Wood Species

Name	Wood	Janka Rating
Kempas		1710

Kempas
Koompassia malaccensis

Also known as: Impas, Mengris, Thongbeung

Origin: Malaysia and Indonesia

Appearance:

The sapwood of kempas is yellow to pale white, while the heartwood is orangish-red to reddish-brown in color upon drying. This species has an interlocked, sometimes spiraled grain, is fairly lustrous, and is coarse in texture.

Resistance, Durability:

Kempas has a natural resistance to decay. The wood remains smooth under friction and is reported to have no discernable odor. Kempas dries rather easily but can experience some splitting due to abnormalities in the wood. Of note is the fact that kempas is somewhat acidic in nature and can harbor corrosion in metals where exposed when moist.

Janka Hardness: 1710

As a flooring choice, kempas is a hard and durable wood. It is nearly identical in hardness to African padauk, is roughly eighteen percent harder than hard maple, about one third harder than red oak, and approaches eighty percent of santos mahogany's ranking of 2200.

Workability:

Kempas contains pockets of hard deposits that can provide some difficulty when sawing and can promote blunting of tools. Pre-boring is suggested yet the wood holds nails well once applied. Glue holds well with kempas flooring. This species sands well but does require some filling to ensure a good polish.

Main Uses:

Kempas's uses include flooring, chairs, railroad ties, shingles, cabinets, and veneer.

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.