Wood Species

Name	Wood	Janka Rating
Lacewood		840

Lacewood
Cardwellia sublimia

Also known as: Silky oak, Selano

Origin: Australia

Appearance:

Lacewood is a beautiful species, very figured in its detail. The sapwood is almost white, while the heartwood is pink to reddish-brown in color. Lacewood has a generally straight grain, is very lustrous, and is coarse and even textured.

Resistance, Durability:

Lacewood has a high resistance to decay and is reported to have no odor. Because of its high resistance to wear, this wood remains smooth under friction in heavy foot traffic areas. Lacewood requires some time to dry properly to prevent slight distortion, yet is stable once aged.

Janka Hardness: 840

As a flooring choice, lacewood runs towards the softer end of the Janka hardness chart. It is close in hardness to southern yellow pine, is roughly thirty-five percent softer than red oak, and about twenty seven percent harder than douglas fir.

Workability:

Lacewood has low resistance to cutting tools. Glue holds somewhat well , but lacewood flooring is known to be respond very easily to nails. This species sands well, stains and polishes rather easily, and does not mar that much under heavy regular traffic.

Main Uses:

Due to its beautifully figured nature, lacewood's uses include flooring, flooring accents, cabinetry, dining room furniture, interior trim, and stairworks.

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.