Wood Species

Name	Wood	Janka Rating
Blackwood		1720

Blackwood
Dalbergia latifolia

Also known as: Indian rosewood, Java palisandre, Malabar, Shisham, Sitsal, Sonokeling

Origin: Southeast Asia

Appearance:

The sapwood of blackwood is yellowish to pale yellow, while the heartwood ranges from rose colored to darker brown with figured darker streaking. The species has a ribbon-like crossed and interlocked grain. The wood is coarse yet uniform in texture.

Resistance, Durability:

Blackwood is very durable and is moderately to highly resistant to termites. The wood remains smooth under friction and is reported to have a slight odor when freshly milled. Blackwood dries easily and is reported to improve in color in the process. This species has excellent stability characteristics.

Janka Hardness: 1720

As a flooring choice, blackwood is a very hard and durable wood. It is nearly identical in hardness to African padauk, is roughly thirty percent harder than American beech, twenty percent harder than hard maple, and is approximately three quarters as hard as Brazilian cherry's ranking of 2350.

Workability:

Blackwood poses some difficulty in machining due to its hardness and deposits in the wood itself. Blackwood is unsuitable for nailing yet responds fairly easily to gluing. This species sands easily and responds very well to polishing.

Main Uses:

Blackwood's uses include hardwood flooring, fine furniture, musical instruments, and cabinetry.

What is a Janka Rating?

"It is one of the best measures of the ability of a wood species to withstand denting and wear. It is also a good indicator of how hard a species is to saw or nail.

The hardness of wood usually varies with the direction of the wood grain.

A common use of Janka hardness ratings is to determine whether a species is suitable for use as flooring."

Colored Bamboo

Some species have different janka ratings depending on how they have been treated.

Bamboo is one example of this. If left with a natural finish, Bamboo falls at 1380 on the hardness scale. If you carbonize it to get a darker color, the rank falls to 1180.