used for ball bearings in old steam paddle boats?
Dan.
If they have brad nailers for under $20, they are a great buy. Two years and no jams,no failures
Cape Cod Bob Visit my web site at
It is. See
Cape Cod Bob wrote:
WTF over? Dave in Fairfax
Answering the HF question in a diff thread. Me? I'd blame it on Microsoft before Alzheimers.
I hadn't considered that, thanks. Usually reply applies to the message you're looking at rather than one chosen at random. Dave in Fairfax
Bushings or bearings, though, not "ball bearings."
Jim
This is a janka hardness table from
Douglas Fir 660 So. Yellow Pine (loblolly & short leaf) 690 So. Yellow Pine (longleaf) 870 Black Cherry 950 Teak 1000 Black Walnut 1010 Heart Pine 1225 Yellow Birch 1260 Red Oak (Northern) 1290 American Beech 1300 Ash 1320 White Oak 1360 Australian Cypress 1375 Hard Maple 1450 Wenge 1630 African Pedauk 1725 Hickory/Pecan 1820 Purpleheart 1860 Jarrah 1910 Merbau 1925 Santos Mahogany 2200 Mesquite 2345 Brazilian Cherry 2350 Brazilian Ebony 3692
That piece of the corner of my workbench, you know the one, it's the piece that expands 6 inches after one has reached down to pick up a fallen screw or other part and interpose itself between one's head and the path to standing vertical. :-O
sleeve bearings, not ball bearings.
Just keeping the group on their toes.
Cape Cod Bob Visit my web site at
petrified wood...
My guess is petrified wood. I have several pieces in my aquarium.
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