- GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: heartwood chocolate brown when freshly cut, becoming dark brown after drying. Light brown narrow stripes, giving a fibrous aspect tot he wood. Sapwood narrow grayish or pinkish gray, clearly distinct from the heartwood. Grain slightly interlocked, texture medium to coarse, luster moderate, not distinctive odor and taste.
- DENSITY: heavy wood, with density at 12% moisture content of 1,010 kg/m3 and green density of 1,220 kg/m3.
- DRYING: very difficult air-drying, with tendency for slight end checking and warping. Kiln-dries rapidly, with a moderate tendency for medium checking and twisting, when submitted to the drying schedule 3.
- WORKABILITY: moderately difficult to work. Good to saw, but difficult to plane due to interlocked grain. Easy to turn, with excellent finishing, and with good screw-holding properties. Finishes well with varnish or polishing since wood pores are filled properly. (18)
- DURABILITY: durable and resistant to dry-wood fungi and termites. Low resistance to marine borers.
- PRESERVATION: sapwood easy to be preserved and heartwood not treatable with creosote or CCA-A, even with pressure-vaccum systems.
- USES: furniture, sliced veneers, framing, wainscoting, flooring, beams, shingles, shakes, crosspieces, railroad crossties, bridges and others.
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